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Charter Quay tops £500,000 after latest win over ‘rent for common areas’

May 25, 2012 by

The amount of money recovered by the Charter Quay residents has this week passed more than half a million pounds in cash.

The bulk of this came from actions against companies owned by the Tchenguiz Family Trust.

In the latest (and last) case more than £90,000 has been recovered from the landlord with the help of the court-appointed managing agent HML Andertons.

The action, which has taken nearly a year, was to recover “rent for common areas”. In each of the years 2005 to 2009 the landlord had charged residents for “renting” the reception area, gym and the management suite, although there is nothing the leases allowing them to do this.

Another £90,000 at Charter Quay, in Kingston, Surrey,
follows last year’s damning LVT ruling.

The residents claim that the managing director for the landlord’s managing agent, Michael Gaston, of Estate and Management Ltd, also owned by the Tchenguiz Family Trust, admitted as long ago as November 2010 that it had no right to collect this money.

Estates and Management Ltd have settled just before HML Andertons submitted an application for summary judgment. The landlord has also accepted he has no right to collect these “rents” in future, which will now save each flat a further £70 every year.

The residents have fought four actions against the landlords in a protracted four-year-fight. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Charter Quay, Leasehold Valuation Tribunal, News Tagged With: , , ,

Dud paperwork, no payment necessary

May 25, 2012 by

Demands for ground rents and service charges must have the landlord’s address, following a ruling by the Lands tribunal earlier this month. That of the managing agent alone is not sufficient.

The case went to the Land Tribunal after landlords Beitov Properties Limited were pursuing service charges from a tenant, Elliston Bentley Martin, in Enfield, north London, who had not even turned up at the LVT.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Leasehold Valuation Tribunal, News Tagged With: , , ,

Leasehold Advisory Service: ‘Lawyers here won’t even speak to me, because I cannot afford their fees’

May 19, 2012 by
An emotional Julian Shersby, who lost £44,000 in an LVT action, tells the Leasehold Advisory Service conference it is failing ordinary leaseholders

In the last ten minutes the Leasehold Advisory Service annual conference burst into life this afternoon when a furious delegate grabbed the microphone and said the quango was failing to represent the interests of ordinary leaseholders.

“I see around me here landlords and managing agents and lots of lawyers who won’t even speak to me because I cannot afford their fees,” Julian Shersby, 49, told the conference.

“The Leasehold Advisory Service is failing to fulfill its parliamentary mandate by excluding leaseholders. It should be even-handed and defending their interests. Instead, it has organized an event purely to the benefit of landlords.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: LEASE, News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Pensioners in £137,000 victory

May 17, 2012 by

Leasehold residents wrongly charged for warden’s flat … dating back to 1986!

Landmark victory at Oakland Court, in Worthing, means notional rent for a warden’s flat cannot be paid out of service charges

 

In a landmark case, 40 elderly leaseholders have won an epic battle against paying for the notional rent of their warden’s flat through the service charge.

Since 1986 this has cost the residents in Worthing, Sussex, £137.000.

The battle was fought in the face of repeated delaying tactics by their landlord, the Oakland Pension Fund, which challenged whether the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal should hear the case.

This form of delay is difficult in the civil courts, which is where this case is now headed unless the leaseholders get their money back.

But they are permitted with LVTs, which were set up to provide supposedly low-cost, simple tribunals to resolve leasehold disputes.

John Fenwick, who led the residents

“It is a fantastic victory,” said John Fenwick, 65, a former law firm employee who led the action. “Eight of our members are in their 90s, 13 in their eighties, 12 in their seventies and six in their sixties.”

The case has huge implications for other leaseholders who are being charged for the notional rent of their house manager’s flat, even though this is not mentioned in the lease.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Carlex, News, Oakland Court Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

St George’s under new management

May 16, 2012 by

After the £1 million fiasco at St George Wharf, new managing agent wins an award!

Last September, the Berkeley Group paid out £1 million to residents at the landmark St George Wharf (left), in Vauxhall, who had complained of loaded service charges, inter-company contracts and inflated insurance contracts.

Nine months on, the new managing agent Rendall and Rittner wins the Property Week Resi Award for “property manager of the year” at a black tie dinner in central London last night.

Many congratulations to them, for having cleaned out those particularly whiffy augean stables … and commiserations to LKP-accredited managing agent JJ Homes, who made the short-list.

Filed Under: News, Peverel, St George's Wharf Tagged With: , , ,

Peverel: a lot of resigning

May 11, 2012 by

Are changes afoot at Peverel, with managing directors Lee Middleburgh and retirement MD Keith Edgar off for a spot of gardening leave?

