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Feuding Chelsea leasehold owners find a court-appointed managing agent makes all decisions

May 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Renukapic… and that includes suing their ex-managing agent, losing the case and passing on the £10,000 legal bill!

Lemmings unaccountably like to hurl themselves off the cliff-face into the abyss … and so, it seems, do Chelsea leasehold owners who cannot agree among themselves.

Years of wrangling mean that a rundown four-flat converted Victorian house just off the King’s Road is now being managed by a court-appointed managing agent. He has additional powers as the court-appointed receiver.

This is a mirror image opposite of the right to manage: the four leaseholders, three of whom are also the freeholders, cannot manage their own affairs so someone else is having to do so for them.

When neighbours cannot demonstrate a minimum ability to co-operate the result is years of argument, a neglected building, multiple LVT cases and … thousands of pounds wasted. In short, a disaster for all involved.

Each of the four leaseholders had until 5pm yesterday (Friday May 10) to pay £13,750 each for long overdue refurbishment works. They were also ordered to pay £2,500 each to pay the costs of a failed legal action by their managing agent, who had sued their ex-managing agent for release of service charge funds.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Leasehold Valuation Tribunal, News, Slider Posts

Been ripped off over leasehold insurance? Take your complaint to the secret ombudsman, says Peverel

April 16, 2013 by

JanetKimIlSungLKPUPDATE April 18 16.08: Peverel statement at end of article

A retirement leasehold resident disputing Kingsborough insurance commissions with Peverel has been told that she must take her dispute to an ombudsman, whose rulings are not published.

Joan Wade, who has lived at Grasmere Court in Worthing since 2003, was appalled to receive a letter from Peverel’s senior area manager on February 26 stating:

“I understand the matter of insurance commissions has already been considered by our complaints panel and you have been informed of their decision.  If you are unhappy with their decision the next stage in our complaints procedure is to write to the Housing Ombudsman.”

Alternatively, Joan and her neighbours could take their case to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal and – very publicly – dispute thousands of pounds of commission.

This is what Janet Entwistle, Peverel chief executive, and the venture capitalist owners of Peverel are very keen to avoid. She said in June last year in her AskJanet blog:

“Historically, some insurance commissions have been too high … With regard to your particular dilemma to take this to a tribunal, that really is something I want to stop.  We must look to try and resolve all matters constructively far earlier in the process so it doesn’t get to that.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Insurance scams, Leasehold Valuation Tribunal, News, Peverel Tagged With: ,

Supreme Court ruling on Daejan v Benson gives freeholders the whip-hand and is ‘a judgment that tenants might consider disappointing’

March 8, 2013 by
Philip Rainey, QC, represented ordinary leaseholders in a reputation-enhancing case

Philip Rainey, QC, represented ordinary leaseholders in a reputation-enhancing case

The lawyers representing the leaseholders in the Daejan v Benson Supreme Court case earlier this week have given their analysis of the case.

Philip Rainey, QC, and colleagues at Tanfield Chambers, represented leaseholders at Queens Mansions, Muswell Hill, in north London, who had not been properly consulted on £280,000 of major works.

The freeholder, Daejan, part of the Freshwater group, had not provided full details of one of the shortlisted contractors tendering for the works.

In a majority ruling earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled that the procedure for consulting the leaseholders was less the issue than the degree to which they suffered ‘prejudice’ as a result of the procedures not being carried out correctly.

“Consultation is a means to an end not an end in itself,” write the Tanfield barristers.

[Read more...]

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

Dennis Jackson and Plantation Wharf: Did it have to end like this?

February 28, 2013 by
Plantation Wharf, opposite Chelsea Harbour, has seen a series of poisonous forfeiture disputes. The latest involving Dennis Jackson came close to ending in utter disaster

Plantation Wharf, opposite Chelsea Harbour, has seen a series of poisonous forfeiture disputes. The latest involving Dennis Jackson came close to ending in utter disaster

COMMENT by Sebastian O’Kelly

SEBASTIAN-OKELLY--144x150Two days ago when the barrister Alexander Bastin successfully asked the judge at Wandsworth County Court to throw me out of his court – citing the Human Rights Act – the whole sorry saga of Dennis Jackson and Plantation Wharf reached a new low-point … although not one without an element of dark humour.

Bastin, representing the freeholder of Plantation Wharf, Cube Real Estate, has defeated Jackson at every turn to the point where the latter was facing homelessness and destitution. The hearing – with only two days to go before Jackson’s £800,000 flat could have been lost forever – was to request the lifting of the forfeit order granted on January 30.

