‘Our London flats had heating cut off for 17 days - now we fear getting £450,000 bill’

Residents of a block of flats in north-west London have had their hot water and heating turned back on after 17 days - and now fear having to foot a collective £450,000 energy bill.

Unpaid bills, which are understood to have been no fault of the residents, led to the gas supply to homes at Middle Yard in Dudden Hill Lane, Dollis Hill, Brent, being cut off.

People in at least 126 affected homes relied on small electric heaters and outdoor mobile shower units supplied by freeholder and developer Union Developments.

The freeholder and building manager Rendall & Rittner said around £300,000 was owed for gas to provider Pozitive Energy (also known as PE Solutions), alongside another £300,000 for electricity.

Kaniz Gatt and Lucy Baxter outside Middle Yard

Jonathan Goldberg Photography

Although gas was restored on Monday, November 9 following a High Court order, residents have been warned the historic debts could be added to upcoming service charge bills.

Resident Lucy Baxter told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “It has just been quite stressful, we are in a basement level flat and it was freezing.

“We don’t really know what’s going on; we have just been given a service charge, and over the next four weeks we are being given four balancing charges.

“We believe that’s for the debt, and they said that for them to do an investigation for the debt, they need six weeks, so we don’t really know if we are going to be charged correctly or not.

“Obviously, we individually have meters; we know we have paid our fair share, so we might have been paying for other people’s meters.”

Of the £600,000 debt owed to Pozitive Energy, £150,000 is understood to have been paid as part of the High Court proceedings towards the gas with the remaining £150,000 gas bill potentially being footed by leaseholders.

But they are in the dark about what’s happening with the £300,000 for electricity, so have the spectre of that enormous bill hanging over them too.

Middle Yard, Dudden Hill Lane

Jonathan Goldberg Photography

Another resident who has been there since 2022, Ms Gatt, said: “The heating in general has failed four or five times since I’ve been here. I feel really powerless with it all. I work from home most of the time.

“I have osteoarthritis, and it has been freezing. It is important to have heating; it is a basic human right, and we didn’t pay for it. It is the UK; we are not talking about a third-world country.

Councillor Mary Mitchell, Leader of Brent’s Green Party, said she has been supporting the residents throughout the ordeal, she said: “The journey is only just beginning for the residents of Middle Yard, who will be seeking compensation, transparency and accountability for the disruption to their lives and the danger to health that 17 days without heating and hot water presented.

“We will also be calling upon the government to review legislation for leaseholders to protect residents against failings of this nature.

“Residents across Brent are being failed by housing associations and managing agents who are not providing the basic repairs and health and safety standards that they require.”

A spokesperson at Rendall & Rittner said: "As of Monday, November 9, heating and hot water services have been restored, and we continue to work with our client and their contractor to address any outstanding issues.

"We recognise the disruption this outage has caused residents and thank them for their patience and understanding. We have also received draft service charge accounts covering periods prior to our appointment in May. These are currently being reviewed and, once finalised, will be shared with leaseholders.”

A spokesperson for Union Developments told the LDRS: “We have been really upset for all the residents. Although there are managing agents, we ourselves went about providing heaters and temporary showers, along with offering a chauffeur to a local facility also for showering.”

They added: “We are in the process of now changing the energy supplier and the managing agents.”