A Labour-run council ordered flat owners to pay £28,000 to cover the cost of 10 mobile phones for its own building contractors.
Residents in Consort Estate, a block of 407 properties in Peckham, South London, face tens of thousands of pounds in bills as part of a £17m revamp due to begin later this year.
Council tenants’ costs will be covered by the local authority, but the building’s 83 private owners face individual bills of up to £50,000. Landlords, or non-resident owners, have also been asked to pay the entire bill upfront.
Money will go in large part towards re-coating communal areas with non-flammable paint, replacing hallway windows which are just 10 years old and adding a new roof.
Smaller costs seen by The Telegraph include builders’ mobile phone bills, a £795 fax machine, £11,000 to hire a canteen and over £6,000 worth of council parking permits for the council’s contractors.
It was only after residents disputed the £28,000 phone bill that it was reduced to £8,000, a fraction of the initial estimate.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said The Telegraph’s report was “extremely concerning” and that residents were “absolutely right” to ask Southwark Council to justify the charges.
A spokesman added: “This Government is committed to bringing the outdated leasehold system to an end to make commonhold the default tenure for new flats, tackling ground rents and ending the ‘fleecehold’ scandal.”
One private resident on the Peckham estate has just had a baby and is on maternity leave while her husband embarks on the early stages of his career as an NHS physiotherapist.
New mother Emily Miller, 40, bought her two-bedroom flat a decade ago. She said: “It’s already a tough time for us financially as it is. Such an unexpected, high estimate is going to put huge financial pressures on us, both as a couple and as a family.”
Amanda Vilanova, 32, bought her flat in January this year from her landlord. Despite efforts to find out the timescale and cost of the major works upon exchange, per her surveyor’s advice, the council did not share either of these details in correspondence seen by The Telegraph.
She added: “Obviously, they knew that major works were coming because they wouldn’t have an entire plan by summer if this wasn’t in conversation by the time we were exchanging. There was dishonesty in the process. We couldn’t imagine it would be this much money.”
Private owners have been advised by the London-based local authority in an email, seen by The Telegraph, to consider extending their mortgages or to take out 25-year loans from the council with 7.5pc interest rates attached.