Residents in a famous building where Dame Tracey Emin owns a flat have recouped a staggering £93,000 after a telecoms company used residents’ electricity for 12 years.
They suspected that leccy from residential supplies had been powering aerials on the top of the building.
But they had never been able to obtain definitive proof.
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Now a letter from the building’s management company has revealed £93,607.60 has been credited back to their service charge.
This represents 12 years of electricity usage.
Artist Dame Emin owns a property in the 18-storey Modernist seafront block, which is famous for its Brutalist architectural style.
And several residents at Arlington House, Margate, in Kent, have tried to investigate the suspected usage over the years.
But they claimed they got loads of denials.
Around 60 electricity invoices from supplier, SSE SWALEC, relating to 2020 were disclosed last year.
It led to numerous questions about unit costs and the number of units consumed, along with matters relating to Climate Change Levy, CCL, and rates of VAT.
CCL is only payable by commercial users and VAT on residential use is 5% rather than 20%.
Some of the disclosed invoices showed those additional elements having been charged to lessees on consumption via the residential meter and then credited back later on revised bills.
One resident John Moss said: “This has been a protracted investigation to get to the truth of the extent of the commercial usage.
“I have had to chase the current management company, Parsons Son & Basley (PS&B) to obtain all the relevant electricity invoices from four years ago.
“It subsequently transpired that O2 had been sourcing its electricity from our residential meter rather than its own independent supply.
“The Arlington House situation should sound an alert to the lessees of all high rise buildings with telecoms equipment on the roof.
“I advise other domestic residents to carry out checks to ensure that they are not paying for electricity used by commercial tenants.
“The word of the landlord or building manager cannot always be believed.
“It is also concerning that commercial companies may be avoiding payment of CCL and VAT.’’
The £93,607.60 overcharge has been credited back to all current lessees, despite much of the sum having been paid in the first instance by former lessees who have since died or sold up.
The high electricity costs for flat leaseholders has been the subject of various tribunal hearings with a hearing in 2009 – dealing with years 2002 to 2008 – ruling that action was needed to ensure that telecommunication aerials were separately metered.
This was repeated at a hearing in 2019 when a judge dealing with service charges from 2013 to 2017 stated that third party usage should be properly measured and priced.
A letter from PS&B property management said: “Since the beginning of the year we have been working with various parties to try and unravel the position regarding the electricity usage by the telecoms operators on the roof of Arlington House.
“It has been a long, convoluted and quite frustrating process.
“However we have finally managed to agree a payment of £93,607.60 from the telecoms operators back into the service charge accounts.”
PS&B says the operator will now be metered with recovered amounts being credited back on a quarterly basis.
Robert Calvert, the poet and vocalist for band Hawkwind, lived at Arlington House, as reported by Need To Know.
The song High Rise on the band’s 1979 album PXR5 was reportedly inspired by the building.
The building also featured in Sam Mendes’ film Empire of Light, which was shot in Margate.
