Hera Management Services

I would like to give you my experience of how the Hera Management and EnerG Switch have treated me in my experience of getting the heat interface unit of my flat repaired. I live in one of the flats in Streamlight Tower in Tower Hamlets and I want to you know what happened what I asked Hera to repair my Heat Interface Unit this past year. Hera Management is the property management company of my leasehold flat. The Heat Interface Unit in my flat which produces hot water and underfloor heating of my flat started to have problems in the summer 2015. Hera asked me to contact Swtich2 from EnerG myself to get an engineer to repair the HIU. I was charged almost �900 for the repair of the hot water and underfloor heating but I was given very poor service by Hera and Switch2 throughout. I have disputed this charge with Hera and Switch2 for over 6 months and I have already paid �481 of it. To this day both companies have not offered any resolution to my complaints. Now Hera has added the unexplained cost of �781 to my service charge without my permission which I am not sure where it comes from. It is on my account with only the description charges brought foward with no date next to it. I have emailed Hera many times to explain the cost and now they completely ignore me for several days and have yet to give me an explanation of this charge. My experience was as follows: I had no hot water from August 2015 and emailed Hera bout this. I thought that because the HIU is a property of the building and my flat was a leasehold flat Hera would pay for this repair. Hera in the summer 2015 asked Switch2 to send an engineer to look at my HIU without informing me they were coming to my flat. I missed the engineer and Hera charge me almost �200 for the missed visit. Only after complaining Hera withdrew the cost. From the beginning Hera had no control of the cost of the repairs done by Switch2 and Hera informed me they do not know how the cost of each repair was worked out by Switch2. In December 2015 I still had no hot water and Hera forwarded me on to Switch2. Hera refused to liaise with Switch2 on my behalf and I had to personally ring Switch2 for an engineer. The engineer came and fixed the hot water in 10 minutes by twisting a small metal needle that was stuck by limescale. After this appointment I had to chase Switch2 many times for the invoice but they refused to send me the invoice and told me to liaise with Hera, at the same time Hera told me to chase Switch2 myself. Hera took several months to come up with the invoice of that one short visit and it was almost �170 for ten minutes work. In Jan 2016 I had no heating. I had to call Swtich2 for an engineer as Hera by this time refused to contact Switch2 themselves. The same engineer came and was very rude. He leant on the cupboard door of the HIU unit and broke the hinge on my front door. He also stole 2 handtools that I placed next to the HIU and afterwards denied it and Hera has done nothing about this. He also made racist remarks to me throughout the visit and was quite rude. This engineer did not fix the HIU and said he needed to come back on a second visit with the replacement parts. In the next visit 2 engineers came and they came late after 5pm. They were supposed to come to my flat between 1-5pm. I had taken a day off work to wait for them and because they worked after 6pm they charged me overtime for the visit even though it was their fault that they were late. As a result I took a day off work for nothing. They told me the first engineer had failed to spot another leaking part of the HIU unit and they had to come in for a third visit with the replacement leaking part. Another engineer came to replace the leaking part in the next visit. The day after this visit I asked Switch2 to send an engineer back because the HIU unit was making a loud noise in the night. They sent an engineer who refused to inspect the unit. It was the same engineer who stole the handtools from my flat even though I asked Swtich2 to never send him again. The engineer stood at the door of my flat and refused to inspect the HIU and said the noise was normal and he left in 5 minutes. This visit Switch2 would later charge me almost �190 for this visit even though no work was done. In the spring of this year Hera rang me to tell me the total cost of the work done is ~�900 which was totally unreasonable. It should not have been this high because Switch2 should have spotted all the leaking parts in the first visit and not taken 2 visits to spot what was wrong with it. They took 3 visits to fix my HIU when it should have taken 2. The breakdown they sent me of this total was extremely unclear and the invoice did not even have Switch2's company logo on it which was suspicious. In the breakdown of the cost apparently they charged me for the engineer's traveling cost per hour, they charged overtime per hour when it was not my fault they were late for work, also rounded up the total amount of hours they worked. A lot of the time when they were in my flat they weren't working but talking on the mobile. I have sent letters and emails many times to explain the cost and to complain of Swtich2's poor service. But Hera has completely ignored my letters and now is adding unexplained charges onto my service charge. They have failed to do something about Switch2's poor service. Under my leasehold contract late payment of service charges will be charged interest but the repair cost HIU is still under dispute as they have not responded to my complaints. I already paid �481 which I worked out as the reasonable cost if there was no overtime labour charge because it was not my fault the engineers arrived at my flat late and extra visit the engineers required due to their incompetence.