A housing association resident is dismayed as her complaints about maintenance on her estate are going unanswered despite paying service charges.

Linda Libetta of Briar Close, Finchley, has made a number of attempts to have gardening services and communal repairs taken care of her by her housing association, Home Group.

But after her local office was closed down her complaints have been referred to a call centre in Newcastle, which she says means they are not seen through to completion.

Ms Libetta has met officers who said they could help her with her complaints, but due to a high turnover at the association these staff members then left before anything could be done.

She said: “The delivery is poor and in most cases not fit for purpose.

“Despite years of trying to inform Home Group of the deterioration of our services and the cavalier repairs we were receiving it all fell on deaf ears and they have implemented a restructure, where our homes are managed by a call centre in Newcastle.”

Ms Libetta has complained about a number of issues from broken fences and grass growing out of the gutters, to broken locks on communal entrance doors, which she feels have not been adequately maintained despite tenants paying £2,000 a year in service charges.

Tenants had have the chance to speak to an officer who came to look at the estate last year, but Ms Libetta was back to square one after the officer left the association without handing over the case.

Ms Libetta has also raised this issue with her MP, Mike Freer, saying that he has not had a response from the association regarding these issues.

She added: “Communication is poor from the point of making the report to the delivery, it leaves the tenant managing the process if things are not done or repairs are not being delivered to an appropriate standard.”

Terri Lockhart, Home Group performance leader, said customers in the UK say they prefer to be able to log issues 24/7 rather than having one point of contact during office hours, in favour of the call centre system.

She said: “We’ve met with Ms Libetta and a number of other customers on the estate to discuss repairs and maintenance.

“Grass cutting and garden maintenance are being carried out in agreement with customers’ wishes and we’re currently consulting with customers on the best way to replace a broken wall and we’ll carry out the wishes of the majority.

“Our customer service centre is open 7am to 8pm every weekday and 8am to noon on Saturday and outside these hours customers can contact us via email and our website.”