A total of 166 leaks were reported over the last financial year at Pitcairn House, a nine-storey block in St Thomas’ Square, a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by the Hackney Gazette revealed.
Zoë Goodman, who owns a three-bedroom flat in the block, paid £5,250 in service charges in the year to April 2024, and in December the council upped her monthly payments from £300 to £550.
She said that it was “bonkers” that she was having to pay thousands of pounds a year for an “abysmal” repair service.
A leaseholder for a two-bedroom flat would have paid more than £4,700 in service charges over the 2023/24 financial year, figures show.
“When I actually think about it, my blood starts boiling,” Zoë said.
“People I know who live in gorgeous private accommodation with concierges do not pay that much a month.
“We pay every single time there is a problem with basic infrastructure. Leaseholders are effectively paying for the council’s lack of investment in these properties.”
As well as the persistent leaks, Zoë said it is rare that both lifts in the building are working at the same time.
“People’s anger and feeling of total neglect is so acute in relation to the lifts, it’s hard to underestimate,” she explained.
“One person basically just doesn’t come home when both lifts are broken.
“They go and stay with a relative because they’ve got two kids, they’ve got a buggy, they live on the eighth floor and it’s just impossible. People are feeling very desperate.”
Hackney Council has previously said that it plans to have secured contractors to replace the lifts in some of its housing blocks by April, as part of a £24 million project.
Around a third of the council’s 600 lifts will then be replaced over a four-year period, with the local authority claiming that those at Pitcairn House will be in “the first tranche”.
But Zoë said that while neighbours wait for this to happen, the council needs to ensure the repairs system works better than it currently does.
Between the start of October and mid-November last year the council confirmed that it received reports that both lifts at Pitcairn House were not working on nine occasions.
The council claims that on each occasion, both were repaired and back in working order on the same day as the report.
Zoë added that having to pay a share of the communal heating was also a huge burden on her overall service charge.
“I’ve almost never put my heating on because I’m in the middle of the block and it’s really well insulated, but I pay a vast amount for heating and hot water on a monthly basis,” she said.
“For me, paying for my actual usage rather than this blanket fee would dramatically reduce my service charge.”
Hackney Council has been approached for a response.
