Paying the wrong service charge?

By Isabel Ramirez isabel@southwarknews.co.uk

Mor E r E sidEnts have come forward and now local councillors are on the case, since our story broke last week about a woman living in the north Peckham area who was being charged service charges for an estate that was torn down twenty years ago.

Joyce Iyinolakan, 44, has been living in a terraced bungalow in the North Peckham area for nearly four years. She said since they moved in they have been paying a weekly service charge including for communal cleaning and outside maintenance – services they have never received because they are not on an estate.

It then emerged that she was being charged as if she were living on the North Peckham estate, which was redeveloped in the mid-1990s.

The regeneration scheme entailed the complete demolition of the 40-acre North Peckham estate of 1,444 council homes and included four adjacent estates, the Sumner, Willowbrook, Camden and Gloucester Grove estates - the last one of which Joyce’s home now sits on.

After months of investigating, Joyce finally got a refund of around £2000 for the four year’s worth of service charges she had been wrongly paying.

She said she was concerned that there must be other properties in a similar position.

One neighbour Cloreen Pluck has been living in a similar property for nine years and like Joyce, paying service charges.

She said since the story broke, she has now been contacted by the council, who told her they are looking into her case.

The council said that it was ‘proactively contacting’ all involved.

A council spokesperson said: “It is correct that we overcharged a small number of residents in this area.

Since we discovered the error, we have paid out both compensation and arrears to the tenants concerned. We are proactively contacting the others we believe we may owe money to and will be reimbursing them if this is the case.”

The News previously reported that a resident had been refunded £10,000 but the resident has not yet received this, despite getting a letter from the council saying it wsa investigating the cases.

Ward Cllr Barrie Hargrove said he was told about the issue a while ago, but didn’t follow it up at the time. “Joyce told me about this a while back but I didn’t follow it up then because she was telling me about a lot of other issues at the time,” he explained. “Honestly, I thought it was normal for council properties to pay service charges. But hearing about the reality of it, I’m very disappointed.

“Well done to Joyce for being so persistent in finding out and informing people about this.

“Now the council can’t just sit back and wait for people to come to them. They need to be proactive and look through everyone who lives next to an estate and there needs to be some transparency from the council.” which helps affected families but is also preventative - providing advice to adults and children who are referred to the service.

He added that he would be following this up and writing to the council to ensure it was thoroughly looking into every house that could possibly be paying service charges they shouldn’t be.

Anyone who believes they are wrongly paying service charges should contact their housing officer.

In 2020, Southwark Council opened ‘The Nest’, a new mental health centre in Peckham, specially designed for young people.

Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP Neil Coyle said: “I am pleased Southwark Labour is providing additional mental health support for all young people but schools and education need to do more to ensure young men and boys feel confident to take up support.

“Too often seeking support is seen as a weakness and not a strength. The message must be ‘it’s ok not to be ok and to find help’.”

To find out more about Mind’s mental health services at www.lambethandsouthwarkmind. org.uk or call 020 7620 3999 or call Samaritans’ 24 hour line 116123