So when Bastin suggested that the Human Rights Act was grounds for ejecting the “press”, to use his term, one can only assume he was cracking some sort of lawyerly joke. The only human rights at issue were those of Jackson himself, by whose invitation I, and Martin Boyd, my colleague at the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, had come to the court.

Jackson, 73, who was not legally represented, and a barrister for the Prudential, his mortgage lender, told the judge that they had no objection to our attending. But Bastin insisted and the judge – apologetically – ordered us out.

As a result, a closed court was convened to decide whether to take from Jackson every significant asset that he has, without the public having any right to be present.

Only in leasehold would such a thing be possible, one is tempted to conclude.

Having taken one bad decision – it should never be a minor matter to throw the public out of a court – Deputy District Judge Colquohoun sensibly lifted the forfeiture order returning the lease to Jackson as the Prudential agreed to pay off his outstanding debts.

The strain shows on the face of Dennis Jackson, 73, on Monday ... but at least Wandsworth County Court gave him back his home

The strain shows on the face of Dennis Jackson, 73, on Monday … but at least Wandsworth County Court gave him back his home

These are £76,086.20, and are wholly accounted for in legal costs. Jackson paid off the original disputed £7,548 service charges years ago.

Enormous though the legal costs are, the lawyers have appealed to the Upper Tribunal (Land Chamber) for more.

Jackson is desperately trying to sell his flat, where he has lived for 16 years, and what he walks away with is the open question.

At this point, it is worth re-capping on what has been going on at Plantation Wharf, a complex on the river at Battersea of 160 flats and 94 commercial premises that was built 18 years ago.

The neighbours include John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, who bought a £935,000 leasehold house in January, and Nigella Lawson, who has her TV studio kitchen there.

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

RICS rejects complaint against managing agent Benjamin Mire

February 7, 2013 by

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has decided not to pursue a complaint about a member, Benjamin Mire, who was criticised for failing to follow its “residential management code” at a recent Leasehold Valuation Tribunal.

An additional complaint concerning Benjamin Mire, of Trust Property Management Limited, was that Mire, a chartered surveyor, also sits on the LVT as a panel member. It is claimed that this is a potential conflict of interest.

At an LVT ruling in November 2012, Trust Property Management Limited, which manages the property interests of freeholder Lakeside Developments, was criticised with Lakeside for the management of Arthur Court, a two-storey site of four flats in Bournemouth.

[Read more...]

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

Pensioners lose leasehold right to manage application for the third time

January 12, 2013 by
Elim Court, in Plymouth has been asking for right to manage since June 2011. Several pensioners who began the action have since died

Elim Court, in Plymouth has been asking for right to manage since June 2011. Several pensioners who began the action have since died

Leasehold pensioners in Plymouth have failed for the third time to break free from London managing agent Joseph Gurvits, LKP was informed yesterday.

Elim Court’s third right to manage application in the past 18 months was thrown out at the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal owing to a mistake in the application.

The decision is a bitterly disappointing set-back for the pensioners, who have been struggling to achieve right to manage since June 2011. Within months of Gurvits’s associate Israel Moskovitz buying the freehold through Avon Freeholds, and Gurvits being appointed the property’s managing agent through Y and Y Management, Elim Court residents have sought to exercise their right to manage themselves.

Gurvits is better known to London leaseholders as the proprietor of the managing agents Eagerstates, which figures in numerous LVT rulings.

To achieve right to manage, the residents engaged the Right to Manage Federation, an RTM facilitator whose fees are paid for in the event of a successful RTM by commissions from the new incoming managing agent.

Justin Bates, landlord barrister

Justin Bates, landlord’s barrister

The case was heard on December 11, and Gurvits employed for the task barrister Justin Bates, who unsuccessfully represented the freeholder against pensioners in the controversial Oakland Court case in Worthing last April. In the House of Commons, Sir Peter Bottomley condemned the legal stratagems involved as “legal torture”.

The Elim Court case illustrates the considerable difficulties pensioners in retirement developments face when trying to exercise their right to manage in the face of a freeholder determined to resist it.

Some of the original members of the RTM company have died, others have gone into care, and some have changed their minds and withdrawn from the application.

[Read more...]

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

Furious LVT victor complains that managing agent also sits on the tribunal panel

December 14, 2012 by

BenjaminMireA pensioner who won £3,500 at a Leasehold Valuation Tribunal has made a formal complaint that Benjamin Mire, who runs a large property management company and was criticised in the case, also sits on the same local LVT as a panel member.

“This is a clear conflict of interest and affronts every notion of justice I have ever learned,” says Colin Dennard, 71, a retired international hotelier, from Bournemouth. “I felt most uncomfortable. It is clearly wrong to have to face someone who appears as a member of the tribunal panel at the very same LVT offices.”

