Savills, who manage the building, charge us £3,000 a year, but seem indifferent to our plight
I purchased a £500,000 flat in January 2018. The building, Millstream House, is managed by Savills and has a central boiler that supplies heating and hot water to all 59 apartments. A month after I moved in there was no hot water or heating. Savills managed to fix the issue after three weeks with no compensation or apologies. The same outage has since occurred again on six occasions. Recently it failed again and engineers were unable to restore it, leaving residents without heat or hot water for three days. We pay around £3,000 a year for management fees, but Savills seems indifferent. TC, Oxford
It sounds as though the development has a district heating system which uses a network of insulated pipes to distribute heat from a local generator. District heating causes lower emissions than conventional systems and has been encouraged by the government, but there are problems. Suppliers don’t have to be licensed so Ofgem has no powers to ensure standards and customers are locked into contracts of 25 years or more with limited access to redress if problems arise. Residents who’ve bought properties that rely on the system, often unwittingly, have also complained of extortionate, unclear bills. Many, like you, have to rely on the managing agent to sort any problems rather than summoning a technician to their home.
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