NEW DUTY-OF-CARE CHALLENGE FOR RIVERSIDE

TWELVE YEARS OF 

CONFRONTATION

FOR PEOPLE WITH 

NO VOICE

For the first time since Riverside Housing Associaton took over Carlisle social houses twelve years ago, the Liverpool-based association faces a public challenge tomorrow(Saturday).

The challenge comes with a visit to the city of  a national organisation, the Leaseholders` Advisory Service.

Its representatives will meet Riverside`s 200 leaseholders at a meeting in the Civic Centre to give advice on Riverside`s controversial  bills and  service charges. 

Campaigners say these bills and charges are causing  such worry and  distress  that some leaseholders are becoming suicidal.

That deplorable situation will hopefully be eased at tomorrow`s meeting. But the meeting poses new questions for Riverside and its long-running disputes with  leaseholders going back almost to the  handover of the city council houses twelve years ago.

Help and support for the leaseholders during those frustrating 12 years was in fact given by the community group, Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation.

But that  help and support failed badly. At all times, Riverside  rebuffed the Federation with threats and intimidation and wrongly invoking the Data Protection Act.

On two occasions, the Federation representatives were  publicly humiliated by being ordered out of meetings. On another occasion, Carlisle City Council  banned all emails from the Federation following false representations by a Riverside-backing councillor.

Needless to say, Riverside`s perpetual conflict with its leaseholders resolved nothing.

But what  the conflict did was to highlight the fact that Riverside had no grievance 

procedure in  place to resolve genuine concerns of leaseholders. Many people would say that this Riverside failure demonstrated lack of duty of care.

Only in recent weeks has it emerged that there is in existence the Leaseholders` Advisory Service, which is a public body funded by the government.

That advisory service would in fact have been prepared to help the Riverside leaseholders during their 12 years without a voice.

The big question now for Riverside  is this: Why for 12 years were these desperate people with no voice not put in touch with the Leaseholders` Advisory Service?

And why instead, did Riverside chose a policy of outright confrontation?

Community Voice Carlisle is the blo g of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information about the Federation iscontained in the first post of this blog dated March 25 2014

WHAT IS GOING ON, MR BUTTERWORTH?

WHY HAS 
RIVERSIDE 
LET THINGS
GET SO 
BAD? ASKS

TENANTS`
M.P.

Rory Stewart  M.P. ( left)  has just got a  big new job at Westminster which involves a lot of tough questions he has to ask. Back home in Cumbria, no questions  can be tougher for him to ask than questions about the Longtown solar panel fiasco and why it has gone on  for so long.

For  months,  Mr Stewart has been asking questions about  the  fiasco and the distress caused  by the rocketing fuel bills  faced by  about sixty of his Longtown constituents. All of them have suffered after these panels  were installed on  the roofs of their homes two years ago.

 Mr Stewart, who represents Penrith and The Border, has also been trying to put the questions face to face  with Mr Dean Butterworth, the boss of Riverside Housing Association which owns the homes.

But Mr Stewart  so far has got  no answers. And the planned face to face meeting with Mr Butterworth has still to take place ten weeks after it was arranged.

Mr Stewart`s difficulties are explained in a letter this week..

The letter says:“ I have tried to meet with  Mr.Butterworth on three separate occasions to understand why Riverside have allowed things to get so bad, and to press them to definitively resolve constituents' concerns as soon as possible.

“ To Mr Butterworth's credit, he remains keen to meet, and has tried hard to find alternative dates,” says the letter which is addressed to Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation which is supporting the tenants.

It is now more than two months since the face to face meeting was arranged--the news was disclosed in a post on this blog on March 12.

The meeting was planned after a Riverside threat to evict one of the Longtown tenants who was complaining about the second winter of  no heat in his flat and the rocketing fuel bills he faced.

At that time, Mr Stewart described the eviction threat as “very alarming.”

Armed with this support from Mr Stewart, the tenant met Mr Butterworth and the threat to evict was withdrawn and Mr Butterworth announced that he had arranged to meet Mr Stewart in London the following Wednesday(March 12). Mr Stewart said he would be pressing for what he called a timeframe for improvements.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               But But that March 12 meeting did not take place and   ten weeks later it now appears that Mr Stewart is still waiting for it to take place.

Dean Butterworth

 

 

Ten weeks is too long  a time to wait for a meeting to take place, Mr Butterworth. Two winters is too long a time to wait for  proper heating in your home, Mr Butterworth.

What is going on, Mr Butterworth?

The sixty distressed Longtown tenants need to know.

On this, Mr Stewart`says he remains very willing to provide any support  he can to constituents

His new Westminster job is chairman of the prestigous House of Commons Defence Select Committee which examines the expenditure, administration and policy of the Ministry of Defence including the armed forces. In an election for the job  involving all  M.Ps, Mr Stewart  topped the poll, beating seven other candidates.

Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information about the Federation is on the first  post of the blog, dated March 25 2013.

LEASEHOLDERS CAN NOW FIGHT BACK

Carlisle Councillor William Whalen today issues the  following press release on behalf of Carlisle Leaseholder Group

Leasehold Advisory Service to provide legal advice to leaseholders in Carlisle who are challenging Riverside Housing Association over breaches of their leases and unwarranted bills for so called fire safety upgrades and improvements.

