A housing company has backtracked after originally telling Bermondsey residents they would have to pay nearly £900 per week for a guard to take heavy items up the stairs, despite him never showing up – with the problems caused by the lift in the block not working for a month.
A lift in the Exchange block of flats, which are near Spa Gardens and owned by Notting Hill Genesis, has been broken since May 30. This has caused problems for people living on the higher floors, like parents with young children, and people who are carrying heavy shopping.
A housing officer for Notting Hill Genesis told residents that they would bring in a ‘guard’ to help them take heavy items up the stairs until the lift was fixed. But resident Kyle Taylor said no one he had spoken to had ever seen this guard.
Notting Hill Genesis said that the flat owners would be charged for the guard at a rate of £896.70 per week excluding VAT, despite the service that they admitted was poor. The housing officer said in an email to residents that “many of you will want to know why the cost is service chargeable.”
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The officer continued: “The lift is still out of service because of issues beyond our control. As a business we have acted accordingly and there is no service failure.”
The officer explained that the reason why the company felt there was no service failure, despite the lift being out of service for a month, was because they had asked the supplier to deal with the problem promptly.
“The new part was ordered quickly, and we attempted to take the part from another lift in the interim, but this failed,” the officer added.
After the News contacted Notting Hill Genesis, they backed down and said that residents would not be charged for the mystery guard, whose services are no longer being used. Instead the concierge for the building will help residents take things upstairs until the lift is fixed, which should be by August.
A spokesperson for the company apologised in a statement and said that they would be working out if they can provide more tailored support for individual residents.
“We apologise that the communications issued recently caused concern for residents, and are happy to be able to clarify that no cost has been applied to the service charge for the guard service. Also, once the repair is completed we will be offering a gesture of goodwill to all residents within the block to acknowledge the distress and inconvenience that the lack of a workinglift has caused.”
Kyle Taylor, a resident of the block, said aside from the inconvenience of the broken lift and the threat of added costs, the whole affair reinforced his view that the development was “poorly managed”.
“We’ve got parents living on the fifth floor – you want them to carry their prams up that high? It’s ridiculous. We put up with so much in this development.
Mr Taylor added that this was not the first time the lifts had been out of service, and that residents had suffered other problems with the block. The News reported in 2016 that residents had often been left without any running water for days at a time.