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ARMA-Q solves ARMA’s problems, not those of leasehold

May 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment

KeithHillSliderARMA-Q, the scheme to give ethical credibility to the Association of Residential Managing Agents, was given the blessing of the government and the leasehold establishment yesterday with a House of Lords launch.

Already the new ARMA-Q regulator Keith Hill (above), a former New Labour housing minister, has six cases of complaint to deal with “which I am going to get started on right away”.

Baroness Hanham, Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government, gave a cordial endorsement, saying that self-regulation was the government’s favoured solution to leasehold.

Leasehold tenure is going to increase and she was aware that, owing to different demographics and culture, there could be one or two problems with it (which is an odd way of seeing £1 million law cases, or pensioners facing a £30,000 legal bill because their “right to manage” has been thwarted).

She sang her boss’s praises for his amendment to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill that means managing agents will have to be members of an Ombudsman scheme.

This irrelevance was dreamed up to dump a crafty clause introduced by Baroness Gardner in the Lords, which would have paved the way to state regulation of managing agents – which has the unanimous support from all sides in the sector.

That is not to say that Mark Prisk, the housing minister, is deaf to leasehold issues – unlike his hapless predecessor – and another round-table of leaseholder insiders (with LKP in the naughty corner as an “observer”) will take place.

[Read more...]

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Stuff a leaseholder and win an iPad! The unpromising debut of ARMA-Q

May 14, 2013 by 5 Comments

StuffaleaseholderSliderTomorrow, May 15, ARMA-Q gets a formal unveiling at the House of Lords and the corporates of the property management world will herald this as a new dawn.

In fact, ARMA-Q was unveiled at the organisation’s annual conference last September, and that signified less bright “new dawn” than “same old racket”.

One of the sponsors was Energy Renewals. It offered attendees the chance to win a free iPad if they sign up for an appointment: that is, to provide a sales lead to sign over their apartment blocks for new gas and electricity supplies.

If they did so, there would be further er … what are politely called “incentive payments” of between £3,000 and £50,000 a year.

Large, corporate clients – such as the larger, national managing agents – could do better still with payments of £50,000 to £250,000.

And – as with insurance policies – the brilliant thing is that the leaseholders don’t have to be told anything about these payments and can be relied upon to keep paying up in blissful ignorance!

And this was at an ARMA annual conference entitled “Success in a Consumer Focused Future”!

Our original report on this can be read here

An anonymous ARMA member wrote to LKP: “How can ‘ARMA members lead the market through better regulation and how leaseholders will benefit from a revised set of professional standards’, if ARMA members go with the ‘bungs ‘r’ us’ boys?

“It smacks of hypocrisy and sends mixed messages to everyone attending the conference, or associated with ARMA. It shines a bad light on those of us who backed ARMA from day one, sound in the belief that not only would they ‘provide absolute assurance that choosing an ARMA member will mean reliable, professional and cutting edge service’, but that they would also bring our profession into the 21st century and establish a credible organisation that symbolises transparency and best business practice.”

It is worth recalling that ARMA has never, in its 21-year history, publicly expelled a single member.

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House of Lords launch for ARMA-Q on May 15

April 5, 2013 by

The ARMA-Q initiative is set for a House of Lords launch on May 15, with the following letter from ARMA chief executive Michelle Banks sent to invited stakeholders:

ARMA-Q

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Stuff the leaseholders and win an iPad – from one of the sponsors of ARMA-Q

September 28, 2012 by

Energy Renewals, which is sponsoring next month’s ARMA conference, is offering managing agents the chance to win a free iPad if they sign up for an appointment. That’s on top of incentive payments of between £3,000 and £50,000 a year if they offer up their blocks for new gas and electricity supplies.

Large, corporate clients – such as the larger, national managing agents – can do better still with payments of £50,000 to £250,000. And the brilliant thing is that the leaseholders don’t have to be told anything about these payments and can be relied upon to keep paying up in blissful ignorance.

Our original report on this can be read here

Now an anonymous ARMA member has written to LKP, indignant that Energy Renewals is one of the co-sponsors of ARMA’s conference “Success in a Consumer Focused Future”. The event will see the unveiling of ARMA-Q, the organisation’s ethical facelift, and the appointment of a regulator for the trade body.

[Read more...]

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ARMA-Q: a qualified welcome, but it is not a new dawn

September 21, 2012 by

COMMENT

The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership broadly welcomes the draft ARMA-Q initiative, which may help resolve the less poisonous disputes in blocks managed by ARMA members.

