A PENSIONER from Worcester has won a decade-long battle with her ‘dictator’ landlord over service charges for an aerial point she never wanted.

The 71-year-old woman who lives in Dines Green intends to use the £130 refunded to her after her her tribunal win to buy running shoes for the London Marathon.

The row erupted in 2006 when Worcester Community Housing, now Fortis Living, told residents in her maisonette that a new communal aerial connection would have to be installed because of the digital switchover.

She did not see the need for an aerial connection as she had a TV with a digital tuner built into it and was served by a perfectly good signal.

The pensioner, who does not want to be named, kept paying her rent but refused to pay the service charges for the connection.

Her refusal to pay the charge which included another charge for grass cutting forced her into arrears of £511.51 plus costs of £100.

Ultimately a possession order for the property was suspended on condition she pay arrears at £3.60 per week for the service charge following a county court ruling against her in January 2014.

However, a tribunal has now found in her favour following a hearing at Worcester Magistrates Court this month.

The county court had already said Worcester Community Housing had the right to impose the charges so the tribunal was based on the reasonableness of the charge after January 8, 2014. The ruling means not only will she have her money refunded but she will not have to pay the charge in future.

The report said: “Unfortunately, the respondent (Worcester Community Housing) failed to address the issue of whether the aerial service charge was reasonably incurred in its written submissions or skeleton arguments presented to the tribunal.

“The only arguments presented by the respondent were that the charge benefits every other property in their housing stock, and it would be unworkable not to charge everyone. It is difficult to see how it is fair to the applicant that she should have to contribute to everyone else’s service so that they benefit, when she does not use the service.”

The tribunal did not consider it reasonable to impose an obligation on an unwilling tenant to pay a proportion of the cost of what they termed ‘non-essential services’. The tribunal decided the service charge should not have been levied from January 8, 2014 until the present date, an amount totalling £130.65.

A spokesman for Fortis Living said: “We will be complying with the court ruling.”