Why are we waiting? Fed up Sunbeam residents still without heating
Tenants left in the cold for weeks at a Wolverhampton apartment block have been promised heating and hot water will be returned ‘imminently’.
The Sunbeam Living complex on the Penn Road, on the site of the former Sunbeam Motorcycle Factory, has a mixture of private and social housing properties, including around 12 people who are housed by the Lifeways Community Care assisted living programme.
They live with diagnoses ranging from autism to learning difficulties and are housed with a supported living specialist from the Wolverhampton-based organisation on site.
They are among residents – some paying inclusive rents of £700 a month – to live at the site, which has not had a hot water supply or heating since January 24.
Aaron Matharu, aged 27, is one of the residents supported by Lifeways and his mother Ravi first brought the problem to the attention of the Express & Star shortly after it started.
Property management company Centrick apologised at the time and said a part to fix the heating problem would be arriving on Monday. As of Wednesday, all the residents were still without heating.
A spokesman for Centrick said: “The company sympathises with residents and fully understands their frustration at delays to the repair of the heating and hot water system.
“An engineer attended within 24 hours of the initial fault and, from the moment the system failed, we have kept all parties fully informed of the situation and progress.
“The building’s heating and hot water system requires a bespoke part to perform a long-term fix and there was no immediate, temporary repair options available to us. The part has been on order and we have been assured it will be back up and running imminently. We would like to assure residents we are doing everything possible.”
Linford Hughes, who lived at Sunbeam for six months last year, said his experience was one of frustration in that he had experienced the same problem with the heating and water several times and it was never fixed quickly. He sent The Express &d Star e-mails from Centrick offering to provide portable heaters, the cost of which would have to be paid back in next month’s rent.
He said: “They are nice apartments but most people are paying their rent inclusive of utilities and my experience is that there was either no heating or hot water or that it was ridiculously hot with no way of adjusting the temperature.
“It never seemed to be comfortable there, there always seemed to be something wrong.”
The project to build the apartments was plagued with difficulties from the off, when developers QED went into administration in 2018.
It led to the site being snapped up for £7.5 million by Wolverhampton-based social and public sector housing specialists Paragon Living Space.