It has also made suggestions to improve it: first, to make the disciplinary procedures public, like ours; secondly, to strengthen the requirement to declare ‘conflicts of interest’ to leaseholders.

It cannot be disputed that managing agents should tell leaseholders that their company is owned by the freehold-owning landlord. Or, that a managing agent is employed predominantly by one freeholder. These would be bars to LKP accreditation but, unfortunately, they exist with some of the ARMA membership.

It is also worth emphasising that many property managers have no intention of joining ARMA, which they believe has been collusive in the abuses of leasehold. The most spectacular examples in monetary terms of over-charging have been the handiwork of ARMA members. Nottingham-based Walton and Allen, an LKP member, “resigned from ARMA membership in 2011 as it became evident that its council is controlled by those very managing agents whom leaseholders want removing from their buildings”.

Omertà, the Sicilian vow of silence, has been a part of ARMA’s unwritten code for far too long.

[Read more...]

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ARMA-Q: an ethical facelift for a flawed trade body

September 21, 2012 by

Next month the Association of Residential Managing Agents unveils its new ethical facelift ARMA-Q – having never, in its 21-year history, publicly expelled a single member. (See ARMA’s draft announcement pdf at the bottom of this article.)

There is to be a 10-point “consumer charter” to reassure leaseholders and an apparently independent regulatory chairman, assisted by a panel of perhaps 12 industry and lay members, who will accredit the 270 existing ARMA members and vet ones that apply to join.

In addition, the regulator will rule on disciplinary issues, imposing fines and costs and, ultimately, expelling offenders from the organization. It is not clear at this stage whether this process will be public, which would be the only means of making it effective.

At present, complaints about an ARMA member are addressed internally by the company concerned and then go on to whichever Ombudsman scheme the firm has signed up to. These rulings are not made public, and the cash settlements are trifling. They cannot be compared to the redress achievable in the civil courts, or LVTs.

ARMA-Q is stressing the independence of the regulator, who will nonetheless be appointed and paid for by the governing council of the trade body. The appointment will not be from within the sector but a “person of established professional standing preferably, but not essentially, with a strong public profile”. An “overwhelming 200 plus applications were received” after the job was advertised in the Sunday Times in June. [Read more...]

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ARMA-Q must expose managing agents’ ‘financial interests’

September 21, 2012 by

Robert Plumb
, chief executive of managing agents HML Holdings, which is accredited to LKP and is a member ARMA, considers ARMA-Q and the complexity of transparency for residential managing agents

Growing leaseholder empowerment and awareness combined with the immediacy of communications will inevitably mean that managing agents will require a thorough understanding of what it means to be truly transparent.  In leasehold there are many complex permutations of the relationship between landlords, their managing agents and their leaseholders. It is, of course, the leaseholders who actually pay the bills, but often landlords who take the decisions. Given the historically poor level of transparency and the variety and complexity of leasehold structures there is significant scope for misunderstanding. In fact put more harshly there is significant opportunity for a lack of transparency and the use of “smoke and mirrors”.

An understandable and fundamental principle that we should anticipate is that in the minds of leaseholders they should be able to trust the impartiality of their managing agent.  They would like to believe that the agent (whose fees they pay) will act in their best interests when deciding which supplier or contractor to use for their building.  In relying on their managing agent to select the best value for money supplier (and best of course is not always cheapest) they would naturally want the agent not to be compromised by the agents own financial interest in the transaction or in the supplier. One can’t help observing that the downward pressure on property managers’ fees that occurs in difficult economic times, such as we have had recently, has had the effect of keeping base management fees artificially low. This may well have contributed to agents having to look at other ways of making money in order to survive. It is these additional income streams in particular that require additional transparency.

[Read more...]

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Walton & Allen joins LKP and issues rallying cry to leaseholders

July 9, 2012 by

Nottingham-based Walton & Allen is a battle-scarred veteran of struggles where residents have wrested control from unwelcome landlords and their agents.

Leasehold Knowledge is delighted to welcome the company into the fold as an LKP accredited managing agent.

Walton & Allen was once a member of ARMA but has lost faith in that organisation.

“We are not afraid of ‘the establishment’ having resigned from ARMA membership in 2011 as it became evident that its Council is controlled by those very managing agents whom leaseholders want removing from their buildings,” said Walton & Allen. “We felt that this was an unworkable and conflicted situation.” [Read more...]

