When Chris Vellam first moved into his brand new apartment in “the heart of Rochester” he was delighted and even allowed his story to be featured in a promotion for the property.

But now after five years living at mhs homes’ Foord House in Corporation Street, his shared ownership experience has fallen well short of his expectations - and he’s not alone.

According to the 43-year-old, he and other tenants have endured a catalogue of botched or non-existent repairs, while at the same time facing escalating service charge bills.

To add to their woes, residents are being put at risk, he claims, by an unwelcome night-time intruder with a drug problem barging their way into a “poorly secured” communal bin facility and pulling out their rubbish.

In response, mhs homes says it’s faced “large unforeseen costs” but has fixed leaks, lifts and other maintenance issues as they’ve been reported, and is looking into installing a “higher security option” to address the unwanted guest.

Mr Vellam told KentOnline: “I know a lot of people will no longer visit the bin store after dark in case they encounter him.”

He first moved into his one-bed flat in July 2019, when it was brand new, on a shared ownership basis.

Under the scheme, which aims to help prospective buyers who would not otherwise be able afford to purchase a home outright and get on the housing ladder, Mr Vellam pays a mortgage on a share of the property and rent to mhs for the remainder.

But in addition, in common with the other the 22 households in what mhs describes on its website as its “flagship development,” he also has to pay an annual service charge.

That has risen from £1,505 in the year ending March 2021 to £2,312 for the year ending this March - a 54% increase, he says.

This year’s bill was also £700 more than the company had estimated at the start of the year - and Mr Vellam was presented with an additional demand on top of the monthly payments he had been making.

He has refused to pay the extra until the firm provides a breakdown of the maintenance costs, as required by law - which they have now done.

Mr Vellam has discovered that residents are being charged £3.15 per minute for visits by the ground maintenance crew - that’s £189 per hour. mhs said that was the cost per block and the individual cost per flat was 14p per minute.

In addition, there is a charge for window cleaning, but the resident says his windows have not been cleaned once in the year.

He added: “I have a huge amount of correspondence between myself and mhs regarding the service charges, security and safety issues, failure or lack of repairs and general bad management ever since I moved in back in July 2019.

“The flats were new then, but the problems started from day one.”

Mr Vellam, a security officer, said the Kent-based housing organisation has been repeatedly called upon to fix insecure locks on the flat’s main entrance doors and on the bin store.

“There’s been a drug addict regularly visiting the bin store at night for over a year,” he adds.

“He’s left human faeces on the floor, pulled out all the rubbish and scattered it.

“On one occasion, a pair of child’s knickers had been individually removed from the residents’ bins and God knows what was done to them!

“Because of all the rubbish strewn around all the time, we then developed a problem with rats - and now mhs are charging us for pest control!

“All this could have been avoided, if only mhs had properly secured the doors when I first reported them as faulty three years ago.

”We pay through the teeth, but nothing ever gets fixed.”

And Mr Vellam is not the only one with ongoing concerns to have sent a long list of complaints to the housing association.

A female neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “I will not take rubbish down once it’s dark because of this individual.

“He has also taken to vandalising residents’ cars.

“Once I came down to find a windscreen wiper missing. I didn’t think much of it.”

“But when it happened again a few days later, I posted on our residents’ WhatsApp group and discovered that seven others had had the same thing happen.

“I’m afraid this will escalate. Will I go down to find my car tyres slashed next?”

The lady was also worried about poor security to the flats themselves.

She said: “Rochester is a lovely city with lots of nice people and is generally safe, but somehow our corner of it seems to attract all the worst types.

“One day I came home to find two teenagers having sex in the corridor.”

Living on the top floor of the building, she has also been frustrated by mhs’s failure to effect proper repairs.

She said: “The lift is constantly breaking down. Seven times in a four-month period this year.

“Clearly the repairs are not being done properly, but mhs is happy to keep calling out the contractors again and again and then charging us for each visit. It’s just poor management.”

She said: “It’s often small things. It was two years ago that I reported a small leak in the ceiling from a roof hatch. Whenever it rains there’s a small pool of water gathers on the hallway floor.

“They’ve never fixed it properly. And when I email to chase it, I just get no response. Their communication is terrible.”

“It’s got so that the residents are reluctant to report faults now, because nothing will get done, but we’ll still be charged for it.”

She said: “Whenever you contact mhs, it feels as though we are just an annoyance to them, rather than a customer who is paying them for a service."

mhs has written to the Foord House tenants following their complaints.

The housing association told them: “We have received several emails from residents understandably concerned about the large difference between what we estimated (the service costs would be) and the actual costs.

“Estimates are generally calculated based on trends from previous years, together with information from suppliers and our own operatives.

“Unfortunately, large unforeseen costs can arise which could not have been predicted.”

In its breakdown of costs, mhs revealed it had spent £1,179 on pest control for the block during the year.

Repairs to the lift came to £2,273, while residents were also billed £3,341 in “management services” - calculated at £50, plus 10% of the total cost of services and repairs.

Mr Vellam says himself and other residents want some of the money to be spent installing automatic gates to the main entrance of the property and new fencing around the perimeter, so as to restrict access and prevent anti-social behaviour.

He added: “We’d like to feel safe in our own homes.”

The safety and security of our customers and their homes is our number one priority

Amy Cheswick, executive director of customer and transformation at mhs homes, said she was concerned to hear people are experiencing issues.

“The safety and security of our customers and their homes is our number one priority,” she added.

“There have been past problems with the lift, but these were resolved in May. Since then, we’ve had no further reports and our monthly checks have found no issues.

“Our teams fixed a leak in the building last year and followed up with a further inspection when concerns were raised in February this year. No leak was found at the time.

“However, we will arrange for our teams to go out again.”

With regards to the complaints about the back door and the unwanted visitor, the housing management specialist said a job was already booked in to “deal with this”.

“We’re aware that someone is gaining access to the bin store,” she added.

“Our inspections have shown that the doors themselves are secure, but the lock is being repeatedly damaged. We have repaired this again and are looking at installing a higher security option.”

“We are proud of the work of our cleaners, who do an excellent job.

“Records show they have visited and completed the scheduled cleans to the block. Our grounds maintenance team visit every four weeks without fail and complete all works required on the day.

“In terms of service charges, we understand our customers’ frustration but there can be fluctuations between estimates and actual bills if costs change or unexpected works need to be completed.

“We’ve sent a letter explaining this to customers in September.”