Not according to the company spokesman who tells LKP: “Lee Middleburgh is group managing director of Peverel Property Management and Keith Edgar is managing director of Peverel Retirement.”

All’s fine then, but there has been quite a bit of activity recently, with Lee resigning from the directorship of 15 companies on May 2, with Keith laying down the burden of a whopping 49.

Lee Middleburgh

Lee resigned from the following on May 2:

PEVEREL HMF LIMITED
PEVEREL INVESTMENT PROPERTIES LIMITED
FLATLAUNCH LIMITED
PEVEREL RETIREMENT LIMITED
R.C. (HOLDINGS) LIMITED
CONSORT PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LIMITED
SONATA INSURANCE SERVICES LIMITED
PEMBERTONS MAINTENANCE TRUSTEES (ALDFORD HOUSE) LIMITED
RETIREMENT HOMESEARCH LIMITED
PEVEREL SCOTLAND LIMITED
CARELINE UK MONITORING LIMITED
INSTANT FIRE PROTECTION LIMITED
PEVEREL OPERATIONS PD LIMITED
PEVEREL BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED
PEVEREL MANAGEMENT SERVICES LIMITED

He had resigned from  EMPLOYCASTLE LIMITED on March 20 this year, and the Tchenguiz vehicle FAIRHOLD FREEHOLDS NO.2 LIMITED on October  25 last year.

Keith Edgar

Keith Edgar has been even busier with his resignation letters. On May 2 he laid down the burden of the following directorships:

EDGEWOOD RETIREMENT DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED
RETIREMENT MARKETING SERVICES LIMITED
EDGEWOOD MANAGEMENT SERVICES LIMITED
FERNDALE RETIREMENT MANAGEMENT LIMITED
APPELLO TELEHEALTH LIMITED
PEVEREL SECRETARIAL LIMITED
FLATLAUNCH LIMITED
R.C. (HOLDINGS) LIMITED
CONSORT PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LIMITED
SONATA INSURANCE SERVICES LIMITED
PEMBERTONS MAINTENANCE TRUSTEES (ALDFORD HOUSE) LIMITED
CIRRUS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS LIMITED
OM PROPERTY MANAGEMENT NO 2 LIMITED
OM PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LIMITED
CARELINE UK MONITORING LIMITED
INSTANT FIRE PROTECTION LIMITED
PEVEREL BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED
PEMBERTONS RESIDENTIAL LIMITED
RETIREMENT CARE (MIDLANDS) LIMITED
PEGASUS COURT MANAGEMENT LIMITED
PEGASUS COURT (BOURTON-ON-THE-WATER) MANAGEMENT LIMITED
PEGASUS COURT HARTLEY WINTNEY (MANAGEMENT) LIMITED
BROOK FARM COURT MANAGEMENT LIMITED
PROXIMA PROPERTY INVESTMENTS LIMITED
PEGASUS COURT CHELTENHAM (MANAGEMENT) LIMITED
MERIDIAN NEW HOMES LIMITED
CAVENDISH MANAGEMENT (NORWICH) LIMITED
PEGASUS COURT (PAIGNTON) MANAGEMENT LIMITED
MACLAREN MANAGEMENT SERVICES LIMITED
MERIDIAN HOMES LIMITED
PEGASUS COURT (BROADWAY) MANAGEMENT LIMITED
PEGASUS COURT (BARNWOOD) MANAGEMENT LIMITED
BALFOUR HOMES MANAGEMENT LIMITED
PEGASUS THAMESNORTH MANAGEMENT LIMITED
PEVEREL INVESTMENT PROPERTIES LIMITED
MATTERDALE GARDENS MANAGEMENT LIMITED
PEVEREL PROPERTY SERVICES LIMITED
RETIREMENT CARE (SOUTHERN) INVESTMENTS LIMITED
PEGASUS COURT (ABERGAVENNY) MANAGEMENT LIMITED
PROXIMA INVESTMENTS
RENAISSANCE MANAGEMENT SERVICES LIMITED
KING GEORGE COURT MANAGEMENT LIMITED
RETIREMENT CARE (SOUTHERN) LIMITED
PEGASUS COURT (FLEET) MANAGEMENT LIMITED
MERIDIAN PROPERTY GROUP LIMITED
MERIDIAN RETIREMENT HOMES LIMITED
MERIDIAN RETIREMENT HOUSING SERVICES LIMITED
RETIREMENT CARE (BH) LIMITED
RETIREMENT CARE LIMITED

He resigned from EMPLOYCASTLE LIMITED    on March 20, and from KINGSBOROUGH INSURANCE SERVICES LIMITED February 8 this year and
BALFOUR FREEHOLDS LIMITED on February 2.