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First task for ARMA’s ethical panel: examine ARMA itself

June 18, 2012 by

The Association of Residential Managing Agents is seeking to brush up its act by appointing a chairman and members for the disciplinary panel of its “new self-regulatory regime”.

It was advertising the posts in yesterday’s Sunday Times.

This is an attempt by the trade body to regain credibility after its long years of silence when numerous LVTs made rulings against its own members.

No managing agent has ever publicly been expelled from the organisation, and it is unclear whether the new system, when it is unveiled, will keep disciplinary hearings confidential.

“The independent regulator would determine disciplinary cases brought before the panel,” says ARMA.

So here is a first complaint – against ARMA itself.

Why is the annual conference of this trade body being sponsored by an outfit called Energy Renewals, which is offering “ongoing admin payments” of up to £250,000 to managing agents?

These payments are rewards for spending other people’s money in the form of energy contracts and can go straight into the pockets of managing agents, or freeholders, without leaseholders knowing a thing about them.

Energy Renewals says that the payments would typically be between £3,000 and £50,000 a year.

Major corporate clients – presumably the largest national managing agents – can do better still with payments of £50,000 to £250,000.

Leaseholders would not have to be told anything about these payments.

How does this sort of sponsorship tally with ARMA’s enthusiasm “to make a difference to the lives of the thousands of people who live in leasehold flats by raising standards and promoting customer service”, as its advert in yesterday’s Sunday Times puts it?

 

Full story on Energy Renewal offer, Bungs ‘r’ Us, can be read here

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Bungs ‘r’ Us: £250,000 ‘incentive payments’ offered to managing agents

June 13, 2012 by

A company offering bungs to managing agents if they sign up for new gas and electricity supplies is being touted to … all the members of the Association of Residential Managing Agents!

An outfit called Energy Renewals is offering what it politely terms “incentive payments” of between £3,000 and £50,000 a year.

Major corporate clients – such as the larger, national managing agents – can do better still with payments of £50,000 to £250,000.

And the brilliant thing about it is that the leaseholders don’t have to be told anything about these payments and can be relied upon to keep paying up in blissful ignorance.

The incentives – which are rewards for spending other people’s money – can go straight into the pockets of managing agents, or freeholders.

[Read more...]

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Oop! No surprise why this word is causing ARMA difficulty

April 30, 2012 by

ARMA now supports transparency, regulation, good governance, ombudsman, open debate, protection of leaseholders’ interests etc etc … having for years benefited from the subscriptions of large companies which have loaded stealth charges, trousered sneaky commissions or awarded their own subsidiaries absurdly generous contracts. All paid for by ordinary leaseholders.

This has been upheld time and again at LVTs, which is why so few in the property industry, Parliament or the civil service are still persuaded by this organisation.

It is a fig-leaf that no longer covers the naughty bits.

FACT: No managing agent has ever publicly been expelled from ARMA.

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Government receives a full and frank message from LKP

March 27, 2012 by

Prompted by an invitation by Housing Minister Grant Shapps, three representatives of Leasehold Knowledge Partnership had a positive meeting with the Department of Communities and Local Government today.

The department was eager to learn more about LKP and its fast-growing accreditation scheme.

The meeting dwelt at length on the origins of LKP and why such an organization is necessary.

The department was reminded of the massive LVT settlements at prime London riverside developments, and strong criticisms of the freeholders who appoint themselves as managing agents, insurance brokers, CCTV providers and the rest.

The predatory charges at retirement developments that Carlex made into a national scandal were referred to and the department was reminded of the  London Assembly’s hard-hitting report Highly Charged.

Shapps is reportedly in touch with the LA and wants to meet for talks about this.

Developers are distancing themselves from the familiar offenders – big managing agents who were handed out vast numbers of leasehold units to manage during the boom years, and lost no opportunity to load service charges, insurance commissions and numerous other extras.

LKP made clear its views on the feeble codes of practice of trade bodies such as ARMA or RICS. The former has been particularly craven by declining to name a single managing agent who has been expelled from the organization over the past 10 years for malpractice – rather than simply for failing to pay its ARMA subs.

The consumer-driven approach of LKP was made clear.

It was accepted that LKP would be consulted along with the trade bodies in future discussions of leasehold issues.

The department argued that the record sums paid to London riverside leaseholders may indicate that the present system functions. But all the actions here have cost tens of thousands of pounds and have involved highly successful professional residents living in owner-occupied blocks.

The young homeowner, probably living in a block with many rental properties, is extremely vulnerable and most simply sell up and leave a block where rip-off practices prevail.

