Residents of a Dundee elderly housing complex have been given an apology after an error saw their service charge rise by 69% in a year.
A total of 49 people, aged between 75 and 90, living at the Caledonia Housing Association complex at Naughton Place, were told their service charge would go up from £56 to £95.13 per month.
The news last month sparked a furious backlash from residents, who branded it “completely unacceptable”.
Meter readings error
At the time, Caledonian Housing Association said the rise “directly reflected the national rise in energy costs”.
But the association has now admitted the mistake was based on wrong meter readings.
Bosses have met with residents to explain the error and tell them the monthly cost will instead be £65.13 a month – a rise of 16% and £30 less than they were expecting.
The housing group blamed the false information given to residents on a “discrepancy” in meter readings.
The charges – which include services like gardening, heating and lighting, along with communal maintenance and repairs – are now being adjusted accordingly and backdated.
Among those affected were Pat and Stuart Brown.
Pat said: “We were visited by directors from Caledonian Housing who admitted the error and apologised.
‘We are happy to accept their apology’
“We and other residents are happy to accept the apology. Our service costs are to be at a much more reasonable level – rising to £65 rather than £95 – which we are happy to accept.”
Andrew Kilpatrick, director of assets at Caledonia Housing Association, said: “When we were informed of the projected rise in shared energy costs at Naughton Place, we acted quickly in order to give the residents as much notice of this as possible.
“In light of its scale we undertook a full review and it now appears that a discrepancy between meter readings by the outgoing energy supplier and the incoming supplier had caused the overstatement of the shared energy projection for Naughton Place.
“This has now been corrected and residents advised of the change.
“On behalf of Caledonia Housing Association and our suppliers, we apologise to our residents for any distress this error has caused.
“We want to reassure residents that we have implemented changes to our internal procedures to ensure projections are accurate in the future and any anomalies are identified at an earlier stage.”
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