Dennard, who managed Carlton Hotel in Cannes and the Meurice in Paris, has sent a detailed complaint to barrister Siobhan McGrath, the head of the LVT system.

The case, in which Dennard represented friends for no fee, is the second occasion when he has faced Mire, 52, of Trust Property Management Group plc, which manages the property interests of freeholder Lakeside Developments. Mire is a chartered surveyor, which is why he is qualified to sit on LVT panels.

In his first action against Mire in 2009, who again represented Lakeside Developments, Dennard successfully insisted that the case be heard by the London LVT because of Mire’s involvement as a panel member in the southern region. He received a confidential settlement.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Leasehold Valuation Tribunal, News Tagged With:

Answer to a parliamentary question about Leasehold Valuation Tribunals … 189 irrelevant documents

November 20, 2012 by

Yesterday in the Commons, Sir Peter Bottomley asked the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when he last met people connected with improving the operation of the law relating to leaseholder disputes and access to the Leaseholder Valuation Tribunal.

The reply civil servants supplied to Housing Minister Mark Prisk was an internet link to 189 irrelevant documents. LKP spent an hour wading through the dross to find that eight referred to 137 meetings attended by the Secretary of State.

But none of these meetings was linked to LVTs and leaseholder disputes, which is  the issue Sir Peter raised.

It seems even Parliament cannot cut through the public sector gloop to discover more about this incredibly powerful, expensive and virtually secret tribunal service.

Filed Under: Leasehold Valuation Tribunal, News

Pay first, argue later: Plantation Wharf shows how LVT’s £500 limit on legal costs can be bypassed

November 15, 2012 by

If you are in dispute with your freeholder over service charges (see Plantation Wharf case), pay the sum and fight the action retrospectively. Make sure that you are the applicant of the action, rather than the respondent.

The case of Dennis Jackson at Plantation Wharf raises the prospect of  freeholders seeking to circumvent the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal’s £500 limits on legal costs.

Since publishing the article, two leaseholders who own apartments worth several million pounds, have contacted LKP for advice on this issue.

Many leases do allow landlords to pass on their legal charges, but the LVT has the power to limit them being passed on as service charges provided leaseholders have reasonably brought a case and have been able to show that the charges have been unreasonably incurred.

What the Jackson case shows is that if a landlord – in this case a management company – is seeking recovery of a debt he may be able to claim legal costs as administrative charges under Schedule 11 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act. This would then circumvent the LVT’s ability to limit costs.

It is important not to withhold service charges for any reason to avoid this use of the law. Paying the service charge does not mean you accept liability to pay that amount – you must indicate that you do not accept the liability – and it can be challenged at the LVT retrospectively.

[Read more...]

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

Exclusive report: A look at the new rules for the LVT

October 12, 2012 by

LKP looks at some of the key points in the proposed new rules for the replacement to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT) which disappears next year. The LVT is to be reformed as part of a new “Property Chamber” (PC).

A change in the administrative rules may not sound very exciting but the proposals under consideration are the biggest changes seen at the LVT in the last 12 years. Most importantly these changes are ones that will worry many managing agents and landlords and be welcomed by may leaseholders.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) began taking over responsibility for the LVT from the Department of Communities last year. This move will be complete when the LVT is reformed as part of the new PC some time next year. The MoJ has recently finished consulting on the procedural rules for the proposed PC. This new body is intended to take over from six existing first tier property related tribunals, including the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Leasehold Valuation Tribunal

How semi-formal LVTs have become “legal torture” for leaseholders

September 14, 2012 by

Launching a Leasehold Valuation Tribunal action can be “quite daunting”, according to barrister Siobhan McGrath, who heads the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal service.

She made this admission in an interview in last month’s Channel 4 Dispatches documentary Property Nightmare: The Truth About Leasehold.

It is hardly a ringing commendation for the Tribunal system she oversees which is supposedly designed for use by lay applicants. The following statement on the web site of LEASE, the Leasehold Advisory Service, can often be entirely misleading:

“Proceedings at the LVT are semi-formal. Neither side is required to be represented by a barrister, solicitor or valuer, evidence is not given on oath and the usual court rules do not apply.”

