Bath tenant says Curo 'threatened' to charge him for complaining

A Bath tenant says his landlord "threatened" to charge him for making enquiries after he repeatedly complained about the state of his block of flats.

Ken Pearson, of Hillside Road, said he has "quite easily" contacted his landlord Curo 200 times over the past 18 months on issues including cleaning, bin collections, fire safety, and service charges.

Mr Pearson, who is retired, says he has contacted Curo on average around twice a week, often raising issues on behalf of neighbours as well as for himself.

In a letter seen by this website, a Curo officer told Mr Pearson it has a right to recover management costs in responding to correspondence, and would consider doing so "should the present volume of communication continue."

Mr Pearson said: "They are threatening to penalise me for asking them to fix these issues."

"I've laid out the facts of the problems that we faced. If they weren't problems, I wouldn't have to trouble them."

However, Curo said in a statement that it encourages all customers who have concerns to "always contact us so we can investigate, learn from any mistakes and make changes for the better".

Ken and 12 other residents of his building on Hillside Road signed a petition in response to a lack of bin storage (Image: Paul Gillis/paulgillisphoto.com)

The 72-year-old has been living at Hillside Road for more than 10 years, where he acts as carer for his wife.

The couple moved to the area to retire, and "wanted to take it easy and live in peace."

He said there used to be a caretaker for the building, who was responsible for general maintenance, but this changed when Curo took over his building in 2012.

"We used to have a chap who knew the blocks well because he had been there for years and would either fix things quickly, or get someone else to do it if he couldn’t," Mr Pearson said.

"(Then) we got these big fancy vans with 'Curo' emblazoned on the front, and were told they would come if something was wrong but we are often left wondering when they'll ever come."

Bins were left blocking one of the entrances to the building because the bin store was not big enough for the wheelie bins — Rubbish piled up after residents said a store was not big enough for new wheelie bins (Image: Ken Pearson)

Ken first started contacting Curo in 2017 over issues with his block's bins.

Mr Pearson said Curo's bin store was not big enough to fit new wheelie bins and residents could not use them, but the council would not collect rubbish left in bags instead.

After the building's bins went without being collected for four consecutive weeks, he organised a petition that 12 other residents signed.

Mr Pearson said the problem was only fully resolved when Curo enlarged the bin store in December 2018, more than a year after the problem started.

He said he later received compensation after appealing to the Housing Ombudsman.

Ken said that a sufficient bin storage area took over a year to be provided (Image: Ken Pearson)

The 13 residents wrote a second petition to Curo in April 2018 complaining that cleaners had not been regularly coming to their property for several months, and threatened to stop paying their service charge.

He says his block went without cleaning for four weeks in March 2018, and had been scarcely cleaned since December 2017.

"The cleaning of the communal areas of our block has been a problem for a long time," he said.

"In April 2018 the tenants submitted a petition to Curo about the problems we faced. Eventually this resulted in a refund on our Service Charge for the year ending April 2018."

"But the problem persisted," he added.

Hillside Road residents have been left wondering when the 'fancy' Curo vans will show up — Mr Pearson has raised concerns about delays and spending on repairs at his block (Image: Paul Gillis/paulgillisphoto.com)

Mr Pearson said he has raised other issues with Curo including concerns about how much money was being spent on repairs and delays in maintenance in his block.

He said he had also raised issues about the block with the local MP and Avon Fire and Rescue.

"There's pretty strong evidence of failure from Curo from just about every level," he claimed.

"When Curo used scaffolding, at a cost of £1,000, to do repairs to the roof I asked the advisor why the skylight had not been used to access the roof."

"The reply was ‘because of the loft’. I pointed out that there was no loft as it was a flat roof. £1,000 wasted."

Ken said he was able to secure a 50 per cent refund of his share of the bill, but said he was concerned that Curo appeared to be managing properties by "remote control" and were "totally clueless" when it comes to the buildings that they are running.

He also claimed it took 16 months for Curo to repair pedestrian lighting outside the building.

In a seven-page letter from Curo in April, Mr Pearson was given the results of a "thorough review" into more than 20 issues he had raised, including concerns over cleaning and fire safety.

The letter also said: "I must at this point raise awareness of the considerable volume of correspondence Curo has received from you and how we acknowledge and respond to these enquiries is linked to your annual management charge."

It adds: "At this stage we have not exercised our right to recover our management costs in responding to your correspondence but will be considering this should the present volume of communication continue."

Ken, who worked in the charities sector for over 30 years, said he "denies emphatically" his communications are not reasonable, and said he only gets in touch to report issues that are affecting him and other residents.

"I'm far from a lone ranger" he joked. "Others have been in contact with them as well".

He said his communications have been with the support of the 12 other residents that signed the petitions, many of whom work, or are unable to talk to Curo during the day.

He said: "I would not need to get in contact if they were doing their jobs properly."

Cleaning of the communal spaces continues to be an issue for residents of Hillside Road — Cleaning of the communal spaces is among the issues raised (Image: Paul Gillis/paulgillisphoto.com)

Curo's response

A spokesperson from Curo said: "We have been in close contact with Mr Pearson about a large number of matters over recent years, and we’re sorry that he feels the service he gets from us as a homeowner isn’t good enough.

"We wrote to Mr Pearson at the end of April to address a number of recent issues and to explain what we are doing to improve matters.

"We accept that cleaning and communication with contractors hasn’t always been to the right standard in the past.

"We’ve made improvements to the way we manage contractors, with more regular meetings; we’ve installed new bin storage areas; and we are piloting a new approach to maintaining our estates.

"We refunded all residents in Mr Pearson’s building for their cleaning charges for November 2017 – April 2018 in recognition of the poor level of service they received during this period.

"Like all landlords, we are able to increase the fees we make for managing a homeowner’s lease to reflect the time and resources involved in responding accurately and promptly to large volumes of correspondence.

"We encourage all customers who have concerns about the service they get from Curo to always contact us so we can investigate, learn from any mistakes and make changes for the better."

Have you been experiencing any issues where you live? Do you have any other interesting stories to share? Email eddie.bingham@reachplc.com, call 07825385768, or tweet: @eddiejb123