A UK resident is furious after her service charge went from nothing to £3k a year. The tenant says she is now scraping by on Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefits and has no savings amid the Cost of Living crisis.
Linda Mawer, from Merseyside, told the Sun newspaper she moved up to the property from London in the summer of 2018 when her mum Anne died. But she said her £3,000 a year service charge has left her scraping by amid financial pressures.
"I came back because my parents got ill," she said. "I thought how nice would that be I won't have to worry about anything when I retire." The service charge on the pensioner's apartment is now £3,000 a year, compared to just £400 when her parents bought it from the local council in 2002.
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"What savings I had have gone now," Linda said. "This is just not the relaxed retirement I envisaged. Gone are the days when I could afford a holiday - I'm living on £100 a week to pay for food and a social life.
"I've never had to think to myself, 'I can't afford this' before, but I went out with my friends the other day and realised I couldn't afford to spend £30 on a meal with them." She claims she was facing a £4,500 bill alongside seven other tenants in the block of flats who are leaseholders like her before they challenged it with One Vision, which relented and agreed to take £3,000 this year.
Linda said to the newspaper: "The other tenants and I kicked up a fuss and we managed to get it reduced." The tenant lives in Bootle in Merseyside in the North West of England and spoke out to the Sun this week in an interview.
