Leaseholders' overcharged £160 each for Communal Lighting

In January 2010, leaseholders received their Actual Statements for the previous year's charges which must be paid in April 2010. These were over 4 months late (they are normally sent out in September). The letter accompanying the January statements was dated November 2nd, two months earlier.

Leasehold Services told me that the reason for the extreme delay was because they had been double-checking the Communal Lighting charges. It soon became apparent that these particular charges may not have been checked at all, not even once, since individual leaseholders in two blocks were to be charged 900% more than had been estimated.

Frankham House Estimated charge: £10.35, Actual charge £163.81
Castell House Estimated charge: £18.46, Actual charge £178.73
Other blocks have been charged more or less as estimated (even though there are large anomalies between equally sized blocks). Communal lighting covers external lights and those in the stairwells.

Four leaseholders that I know of wrote to complain in early February. Two who were advised to copy their (email) complaints to Cllr Padmore, received a reply just over two weeks later. Leasehold Services said the bills were correct since they were based on the bills received from the energy company. But since Leasehold Services were unable to explain the substantial increase, they would reduce the bills to the leaseholders and credit accounts accordingly (to the tune of around £160 to each leaseholder in Frankham and Castell).

On 5th March I wrote to Leasehold Services requesting a copy of the energy supplier's bill, and since this had not been responded to, I wrote again on 26th March. We wonder if Lewisham Homes will be following this up with enquiries to the energy supplier to find out why there was this astronomical increase and, if necessary, bringing in the council's lawyers to reclaim the overcharge, or will they do nothing and swallow the costs for which we shall all have to pay for in the end?

If EDF or whoever it is (we're not told) insist their charges are correct, perhaps Lewisham Homes should be alerting the police to the possibility that power is somehow being syphoned off – perhaps to run a couple of energy intensive cannabis farms in the lofts?