LEASEHOLDERS of an Hampshire estate say they have been left feeling suicidal because their housing provider landlord is proposing to bill them up to £27,000 EACH to fund a £4.8m maintenance project.

Kingsway Gardens residents in Andover received letters from Aster Group detailing works to be carried out on Saxon, Stuart, York and Tudor Courts with estimates of charges per flat as much as £27,000.

As Aster is due to sign a contract with a construction company to start the works within the coming weeks, they intend to begin deducting instalments from bank accounts in the new financial year.

For those who live in the properties there is the offer of a five-year payment plan but for those who sublet they have been told that money will be taken out in 12 monthly instalments.

The debt will also be registered as a charge against the property so that it cannot be sold without the money being paid to Aster.

Many property owners cannot afford the extortionate costs and being unable to access the help of a loan or remortgage or to sell the property with these charges hanging over them, they have been left anxious and questioning whether they are going to lose their homes.

One Tudor Court resident who wishes to remain anonymous said: "I feel suicidal over this. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place and I don't know where to turn."

As previously reported, Aster presented leaseholders with initial proposals to charge each of them between £15,000 and £20,000 in December 2014 after carrying out a survey of works required on the flats to solve the problems of damp and mould caused by water ingress.

They were then issued with a Notice of Intention of proposed extensive works in March last year including redesigning and replacing the gutter system, concrete repairs and fairing coatings, balustrading to walkways and stairwells and replacement of windows and French windows.

Following a consultation period Aster then put the contract out to tender and, after accepting a quote from Stepnell Limited for £4,843,511.00, wrote to leaseholders with a revised estimate of proposed charges of up to £27,000.

Those figures are not definitive - they could potentially be increased - and they are exclusive of VAT and Aster's contract administration fees of 15 per cent of the net final costs of the work - as it stands from the quotation around £750,000.

In recent years, leaseholders have been paying between £800 and £1,100 per year in maintenance fees which also pay into a sinking fund which is supposed to cover the cost of works if the usual maintenance fees are not enough to cover them.

They say there has been little evidence of Aster's maintenance in recent years, that the extent of the works is due to their historic neglect, and questions have been raised about where their maintenance fees are going and what has happened to that sinking fund.

Since the initial correspondence from Aster and subsequent meetings with residents soon after, leaseholders have been trying to enter into negotiations with them by asking copies of the survey and associated reports, objecting during the consultation process and requesting meetings but the housing company has failed to provide a satisfactory resolution.

Stuart Court resident and leader of the first Kingsway Gardens leaseholders group, Gary Rayner, said: "It has taken two years to get to this position.

"They have made every attempt to avoid negotiation with the residents and steam rolled this proposal through for their own purposes."

During the initial consultations the work was to be carried out on Stuart, Saxon, York and Tudor Courts but now Atholl Court leaseholders have also been presented with proposed charges.

Andover town councillor Andy Fitchet is supporting leaseholders in their bid to find an affordable resolution and also has first-hand experience of living with the problems of living with water ingress in a Kingsway Gardens flat.

He said: "As the freeholders, Aster are responsible for the structure of the building – it is the prolonged lack of maintenance and neglect of the structure that has caused this problem and it is Aster’s responsibility to fix it as the freeholder.

"Suggesting that residents pay up to £27,000 each to fix this issue is nothing short of astounding. Not only is that more than average earnings it is bullying and intimidation. I am disgusted that Aster are trying to force leaseholders to pay for an issue that is wholly the fault of Aster and their neglect of the building."

“There are a lot of questions that Aster still need to answer concerning building surveys, maintenance, administration fees and the sinking fund.

"I will be following these up on behalf of residents when I meet the Aster Regional Director for Hampshire this coming week and will be accompanied with a representative from the Leaseholders Group.

"I feel for the leaseholders who have been landed with substantial bills and they deserve answers before any payments are made.”

Phil North, Alamein ward councillor for Test Valley Borough Council, is also supporting the residents and is attending a meeting with Aster later this month to address some of their questions.

Cllr North said: “There are a lot of questions that Aster still need to answer concerning building surveys, maintenance, administration fees and the sinking fund.

"I will be following these up on behalf of residents when I meet the Aster regional director for Hampshire this coming week and will be accompanied by a representative from the Leaseholders Group.

"I feel for the leaseholders who have been landed with substantial bills and they deserve answers before any payments are made.”

A number of leaseholders have also been in contact with MP for North West Hampshire, Kit Malthouse, who said: “I am working with local councillors who are also engaged with trying to get to the bottom of this issue.

"To land leaseholders with such enormous bills seems highly irregular and we must find a way forward that is reasonable for everyone concerned.”

It is understood that Aster have now written to residents confirming that the sinking fund stands at around £44,500 for Stuart and Tudor Courts - approximately £1,858 per property - but questions still remain as to how they came by this calculation when they have failed to produce any accounts.

They have also addressed some of the residents' questions but have not addressed the overall maintenance issues disputed.

Aster released a statement which said: "We do appreciate that the costs involved are significant and we are working with residents on an individual basis to resolve any issues they may have with paying a proportion of the costs and wish to be as flexible as we can regarding payment terms.

"The work is absolutely necessary to maintain the buildings in the long term and will ultimately mean less impact and lower costs to leaseholders in the future. 

“We arranged for independent structural engineers to carry out extensive inspections and produce a specification to remedy original construction defects.

"We used this specification to invite tenders for the works and these are a reflection of the current market costs to address the defects identified.

"We will be working with the contractor that has supplied us with the lowest cost estimate at £3.4m and will contribute 20% of the total costs, which relates to the flats we own. 

“We will be meeting with residents before we start any work to individual blocks to discuss any questions they may have and to provide further information on timings, costs and on the works that will be carried out.”