Residents of Transport House in Salford have been charged more than £100,000 for essential changes to their properties.
After the decking on the public areas was deemed unsafe, renovations took place and the residents were charged £4,500 for the repairs as the company refused to take the fee out of the service charge.
In 2021 each resident received a bill of £97,000 per apartment. This has led to opposition from Salford Mayor Paul Dennett and groups such as Manchester Cladiators.
The government had promised that leaseholders would not pay for anything that wasn’t their fault, however this is yet to be seen.
Mayor of Salford, Paul Dennett said: “At its heart this is a regulatory issue. Grenfell revealed that there is no effective regulatory system in Britain for monitoring what material is used, in what form or on what building.
“This needs to change, and the privatisation which fragmented our regulatory system needs to be reversed.”
Manchester Cladiators is a voluntary group representing the residents of buildings across Greater Manchester with dangerous cladding systems and serious internal fire safety issues.
The Cladiators said: “This is not the first time that leaseholders have received enormous quotes/bills but it is one of the largest we have seen in Greater Manchester.”
Manchester Cladiators explained why leaseholders were being billed for repairs. They continued: “The building owner is a housing association called Irwell Valley – the issue is that leasehold law essentially allows the building owner to recharge all such costs to leaseholders.
“This has been a major obstacle in ensuring works are completed quickly as the amounts required usually run into the tens of thousands of pounds. Following years of campaigning, the Government has now enshrined certain leaseholder protections in law and this includes putting leaseholders at the back of the queue to pay after developers and building owners.”
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