The following letter was delivered to all residents of the Curnock Street Estate. It explains the heating and hot water problems and what they have done to address them.
Property Management
London Borough of Camden
Town Hall
Judd Street
LONDON
WCI H 9JE
Phone: 020 7974 4444
camden.gov.uk
Date: 05 March 2024
Email: john.brooks@camden.gov.uk
Dear resident,
Heating and hot water problems at Curnock
I’m sorry that your heating and hot water hasn’t been working well recently. I’m writing to explain what the problem was, what we’ve done and are doing about it, and how our heating and hot water compensation policy works.
What happened
Different problems all cropped up at the same time for the heating system at Curnock.
Some of the pumps in the system stopped working and an inverter falled too. On top of this, there were several leaks which let water out of the system and let air in, and the software that controls the hot water storage had a problem as well.
The heating & hot water system at Curnock covers a large area. This means it takes a while for it all to warm back up again after it’s been off. If the system is warming up at the same time as everybody needs to use lots of heating and hot water, it can take a few hours for everything to get back to the correct temperatures.
Because of this, even though some problems may affect just one or two blocks, they still caused knock-on Issues across the estate. This especially true because air got into the system and it can take some time to make sure all the air has been let back out.
What we’re doing
Our engineers are visiting Curnock multiple times every day to monitor the system and make sure it keeps working.
We have replaced part of the section of the system that controls hot water production, and we have installed a new pump and inverter.
We will continue to take reading and temperatures at the boilers and water storage ilnits twice every day, and we’Il tweak the flow rates as necessary to make sure that every home gets heating and hot water.
Your compensation for the outage
When someone’s heating and hot water aren’t working and we can’t get it fixed soon enough, our heat rebate and compensation policy kicks in. It works a bit differently for tenants and leaseholders because they pay for their heat differently.
Tenants who pay a flat rate for their heating & hot water can claim a full refund for the heat charges they paid while it wasn’t working. Leaseholders don’t need to claim a refund because their charges are based on the usage of the system -they get charged less if the system hasn’t been working.
If the outage lasts more than a few days, tenants and leaseholders are all entitled to claim a compensation payment for each day of the outage (this is on top of refunding tenants’ heat charges).
We’re processing the refunds and compensation payments automatically for the recent outages, and you do not need to make a claim. You’ll see this appear as a credit on your rent account (for tenants) or your service charges (for leaseholders). Different people might get different amounts of compensation depending on how long their heating and/or hot water weren’t working.
If you have any further problems with your heating and hot water, please report them to
Camden repairs team:
• By whatsApp or text message to 07360 277 909
• Over Live chat at camden.gov.uk/repairs
• lf you can’t get online, and can’t send text messages, you can call on 020 7974 4444
Yours faithfully
John Brooks
Mechanical Manager
Read the original document here: GEM Letter
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2024-01-20 – Award Winning Failures & Rent Increases This is how Camden Council is wasting public money
The letter from GEM proves that the council as well as GEM are not serious about the problems. Let me explain:
1. They stated: “Different problems all cropped up at the same time for the heating system at Curnock.”
If that is true then it is a clear demonstartion of bad workmanship and maintenance of the system.
2. They stated: “… there were several leaks which let water out of the system and let air in…”
They are aware of the rusty pipes and the parts of the system that were never replaced during the refurbishing but they have not done anything for that for years. When the heating was off during Christmas a few years ago, we asked them about the plans to repair/replace those pipes but nothing happened.
Also unauthorised alterations to flats had an effect to the system and GEM have admitted that in writing. Despite of this, camden council still allows alterations that affect the whole estate.
3. The compensation part is even more offensive to our residents. Many times in the past the heating was off for months and the leaseholders did get nothing. This time ALL blocks were affected and nobody had hot water. How can they claim that only some people have been affected?