Elderly local residents living in “butcher’s storeroom” freezing flats.
Local residents say they are being forced to choose between living in flats “as cold as a butcher’s storeroom” or face huge heating bills due to failures by landlords.
Complaints about the heating system installed at their apartment block and badly fitted windows have been ignored for years they claim, amid fears that their new landlords are not taking the concerns seriously either.
The properties in Jane’s Brook Road are now owned by Places for People which took over from Stonewater last December.
Furious elderly tenants say that oil-filled electric radiators previously installed by Stonewater can individually cost up to a pound an hour to run; which coupled with badly fitted double-glazing and poor insulation means they face either massive bills or freezing with risks to their health.
Seventy-one-year-old Lorna Davis says she’s had to turn her radiators completely off for over 18 months, explaining:
” We’ve been asking for action for the last few years on this and enough is enough. The heaters are simply so costly we can’t afford to run them sufficiently to heat up the flats without racking up massive bills, which means a stark choice of going cold or going poor. ”
” The winter before last, my bill for the quarter was over £600 just to keep the flat warm, I simply can’t afford that or face another winter of going cold instead. We are mainly elderly residents here and I feel conditions like this are dangerous. ”
The individually controlled radiators are also very complicated to operate say residents; with control panels badly situated for tenants who have mobility issues.
Ann Crosten, 73, has lived there for 30 years and says they used to have storage heaters but finds the newer heating “impossible” to operate:
” I can’t understand how they operate at all, it’s impossible and it’s not just my age, the others struggle too. Lorna even had an electrician around and he couldn’t operate them either. Even if I could figure it out, I can’t get down that low to do anything about changing settings. ”
” I’ve got mould growing in my cupboard spaces because the flat is damp and it’s not warm but is still costing me £140 a month. It’s not good at my age to be living like this. ”
Eighty-four-year-old Cyril Lee has lived in the flats for 24 years, he says that his heating is off most of the time because of the problems with the flats:
” I was a butcher for 50 years so I know what mean when I say it can get as cold as a butcher’s storeroom in there during winter. It’s either that or pay bills that we simply can’t afford. I’m lucky in one way I suppose as due to my job I’m used to freezer rooms, others aren’t and we shouldn’t have to live in them.”
The tenants have turned to local Labour councillor Janis Blackburne for help as they feel their complaints have fallen on deaf ears with successive owners of the apartment blocks. Cllr Blackburne says the situation cannot go on unresolved:
” Places for People need to urgently address these issues, we have another winter fast approaching. I’ve been pursuing this for a month now with the new owners and they are talking but little else is happening at present and really, they need to up their game. ”
” They’ve told me that the Energy Performance Certificate for the block is from 2011 and so that might be an issue but that the heaters themselves should be fine. ”
” Quite clearly though from what a number of tenants are saying, there are problems with the flats somewhere because of the sky-high costs of heating them. Whatever is causing it needs rectifying. ”
” Residents feel they have been fobbed off time and again over the years and there cannot be a repetition of that. The owners need to act, there are problems in their properties and my concern is that elderly tenants are potentially at risk.”
One of the younger residents at 63, former Merseyrail staffer Phil McBride says all tenants are affected but it’s particularly worrying for the older generation:
” We have double-glazing but it seems so badly fitted that even when they are closed my blinds are moving around with the draft coming in. ”
” The wind chill means that you have to choose between running the radiators and watching your money fly out with the draft, or simply going cold. My bill for one winter quarter was well over £500 to keep warm, so last winter I had to run them much lower and go cold – even then it was still over £300. ”
” I’ve now bought halogen heaters and a foot warmer and I basically cocoon myself in throws when I get home. ”
” They need to fix the drafts, insulate the flats and get a heating system in that doesn’t have the fuel costs of a jumbo jet to operate or someone could end up very ill, or worse. “
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