RESIDENTS at an upmarket apartment block claim they are trapped in their homes by “excessive” service charges and a “dictatorial board”.

The Admiral’s Walk apartment block on Bournemouth’s West Cliff made headlines last year when residents claiming they were being charged unreasonable maintenance fees won their case at a tribunal.

But after the tribunal ordered the management board to repay a total of £250,000 to the residents of all 121 flats, the board responded by putting out a “cash call” to the 100 residents who are also shareholders in the freehold.

In effect, this has meant residents are being asked to fund their own compensation. It’s thought around 60 have done so – some of the others who have not yet paid have been threatened with court action.

In addition to the cash call, residents are still charged several thousand pounds a year in service charges but claim they see little for it.

And building insurance bills have also rocketed with some people seeing their charges double to nearly £1,000 a year.

David Bell, who has helped set up a campaign group, said: “The problem is there is no proper complaints procedure, everything gets elevated by the board to pursuing people legally. Residents are not consulted, instead they get inundated with solicitors’ letters.

“We’re trying to find a better way forward. We also want to change the building atmosphere and the blame culture.

“People are afraid of speaking out against this dictatorial board, this has become a building of whispers. The stress of living here is unbelievable.”

But Douglas Marr, chair of the board, said charges were high because of services like the round-the-clock porters, which he said were valued by residents.

He said they were “sympathetic” to anyone who can’t pay the cash call but added that over half of residents had paid and had received the vast majority of their money back in the form of the refunded maintenance charges.

“We’re taking legal action because we have got to get everyone to understand that the company is quite entitled to make a cash call and it’s the only way to achieve our tribunal obligations.”

He refuted claims that it was a “dictatorial board”.

He said residents could vote at AGMs, that they only used solicitors if people didn’t pay their service charges and said building insurance bills were high because of the state of the building.

'We're trapped'

• Jane Newman has a two-bedroom flat at Admiral’s Walk. She pays just under £4,000 a year in maintenance charges and her buildings’ insurance bill, which was £240 in 2009, is now £746.

She said: “We are trapped in our homes. We can’t sell our property, we can’t move forward with our lives. We had a tenant who wanted to buy our property but couldn’t take on the maintenance charge.

“All the problems are due to the bad management of the block. They have never, ever tried to cut costs. They are now talking about a 25 per cent increase. People can’t keep paying these amounts but we’re stuck because we can’t sell.”

• Rosemary Lovelock has a three-bedroom flat in the block. She said: “I already pay £6,500 a year in service charges and I have been told it’s going up by 25 per cent, which I object to. Even if we had the money how can they justify such high charges?”

• Rosemary Shelton rents a flat in Admiral’s Walk with her daughter. She said: “The maintenance charges are upwards of £4,000 a year and I have just had an insurance charge of £1,000. My daughter wanted to buy the flat but she couldn’t get a mortgage on it because of the high service charges.”

l But resident John Fray defended the board.

He said: “The board is open and transparent in what it does and there are AGMs where votes on all the issues are taken.

“We’ve just had one where there was very good attendance and a unanimous vote of thanks to the board for the work they are doing.

“It’s not a paid position and the amount of stress and strain they had to put up with is not helpful and not right.”