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Ombudsman for Peverel

January 20, 2012 by

20.01.12 NEW APPOINTMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

ARMA – the appointment of the new Chief Executive, Michelle Banks,  (current employment – Deputy Director, Development Management (Planning), equivalent to the previous Grade 6 or 7 civil servant in the DCLG), has been announced. It was recently announced that Peter Hinchliffe would take up the new role of Head of Peverel’s Governance and Regulation Group. He was the former Lead Ombudsman of the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Peter Hinchliffe – new Peverel figleaf?

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ARMA chief’s job description

January 14, 2012 by

This is a very telling excerpt from the job description of the new Chief Executive recently recruited to replace the retiring David Hewett. Important points are noted in red.  We will be looking closely at ARMA’s ability to impose discipline now that a new CE is taking up her post, having left DCLG.  On the basis that there is no legislation in place, and the various codes of practice are totally unenforceable, how is this discipline going to be effected and effective?  Firing Peverel or any other managing agent for losing many LVT’s damages ARMA’s revenue stream/bottom line – are they really going to do that?  We continue to doubt it, but will be looking out for any indication that their processes will become more robust in the future.  With less than 10% of the total number of managing agents signed up to this 40 year old organisation, what does this say about the remaining 90%? Why are they not convinced that paying the hefty fee to gain the ARMA logo and an electronic newsletter makes economic and business sense?

“ARMA’s Council is currently working on a five year plan and will expect the appointee to implement this subject to his or her input. The plan has the following stated objectives:

to maintain ARMA as “Fit for Purpose” so that its members may demonstrate Honesty, Competence and Professionalism;

to provide a competent Secretariat at suitable office premises with appropriate succession planning;

to maintain a sound financial base for the organisation;

to maintain a suitable Committee structure to control and promote the activities of ARMA

to provide suitable professional guidance to Members and the Public in the form of Guidance Notes and technical advice;

to ensure the continuance of the Annual Conference;

to maintain appropriate contact with other professional organisations including the IRPM

and to proactively increase membership of ARMA at all levels.

The expectation of the appointee can be split into five key elements:

proven capability of running an effective team that delivers to the members;

proven ability to run a business and all the facets thereof; technical knowledge within the residential leasehold sector – albeit supported by technical officers in place or to be appointed;

having extensive IT awareness to maximise the use of technology to further the aims of the organisation; and having the appropriate personal skills and attributes that will include:

- an eye for accuracy, detail and quality and the ability to deliver to timescales and within budgets

- ability to get on with and communicate effectively to people at all levels – well presented and personable – being a competent and confident public speaker

As to other more specific aspects of the role the appointee will have responsibility for, amongst things:

Business matters:

running an office including insurances, H&S, security, presentation and cost controls; staff management including legislative aspects, discipline, setting/agreeing, roles/tasks, monitoring; performance and team leadership and motivation; accounting including internal controls, bookkeeping, VAT, budgeting, financial, reporting and year-end accounts in conjunction with the auditors; ability to recognise business risks/liabilities and take appropriate action; and setting up / monitoring operational procedures for all relevant activities e.g. membership procedures, event bookings, etc.

Technical issues:

understand the leasehold management sector and all the key aspects thereof and an in-depth understanding of landlord and tenant legislation; have a working understanding of any other relevant legislation with the ability to identify implications for ARMA and the sector; understand and oversee the technical consultants’ activities and become involvedwhere appropriate with various legislative / regulatory issues; and oversee regulatory activities, in particular complaints, ombudsman,and the delivery of training, etc.

Public relations:

be fully aware of ARMA’s reputation and its promotion and protection; have a broad knowledge of all relevant marketing needs and activities and be able to oversee / implement annual and longer-term plans;  ability to write (or oversee the writing of) publications and other communications including booklets, guidance notes, articles, etc; act as editor of publications and other communications including booklets, guidance notes, articles, newsletters, annual report etc; have an understanding of the media, (including TV, radio, press, journals) and how to communicate therewith; be able to build worthwhile relationships with all stakeholders including government and other bodies, groups, and individuals; and know how to represent / communicate ARMA’s views to government.”

We have noted and published DCLG’s view about leasehold reform over the last couple of years – they have stated endlessly that no reform is necessary, they are maintaining a watching brief etc etc. So is the new DCLG incumbent going to turn that around and persuade Mr Shapps that action is required in the next few months?  Only time will tell.  We await an invitation to go and meet her and discuss the reality of the plight of many leaseholders across the UK.

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