A flat owner who spoke out against her £101,000 cladding repair bill has been trolled online by someone working for a government housing agency.
Twitter exchange saw 26-year-old Emily Boswell accused of “playing victim” and “blatant attention seeking” after she publicly spoke out about her involvement in the cladding controversy
The social media user used the name “@urbancritic”, and Miss Boswell did an online search to find out that they were working for Homes England.
Emilie Boswell (pictured) bought her first home in 2018, and had a fire safety report commissioned that stated it did not have any obvious evidence of cladding – but she has now received a £101k repair bill
Miss Boswell was accused online of ‘blatant attention seeking’ after speaking publicly about being caught up in the cladding scandal
It follows Emily Boswell doing several media interviews earlier this month – including with MailOnline Property – about getting invoiced for the fire safety repair works to her two-bedroom flat in Leeds Dock.
The email included an earth-shattering amount of £101,267.63, said to be for ‘external wall remediation 2021-22’.
Emily Boswell spoke out about the social media exchange and said she felt like she was being silenced.
She stated, “I’m trying not to be heard for speaking out against the injustices facing me and other leaseholders living in similar circumstances.”
The Twitter exchange continued with @urbancritic suggesting Miss Boswell was lucky’ to be receiving financial support from Government.
Emily explained to MailOnline Property that Emily was concerned about the sentiment expressed by those at Homes England, the department responsible for funding remediation work funding applications.
“It just shows that the Government doesn’t really understand this scandal.
‘I definitely do not feel “lucky” to have been mis-sold an unsafe flat, to have had to pay for interim safety measures for nearly two years, and to top it all off, to have been sent a bill of up to £101,000.
“The Government and Homes England seem not to have sympathy for innocent leaseholders such as myself, who are trapped in flammable properties, unable sell, unable afford remediation works for problems that they did not cause, and facing bankruptcy.
Emilie Boswell received an invoice for repairs for dangerous cladding and fire safety defects for a massive £101,267.63
After the Grenfell fire four years ago, the cladding issue became a scandal.
It exposed the problems with cladding buildings, and many homeowners have been left in unsafe houses that are nearly impossible to sell since lenders refuse to fund potential buyers.
To assist those affected, a national multi-billion-dollar Building Safety Fund was created. This fund applies to all buildings above 18m high.
Miss Boswell explained that she was told that we don’t need to pay the money right now – as though we were in a position to do so anyway – because we are still submitting our Building Safety Fund application.
“But it had been added to our service charges bill for the next year in case of no funding.” We know that brickwork and tiling without fire breaks below are not eligible for funding. Our balconies are also not eligible.
Homes England advertises online as the “government agency that is changing the way England’s housing market functions.” To do this we build better homes faster…’
A spokesperson for Homes England said: ‘We fully recognise the seriousness of this matter. After an investigation, we have terminated the agency worker’s contract.
Miss Boswell was also accused by Twitter of being a victim during the Twitter exchange
How the trolling timeline unfolded
Emily Boswell was accused by some of being ‘lucky that the Government is helping her to pay her Cladding Bill’
Following the media attention about her £101,000 fire safety bill, Emily tweeted Baroness Katherine Pinnock to say thank you for mentioned her case in the House of Lords.
Soon, Emily was being trolled by @urbancritic on Twitter. This labeled her as ‘attention seeking’.
Emily was suspicious that the person who sent the tweet had knowledge of her building’s circumstances and she decided to engage. The account accused Emily of being a victim during the Twitter exchange.
The account continued tweeting Emily, with one tweet suggesting they had something to say about her case. It showed a digital version the print-out letters that were sent to leaseholders prior to their bill being emailed.
Emily said that she had spoken to all of the leaseholders and found that there was no digital version sent to them. They only received printed copies. The digital version of the letter was titled ‘Mackenzie House budget_sld’ by a social media user, which suggests that they may have been involved in the case.
@urbancritic sent a digital version to leaseholders with the title ‘Mackenzie House Budget_sld.’