People facing £30,000 bills for repairs to their former council flats have described the situation as a “nightmare”.

Letters were sent last year to leaseholders of homes in Bycullah Road, Enfield, telling them of planned renovations, but with no hint of cost or timeframe.

The work was then revealed in February to be £4 million work on 16 properties across the borough, with some of the cost on the tenants, ranging between £22,000 and £33,000 each.

Enfield Council say they signed a contract agreeing to pay for any essential maintenance work needed.

But the residents are planning to band together to take legal action.

Lenka Vacilukova, who lives in one of the flats with her husband Ales Vaciluk and their young children Vilem, five, and Vendy, two, said they had no idea they would be charged £32,500.

The 38-year-old, who works as a carer for people with learning disabilities, said: “This whole thing is a nightmare, they told us in the letters to start making provisions, but this has made a lot of people very angry.

“We cannot add the cost to our mortgage or take out another loan, everyone who lives in these old council flats are not wealthy, we are families, students, pensioners – how can we manage?

“It is like having to buy another home, it is a life-changing amount of money. It seems like they do not have a heart at all.”

Ms Vacilukova said she has been told the council plan to start work on May 9, and expect payment by December 2017 to give them time to get the money together.

However she said she and her husband could not find more work as they would have to use the money to pay for the care of their children, calling it a “Catch-22 situation”.

Mr Vaciluk said the council had held a meeting with the residents on April 20, which had seen a lot of arguments and not many answers.

He said: “The atmosphere at the meeting was very warm, people were upset from the very beginning.

“They have done nothing to these flats for decades, not they are lumping the costs on us because they need to fix everything.”

Their worries are shared by others living in Bycullah Road.

Harprit Lally moved in during July 2015, and was told major work was planned but no further details.

The 38-year-old NHS project manager said: “The meeting was abysmal, there were no microphones for 70 or 80 people, and the council had a very defensive attitude.

“They just said the cost was no reason to stop and they would go ahead as planned.

“The onus has been on us to find out what is going on, they say they don’t have to supply us with the feasibility reports, and maybe they should.

“It is incredibly distressing for people just trying to live within their means. The work might be necessary, but the costs are absurd.”

Ms Lally also said it was revealed at the meeting not all buildings were properly assessed – the roof of her block was only checked by looking from another property, as assessors could not gain access up there.

A spokesperson, who the council refused to name, said: “Leaseholders know when they purchase a property that they are financially responsible for repair and upgrade works to the blocks within which their properties reside.

“While we always seek to minimise the cost to leaseholders when works are carried out, we have a legal obligation to make sure that the properties we manage are well maintained and in a good state of repair, this benefits both leaseholders – who in the vast majority of cases will have bought their former council property at a significantly reduced rate - and council tenants.

“In this case we gave leaseholder almost a year’s notice that work was due to start and gave them a series of mechanisms through which they could contact us if they had questions.

"We are sorry that leaseholders do not think they have been communicated with clearly enough and we will continue to work with them throughout this process but we remain committed to improving our housing stock across Enfield for the benefit of the wider community.”