He also resigned as a director of the ASSOCIATION OF RETIREMENT HOUSING MANAGERS on February 16 last year.

Filed Under: News, Peverel

Premier joins as LKP tops 20,000 site visits

May 5, 2012 by

Premier Block Management, run by Simon Goodkind, and based in Elstree, Herts, is the latest managing agent to sign up to LKP, which this week topped 20,000 site visitors since December.

A huge welcome to Simon and his team, who run sites from London down to the south coast. LKP would like to offer a warm welcome to Simon and his team.

Premier’s page on LKPcan be seen here

 

Filed Under: News

Esther Rantzen speaks at ARHM

May 5, 2012 by

Carlex questions whether Esther Rantzen should be ARHM guest speaker

The Carlex campaign is openly questioning why Esther Rantzen is the guest speaker at the annual jamboree of the Association of Retirement Housing Managers, where Peverel manages 65,000 of the 105,000 units under the members’ management.

Retirement management is the most controversial area of block property management. You can read more here

Filed Under: ARHM, Carlex, News, Peverel Tagged With: ,

Attack on OFT over exit fees

May 4, 2012 by

Hanover housing association, which manages 17,000 retirement properties, attacks Office of Fair Trading for its bungling three-year investigation into exit fees

 

OFT: Fancy logo and generous budget,
but what does it actually do?

The Hanover Housing Association, which manages 19,000 retirement properties, has issued a devastating criticism of the Office of Fair Trading for its bungling investigation into exit fees.

The transfer fees that leaseholders pay when retirement properties are bought and sold has been under OFT scrutiny since 2009. It is still unresolved whether the charges comply with the consumer protection regulations, or not.

“We wanted this tested in court, but the OFT didn’t want to do this,” said Hanover’s chief executive Bruce Moore.

“This leaves an important area of the investigation unresolved.”

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Exit fees, News Tagged With: , , , , ,

Redrow boss Steve Morgan talks to LKP

May 3, 2012 by

Redrow’s One Commerci Street

It was back to the boom days last night for a champagne reception at the top of the Gherkin tower in the City. The event was hosted by Steve Morgan, legendary founder of Redrow, who was launching his exclusive ONE Commercial Street just to the east of the City.

The apartments are to be managed by Rendall and Rittner, which manages 27,000 units and raises £70 million a year in service charges.

Morgan was happy to give LKP a tour of his new scheme and we discussed the issue of property management, which is not traditionally high on a developer’s agenda.

“After we have sold the units developers don’t usually think much about it, although it obviously carries reputational risk if things go wrong,” he said.

He was interested to hear of LKP’s meetings with other housebuilders and its passion to get a consumer-oriented approach into property management, as well as LKP’s accreditation process.

In other words: straight dealing, transparency and not having a laugh with stealth charges and sneaky commissions. England and Wales offer uniquely rich pickings here because, alone in the world, they retain leasehold tenure, which puts homeowners – or tenants, as leaseholders are in law – in a permanent position of vulnerability.

There were plenty of Far Eastern potential buyers at last night’s do, and estate agents will admit that it is a hurdle to get them to lay down £1 million plus for an apartment and then be told that they are just tenants. They go along with it in London because they have a general faith in English law and realise it is the local way of doing things.

But they don’t like it at all, and they would like it a good deal less if they were aware of the scandals surrounding the property management of high-end London sites, as revealed in LVT rulings.

LKP suggested to Rob Perrins, MD of Berkeley Homes, that buyers at its new site in Kensington High Street would probably be only too happy to pay a little more for commonhold – if it meant avoiding the time-consuming hassles with property management and the freeholder experienced by residents at St George’s Wharf or Chelsea Bridge Wharf.

It is a new departure for Redrow to build luxury flats in London, and another large scheme is being built at Kingston, in Surrey.

LKP has discussed the issue of leasehold management with the chief executives of Berkeley Homes, Barratt, Persimmon and Bellway.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , , , , ,

Meeting with Bruton Street Management

May 2, 2012 by

A full and frank discussion this morning with Andrew Kafkaris, of Bruton Street Management, who provided evidence for Baroness Gardner at last week’s House of Lords debate. Understandably Richard, who used to be the RA chairman at Millbank Court, in Pimlico – which he now manages – has strong views about leaseholders being aware of what they have signed up to rather than complaining that it is all so unfair afterwards. He has interesting views on how the RTM process could be improved, as well as the expensive and convoluted LVT process. Hopefully, Bruton Street Management will become accredited to LKP in due course, and we will shortly be publishing his article.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: ,