Since the stock transfer of Carlisle’s social housing to the Riverside Group in 2002 Riverside Housing Association has consistently refused to comply with the terms of leases it inherited from Carlisle City Council.

Service charge billing no longer complies with lease terms and routine maintenance of the windows and doors of leasehold properties has never been undertaken.

This failure of maintenance over many years has in part led to Riverside attempting to charge leaseholders thousands of pounds for so called fire safety upgrades that in the main are a necessity because of years of neglect by the landlord.

Many leaseholders have received bills, and estimated bills, for thousands of pounds. 

The majority are pensioners who can ill afford to pay for Riverside’s failure to maintain the exterior of their homes. Other leaseholders have received exorbitant bills for reroofing their properties while Riverside fails to provide evidence that the work is genuine or that the bills that follow comply with the terms of individual leases.

Riverside has also refused to negotiate with the Carlisle Leaseholder Group and has taken to isolating leaseholders so that they can be bullied into complying with the association’s wishes.

In some cases these actions have led to leaseholders becoming suicidal as they find themselves battling alone against a publicly funded charity that treats them with utter contempt.

Leaseholders now have an opportunity to fight back.

Councillor Whelan has taken up the cases of Riverside leaseholders with the  Leasehold Advisory Service and it has agreed to hold an advisory meeting in Carlisle to discuss with leaseholders how best they can challenge Riverside over bills and service charges they have received.

This is the first opportunity that leaseholders in Carlisle have had to get free unbiased legal advice and it is imperative that any Riverside leaseholder who is experiencing difficulties with their landlord over any of the terms of their leases makes very effort to attend this meeting so that they can receive expert advice and so that the magnitude of the leasehold problems at Riverside Carlisle HA may be gauged and then acted upon.

Leaseholders are therefore invited to attend a meeting with the Leasehold Advisory Service in the Council Chamber of Carlisle City Council, The Civic Centre, Carlisle,  on Saturday 31 May 2014 at 10.00 am.

Any leaseholder who wishes to discuss this meeting further should contact Councillor Whalen. 

Contact details:

Councillor William Whalen, 32, Brook Street, Carlisle, CA1 2HY Tel: 01228 490668

NOT ANOTHER DREADED WINTER....

PRESS STATEMENT

RIVERSIDE PROTEST:

NOW AN ACTION GROUP

The  solar panel protest tenants of Longtown(Cumbria) this week plan to form an action group to fight  for proper heating in their homes following two years of failed complaints to their landlord, Riverside Housing Association.

The action group will come together at a meeting in Longtown Community Centre tomorrow (May 15). An estimated sixty tenants who cannot afford turn on their heating because of rocketing fuel bills are expected to support  the new group.

The meeting is being organised  by Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation which is backing the tenants. A Federation spokesman said today:” These tenants are getting no help from Riverside. And they have no voice.

“Riverside`s solar panel scheme  for 175 homes which caused all the trouble  now seems to everyone in Longtown to have been  a fast-buck cowboy operation . And Riverside cannot or will not put things right.

“An action group will step up the protests. For a start there is likely to be questions for the four Longtown candidates in the city council elections later this month. The city council is responsible for housing. Why has the city council not done more to help?

“This fiasco has dragged on for far too long. The tenants are distressed and angry because they have gone without heat for two winters. A third winter would be intolerable.”

Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information about the Federation is on the first post of this blog, dated March 25 2013

TENANTS TO FORM AN ACTION GROUP

RIVERSIDE: ANOTHER

FIASCO

ON ITS WAY?

As council elections get underway in Carlisle, the increasing rows involving Riverside Housing Association are appearing on the agenda.

Questions are being asked  about the city council`s links with the housing organisation and just how accountable Riverside is to its 6,000 city tenants and 200 leaseholders.

Tenants and leaseholders once had a right as taxpayers to get  grievances and problems sorted out through their local councillors. It was a democratic grievance procedure. But no more.

Since the Riverside takeover eleven years ago, grievances and problems are not being sorted out. And Riverside has no grievance procedure to get them sorted out.

So it is doubtful if questions asked of  candidates during this election period will amount to very much.

In Longtown there has certainly been no sorting out and Riverside tenants have been forced to form an action group after a two year fight to have proper heating in their homes  without the sky-high energy bills that followed the botched solar panel scheme.

Leaflets are going out this week inviting tenants to a meeting when  an action group will be formed. The meeting is  on Thursday May 15 at 7pm in Longtown Community Centre.

In Carlisle also, there has been no sorting out and the city weekly newspaper, the Cumberland News splashed the front page with a Riverside story under the headline:”Pensioners charged thousands for work they didn`t want done.” One woman was suicidal over a huge repair bill, claimed the story

And in the city county court there were two other cases waiting  to be sorted out involving Riverside leaseholders.The two were summoned for refusing to allow Riverside to enter their property to carry out internal work in the roof space.

The two leaseholders say that allowing Riverside this access would be against the terms of their leases.The  cases were adjourned until  next month but not before speculation about why exactly Riverside needed to enter the roof space of the two properties.

Riverside said  their planned entry was connected with fire safety work. But critics of Riverside had another theory.

It is this:

Is another solar panel scheme planned?

Is there to be another Longtown fiasco?

Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents`Federation. Information about the Federation is available on the first post of this blog, dated March 25 2013.