In December the Residents’ Association lodged a formal complaint with Peabody about the delay in issuing a service charge refund to all residents of the estate. Peabody denied that complaint on the basis that a group complaint requires ‘signed authority’ from all those wishing to be part of the complaint. We are challenging that denial. You can follow the complaints here.
While that challenge is going on, we have today written to the CEO of Peabody about the delay in issuing the service charge refund. You can read our email below:
Email to Peabody CEO
Dear Ian,
I am writing to you as a Joint Chair of the Pembury Estate Residents’ Association to make a complaint on behalf of all residents of the Pembury Estate. I tried on 2 December 2024 to use the formal complaints form for this, however the complaint team denied this group complaint on the basis of not having written authority from all those involved. As the complaint covers the entirety of the Pembury estate this is wholly unreasonable. I am hoping your office can take a more practical approach.
The complaint is about an ongoing delay in issuing a service charge refund to residents, which was promised because we did not have a full rota of cleaning and caretaking staff earlier this year. I have today received confirmation from residents’ that some have still not received this refund.
I would like this to be treated as an official complaint. Do not treat this as a request for service recovery or for local resolution.
Earlier this year there was a significant decline in the quality of cleaning and caretaking across the estate. This was because there was not a full rota of cleaning and caretaking staff. However, residents were still being charged for a full cleaning and caretaking service, as part of their service charge.
Sunny Vadher, Head of Estate Services (North East London), committed to issuing a refund for the cleaning portion of the service charge to Pembury Estate residents, in recognition that we did not receive a full service. That refund should have been issued in April 2024.
The issues that followed from this are as follows:
Letters of explanation: a letter explaining that residents would be credited with a service charge refund was meant to be sent to all residents on the estate. However, many residents did not receive this letter. This means that they were unaware that they were meant to be receiving a refund.
Delay in issuing refund: some residents received the refund in April 2024. However, many did not. After much chasing by the Residents’ Association, some residents received the refund in October 2024, and some received it in November 2024. Some residents have still not received their refund.
Inaccurate record keeping: we have been told that the reason residents did not receive the letter or refund is that Peabody did not have an accurate record of who was living on the estate.
It is entirely unjustifiable that this issue has taken so long to resolve. Peabody has been aware of this issue for several months. That this issue has arisen because of a lack of accurate record-keeping by Peabody is even more unacceptable and in no way excuses the delay. We have no doubt that if it was residents failing to pay Peabody what was owed, and not the other way around, then Peabody would immediately know the identities of who they wanted money from.
How I would like this resolved:
1. Peabody to ensure that any outstanding service charge refunds are issued by the end of February 2025.
2. Peabody to provide an explanation of why it did not have accurate records.
3. Peabody to provide an explanation of how it has addressed the issue of record keeping, so this does not happen again.
4. Peabody to write to all residents of the Pembury Estate explaining:
a. Why a service charge refund has been issued.
b. Why there was a delay in issuing that refund to certain residents.
c. What residents should do if they still have not received their refund.
I look forward to hearing from your office on the steps taken to address this.
Best,
Dr. Elizabeth Houghton
Joint Chair Pembury Estate Residents’ Association
Pembury Estate Residents' Association 