The LVT itself then adds the even more misleading statement when describing its cases: “The proceedings are orderly, but informal”

Knowledge of the huge hurdles in bringing cases at the LVT will not come as news to regular readers of this site who recall examples such as the “legal torture” of pensioners at Oakland Court, in Worthing, or the disgraceful £30,000 legal bill for a simple right to manage application at Kingsmere, in Brighton. (Search Oakland Court and Kingsmere on this site.) [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leasehold Valuation Tribunal, News Tagged With:

How to handle your leasehold ‘right to manage’ – by a leading managing agent

September 14, 2012 by

Rob Plumb, CEO of HML Holdings, explains the dangers that lie within the Right to Manage process

Normally a written contract works well to keep an agreement in place because both parties to the contract want the same outcome.  “Right to Manage” isn’t a normal contract. It sounds, initially, so straight forward. RTM enables leaseholders to take over the management of their building without having to prove that their freehold landlord is at fault.  The process can, however, be fraught with complication and danger particularly if one party to it (the landlord) is less than enthusiastic or even uncooperative about it.  There are of course many examples of freeholders who have accepted RTM and have professionally managed the transfer of responsibilities but sadly there are many who have not.

One point worth establishing before you get started is whether or not you need to engage in in the Right to Manage process at all. If your objective is to simply change your managing agent check your lease and find out if it empowers you to change your manager with a simple vote in favour from the leaseholders.  You could avoid a good deal of time and expense if it does.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Leasehold Valuation Tribunal, RTM Tagged With:

Grant Shapps and Siobhan McGrath face TV cameras today

August 9, 2012 by

Grant Shapps

Today both Housing Minister Grant Shapps and Siobhan McGrath, the senior barrister who presides over the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal system, face the cameras as part of the Channel Four Dispatches documentary into leasehold.

The programme will be shown on August  20. A second Dispatches programme on retirement leasehold is also nearing completition, although it has not been scheduled a date for broadcast. The following week, August 27, has been suggested, however.

Both Leasehold Knowledge Partnership and Carlex have assisted the programmes, as has the Charter Quay Residents’ Association.

Coinciding with the August 20 documentary is the publication of the liberal centre think tank CentreForum’s study of leasehold. It urges an independent regulator for leasehold property management and reform of the LVTs, which are weighted in favour of well resourced landlords and their lawyers.

[Read more...]

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

Solicitors squabble in High Court, while leaseholders face a £30,000 right to manage legal bill

July 31, 2012 by

Solicitor Yashmin Mistry

Residents at the Kingsmere estate in Brighton, who have been left facing legal bills of £30,000 following a disastrous right to manage action, are being dragged into a squabble between rival firms of leasehold solicitors.

Last Thursday (July 26) Yashmin Mistry, the leasehold solicitor with JPC Law who acted for them, was the subject of a High Court action in London as her former employers, Brethertons, argued that she had broken her contract of employment when she left the company last year.

But Judge Richard Seymour upheld an application that the restrictive covenant in her contract of employment was too wide to prevent her, at JPC, from acting for clients who may have initially contacted her at Brethertons.

Brethertons has made other applications, but the case was adjourned until October.

Mistry was approached by the leaseholders at the Kingsmere estate when she was still employed at Brethertons, but she took on the case when she joined JPC Law.

As it became apparent that the freeholder, Anstone Properties, was going to contest the right to manage application, she instructed a barrister, which added to the costs, when the case came before the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal in February this year.

[Read more...]

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

Informed leaseholders increase LVT actions by 165 per cent

July 27, 2012 by

This is an informative article by Michael Lee of HML Shaw. The opinions in it are his own. LKP has strong – critical – views of the LVT process and the lacksadaisical quality of the written LVT rulings by some tribunal chairmen. The Ministry of Justice is undergoing consultations on improving the service, which will conclude in the autumn. The service will be  re-named the Property Chamber.

By Michael Lee
Managing Director
HML Shaw

The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT) is an accessible, informal, entirely independent and impartial tribunal service that deals with a wide variety of disputes including matters such as the liability to pay and reasonableness of service charges, insurance, the appointment of a property managing agent, lease variations and consultation requirements for major works. It is an expert tribunal with the panel applying their own knowledge and experience and acting judicially and fairly.

There are five regionally based LVT offices in England plus one for Wales. In England the offices and their percentage of the total national service charge disputes heard are: London (50.5 per cent), Southern (21.5 per cent), Northern (11.5 per cent), Eastern (11.5 per cent) and Midland (5 per cent).

The tribunal usually consists of a lawyer, who is often the chairman, and one or two surveyors. In order to make it accessible, proceedings are semi-formal with parties not having to be professionally represented. However, in cases involving substantial amounts of money with lawyers and experts, a traditional court practice is likely to be followed, although where surveyors/property managers are appointed or lessees represent themselves, a softer approach can be taken.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Leasehold Valuation Tribunal, Uncategorized Tagged With:
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