A pensioner is withholding part of his rent in protest against “ridiculous” charges for his block of flats – including a maintenance fee for a lift that doesn’t exist.

Brian Proctor, 75, claims he and 28 other residents of Ferncliffe Court, Saltaire, have spent a total of £1,500 in a year on charges for the non-existent lift.

He has now threatened to pay Incommunities £2 a week less in rent and charges until the housing provider has sorted out the issue.

Mr Proctor said: “There are folk who live here who are 90-odd and they have no idea what they are paying for along with their rent.

“A lot of them are getting it paid through benefits, but that’s not the point. It is ridiculous that they are paying £1 a week for lift charges. We have no lift in here at all. There has never been a lift in here.”

He added: “Incommunities just seem to be picking figures for these charges out of thin air.”

Mr Proctor contacted the Telegraph & Argus echoing concerns raised by Incommunities tenant Jean Pearson, 64, of Dewhirst Close, Baildon.

As we reported on Monday, she has called for a district-wide review of service charges after it emerged she was paying for services she did not receive.

Incommunities runs 21,000 properties across Bradford district.

Mr Proctor said he complained to the housing provider because he was notified of a hike in service charges from £38.50 per week to £55.10, with no breakdown of what the rise would cover.

He said he was told by Incommunities his problem would be sorted out, but has still not heard anything a fortnight later.

Mr Proctor, a grandfather of nine, said: “I have had no satisfaction, so I am paying £2 a week less. I thought if I pay them less, they might get in touch.”

An Incommunities spokesperson said: “Mr Proctor should not have had a service charge of 95p per week for a lift and we apologise for this error. We are notifying all customers at Ferncliffe Court who are affected by this error that their accounts are being credited accordingly.”

Adrienne Reid, assistant chief executive of Neighbourhood Services, said: “In February 2010, we wrote to more than 22,000 customers to outline what services they contributed towards as part of their rent account with us.

“This followed an extensive exercise to ensure that charges reflected the actual services people received. It’s the first time we’ve done this, and in the main people have welcomed the details about what they are paying for.

“Inevitably, given the project’s scale, there has been errors over individual service charges and I would like to thank customers who have raised these with us.”

Anyone with a service charge inquiry should ring the Income Team on (01274) 254777.