Rosetta Court residents demand an end to housing mismanagement

Rosetta Court is a sheltered housing scheme for older people in Upper Norwood.  Elderly residents have experienced a string of problems with their landlord, Sanctuary Housing.  Complaints include soaring bills, shoddy repairs and maintenance, and they’ve been left without a live-in manager for just under a year.   Many leaseholders felt enough was enough when Sanctuary issued them with bills for £15,000 each to repair a badly-maintained car park – more than many of the older and disabled residents can afford to pay.

After repeated approaches to Sanctuary’s managers failed to get a response, residents asked local MP Steve Reed for help.  After listening to concerns raised by over 40 residents, Steve invited Sanctuary’s senior managers to meet him and resident representatives at the House of Commons.  That meeting took place this week and secured commitments from Sanctuary to review the size of bills, improve maintenance work in the development, and hold regular meetings with residents until the issues have been resolved.

Speaking after the meeting, Steve Reed MP commented: “Something’s clearly gone wrong at Rosetta Court for residents to feel so aggrieved about their landlord’s management services.  I’m grateful to Sanctuary for sending two senior managers along to listen to their residents and for their constructive approach to sorting the problems out.  I will keep a close eye on how things progress and will keep working with residents until they get the quality of support they expect and deserve.”