Bombshell bills of up to £22k sent to Wolverhampton residents

A tribunal hearing will now take place about the demands for repairs at Merridale Court – and furious residents are setting up a battle fund to fight their case.

Among those to have been hit by the unexpected bills are 96-year-old widow Ethel Brown, divorced grandmother Marion Hughes, 84, and widow Ella Bamford aged 76. Tim Lewis, aged 34, who lives in Albrighton but owns the leasehold on two flats, has been told to pay £22,400.

The affected residents own the leasehold on the flat in which they live in Merridale Road but Wolverhampton Homes, on behalf of the city council that owns the freehold on the land, wants them to help foot the estimated £2.69 million cost of revamping the three-storey blocks of 155 flats.

Forty nine of these are owned by the leaseholder, while the rest are Wolverhampton Homes tenants.

Mrs Hughes, who bought her flat in 2000 and has been handed an £11,780 demand, said: "I nearly died when I read the letter.

"Why did they not call us all together to tell us about this so we could digest the information instead of just sending us a bill out of the blue? That was very unfair.

"I bought this flat intending to spend the rest of my life in peace and quiet.

"I have had two strokes and this stress is the last thing I needed.

"The worry about where I would find that kind of money keeps me awake at night."

Ella Bamford has lived in her two-bedroom flat since 1973 and later bought it as a sitting tenant, has been asked for £11,500.

She declared: "I do not have it. There was no consultation. It is terrible to send a letter demanding that amount of money without warning from people in their 80s and 90s."

Mrs Bamford questioned why the maintenance costs had got so high so suddenly.

She said: "I think it is disgusting to ask someone for nearly £12,000 to pay for repairs which should have been done over the years and not all at once. I'm 76 and have been retired for 16 years – where on earth do they think I'm going to get the money from?. Some of the things they are looking to repair now we have been demanding to be done for years.

"Since 2001 I've been complaining about the guttering and the drainage and now we have plants growing out of it. That will probably cost more to sort out but if it was done at the time it would have cost less."

Paul Uppal, MP for Wolverhampton South East, today criticised the way in which the news was broken to them without warning by letter. He said: "They have taken their eye off the ball in allowing repairs to reach this parlous state. They have also displayed very poor communication skills."

The repairs are said to include work on the roofs, balconies and guttering and furious leaseholder are setting up a battle fund to fight their case. The case is set to be decided by a First Tier Tribunal hearing on November 28.

In a joint statement, Wolverhampton Homes and Wolverhampton City Council said: "We do need to make major repairs to Merridale Court including to the roofs, balconies, guttering and other external parts of the building.

"The role of the independent tribunal will be to determine how much of the cost should be recovered from lease holders."