Refurbishment costs for leaseholders in Brockley

Back in July, we reported:

"Lewisham Council has signed a £296 million [PFI] deal to do up nearly 2,000 council-owned homes in Brockley.

"A group of private sector companies is going to refurbish the council’s housing estates and street properties, including homes owned by leaseholders."

Evidently, the first letters, informing leaseholders of the costs they will have to meet, have started dropping through the letter boxes, prompting one reader to write:

"For our house (classified as a block of 2 flats) we're facing professional fees of over £7000 and scaffolding costs of nearly £5000 before any work of any description is done. Remember that there around 600 leaseholders in Brockley PFI - not all are in streets but even so why does it cost £7000 per house for professional fees?

"We've also read in a Lewisham Council report of the scrutiny committee for Housing, that there are plans to massively increase leaseholders service charges to claw back the ongoing costs of the PFI project. The figure we've seen is £750 a year per leasehold in Brockley PFI-it's not clear whether this will be applied to everyone regardless of what services they receive. At the moment we pay £100 a year so this is a MASSIVE increase!"

BC regular "James" has contacted Regenter's local office, for clarification, and was told that all costs will be capped at £10,000 - including professional services, scaffolding, and any works undertaken and that the lease will not be going up.

We hope that Sue Luxton and Dean Walton may be able to shed more light on this matter - or that someone from Regenter contacts us directly. We will be investigating this issue further, but in the mean time, if you have been contacted by Regenter, please let us know what costs you have been told you face.