100 signatures reached
To: The Housing Ombudsman and Communities Secretary
Make Housing Associations and Property Managers accountable to their customers
Create a regulator that is fit for purpose to stop customers of housing associations and property managers from being ripped off, treated unfairly and put at risk of losing their homes.
Why is this important?
Housing Associations and Property Managers set rents and service charges for thousands of households in the UK. Today, there is little apparent transparency of their processes or into whether their charges are fair and offer value for money. Many members of the public simply don't trust them and see no way to change the situation without costly legal action.
With many customers of these organisations falling into 'at risk' categories for one reason or another, the lack of effective regulation is leaving many at risk of debt and homelessness.
For instance, Circle 33 has recently announced increases in charges which sees some shared owners in flats face increases of up to 147%. This is combined with increases in building insurance in some cases of up to 40%. No real detailed explanation as to why such a hike (if you combine the 147% and 40% together they equal 623 times the current rate of inflation) has so far been issued to all those affected by these inflation-busting increases.
