EXCLUSIVE: ‘We have been sent solicitors letters asking for nearly £19,000 when the council work is not even complete. How can people afford this?’

Residents living on Bader Way in Elm Park have been sent invoices for nearly £19,000 for Council Major Works Scheme that they did not want and felt were not needed.

Not only are they now faced with these huge bills to pay, but have also been sent letters from solicitors asking for the money or to start a payment plan despite the work not being completed.

Kristel, who owns a property on Bader Way told the Havering Daily: “I received a letter from the solicitors that I feel is a threatening one. We were told that the work would take two years before they started asking for this huge amount of money, yet one year on, and they are asking for nearly £19,000.

“Residents here can not afford this. We are in a recession and people will lose their homes over this. We received the first bill on April Fools day asking for £10,000 which we couldn’t believe and thought is was a joke and then two weeks after, we received another bill of nearly £9,000.

“I contacted the council to ask if this was the right bill and had they sent me the wrong bill previously, when I was informed that there were two bills of nearly £19,000!”

Building work began on the flats on Bader Way in November without any consultation to the local residents.

Kristel continued: “We were never consulted in anyway.Residents have been contacting the council to try and establish more information about the works and the money they have to pay, but nobody is singing off the same hymn sheet. One officers tells us one thing, the another person tells us something else. It has been a complete nightmare for us.

“Everytime we contact the council, they try to get us to set up payment plans, but the work has not even finished! Why should we set up a payment plan when we do not even know if they are going to add to our bill? We were told we would have to start paying after the work was complete in two years, but here we are a year on and we have received letters from solicitors asking for nearly £19,000!

“This is horrendous, no one here can afford that bill, we are all struggling here and people will lose their homes over this.”

Kristel has looked into different ways to try and pay this huge bill as she does not have £19,000 and is struggling to get by with the current cost of living crisis.

“I asked how much it would be if I got a loan, but I can’t afford the repayments. Families here can not cope as it is without this bill added. This is enough to push people over the edge.

“The work they have done, was not work any of us here deemed necessary and a lot of it is very shoddy as it is. Most of really do not know what to do next?”

Residents in the area are now faced with a bill of nearly £19,000 for work that is still not complete and they fear they may well lost their homes.

Kristal finished: “Nobody knows what to do now, we know it says as leaseholders we will face costs, but nearly £19,000 for work no one wanted and is not even complete is disgraceful. We are in a recession, a cost of living crisis, how can people cope?”

Havering Council has informed the Havering Daily that no payment is due until the work is complete.

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