• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Before Header

  • Home
  • What is LKP
  • Find everything …
  • Contact
Donate

Leasehold Knowledge Management Logo

Secretariat of the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold reform

Mobile Menu

  • Home
  • What is LKP
  • Find everything …
  • Contact
  • Advice
  • News
    • Find everything …
    • About Peverel group
    • APPG
    • ARMA
    • Bellway
    • Benjamin Mire
    • Brixton Hill Court
    • Canary Riverside
    • Charter Quay
    • Chelsea Bridge Wharf
    • Cladding scandal
    • Competition and Markets Authority / OFT
    • Commonhold
    • Communities Select Committee
    • Conveyancing Association
    • Countrywide
    • MHCLG
    • E&J Capital Partners
    • Exit fees
    • FirstPort
    • Fleecehold
    • Forfeiture
    • FPRA
    • Gleeson Homes
    • Ground rent scandal
    • Hanover
    • House managers flat
    • House of Lords
    • Housing associations
    • Informal lease extension
    • Insurance
    • IRPM
    • JB Leitch
    • Jim Fitzpatrick MP
    • John Christodoulou
    • Justin Bates
    • Justin Madders MP
    • Law Commission
    • LEASE
    • Liam Spender
    • Local authority leasehold
    • London Assembly
    • Louie Burns
    • Martin Paine
    • McCarthy and Stone
    • Moskovitz / Gurvits
    • Mulberry Mews
    • National Leasehold Campaign
    • Oakland Court
    • Park Homes
    • Parliament
    • Persimmon
    • Peverel
    • Philip Rainey QC
    • Plantation Wharf
    • Press
    • Property tribunal
    • Prostitutes
    • Quadrangle House
    • Redrow
    • Retirement
    • Richard Davidoff
    • RICS
    • Right To Manage Federation
    • Roger Southam
    • Rooftop development
    • RTM
    • Sean Powell
    • SFO
    • Shared ownership
    • Sinclair Gardens Investments
    • Sir Ed Davey
    • Sir Peter Bottomley
    • St George’s Wharf
    • Subletting
    • Taylor Wimpey
    • Tchenguiz
    • Warwick Estates
    • West India Quay
    • William Waldorf Astor
    • Windrush Court
  • Parliament
  • Accreditation
  • [Custom]
Menu
  • Advice
  • News
      • Find everything …
      • About Peverel group
      • APPG
      • ARMA
      • Bellway
      • Benjamin Mire
      • Brixton Hill Court
      • Canary Riverside
      • Charter Quay
      • Chelsea Bridge Wharf
      • Cladding scandal
      • Competition and Markets Authority / OFT
      • Commonhold
      • Communities Select Committee
      • Conveyancing Association
      • Countrywide
      • MHCLG
      • E&J Capital Partners
      • Exit fees
      • FirstPort
      • Fleecehold
      • Forfeiture
      • FPRA
      • Gleeson Homes
      • Ground rent scandal
      • Hanover
      • House managers flat
      • House of Lords
      • Housing associations
      • Informal lease extension
      • Insurance
      • IRPM
      • JB Leitch
      • Jim Fitzpatrick MP
      • John Christodoulou
      • Justin Bates
      • Justin Madders MP
      • Law Commission
      • LEASE
      • Liam Spender
      • Local authority leasehold
      • London Assembly
      • Louie Burns
      • Martin Paine
      • McCarthy and Stone
      • Moskovitz / Gurvits
      • Mulberry Mews
      • National Leasehold Campaign
      • Oakland Court
      • Park Homes
      • Parliament
      • Persimmon
      • Peverel
      • Philip Rainey QC
      • Plantation Wharf
      • Press
      • Property tribunal
      • Prostitutes
      • Quadrangle House
      • Redrow
      • Retirement
      • Richard Davidoff
      • RICS
      • Right To Manage Federation
      • Roger Southam
      • Rooftop development
      • RTM
      • Sean Powell
      • SFO
      • Shared ownership
      • Sinclair Gardens Investments
      • Sir Ed Davey
      • Sir Peter Bottomley
      • St George’s Wharf
      • Subletting
      • Taylor Wimpey
      • Tchenguiz
      • Warwick Estates
      • West India Quay
      • William Waldorf Astor
      • Windrush Court
  • Parliament
  • Accreditation
You are here: Home / News / Appeal to Robert Jenrick: Islington Gates faces evacuation if cladding bills not paid on April 1

Appeal to Robert Jenrick: Islington Gates faces evacuation if cladding bills not paid on April 1

March 22, 2020 //  by Sebastian O'Kelly

On average £10,000 each. With same again in June. And next year the same.

Property manager Savills quits on April 6

Directors issue plea for help to Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick, but are ‘considering resigning on mass’

Some leaseholders down with Covid-19 and face uncertain futures over jobs

Islington Gates, in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, is facing meltdown: £8 million cladding bills; no property manager; bills averaging £10,000 each leaseholder on April 1; RMC directors – rightly – considering resignation; evacuation if the site is left uninsured. On top of which … some leaseholders are in lockdown owing to Covid-19 and many are facing uncertain future employment.

Leaseholders at self-governing Islington Gates in Birmingham face evacuation if directors resign and £10,000 each cladding bills are not paid on April 1.

In addition, property manager Savills has told the directors of the residents’ management company that it is quitting and leaves on April 6 – sooner than its three month notice period, for which LKP is informed it is paying a consideration to the RMC.

Islington Gates, which has 141 apartments and four commercial units, faces cladding remediation bills that leaseholders have been told will amount to £8.2 million.

BrumLAG is the cladding group set up to help leaseholders caught up in the cladding scandal in Birmingham

Testimonials

Jim and Katie downsized to their flat in Birmingham a number of years ago. They used the money they made from their previous house sale, to support one of their sons move into the same building. Now they are faced with trying to find crippling service charge fees to fund waking watches, and remove and replace cladding on their building.

The RMC directors today have written to Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick:

“If we don’t collect this money, remedial works cannot start. If we haven’t started remedial works by November 2020 we will lose our insurance cover. If we lose our insurance cover our mortgages will be in default and we will lose our homes.”

A building with no insurance in these circumstances would almost certainly be evacuated.

The cladding disaster has seen insurance costs rise from £36,379 to £191,681.

With many flats in Islington Gates in lockdown owing to Corvid-19, and leaseholders facing uncertain future employment prospects, the position could not be more bleak.

In presenting the service charge demand, Savills says:

“A budget of £3,000,000 has been entered which will go towards the major fire safety works which is required at Islington Gates. It is important to note that this amount will not be for the full and final cost for these works. [LKP emphasis]“

The payment demand for April 1 will be repeated in June, with two more similar sized demands next year.

Savills adds:

“On average, leaseholders will be paying £10,345 per 6-month charge towards the 3 million budget. However, what you will pay as an individual property owner will depend on the size of your property compared to others on the development, this is in line with the lease.”

Islington Gates face disaster over cladding bills

Brian Simpson, an RMC director and the owner of a £400,000 flat at Islington Gates, which was built in 2006, said:

“I’ll be paying £37,375.68 this year and probably the same or more next year. A minimum of £75K. And even then that might not be the end of it: we haven’t even gone to tender yet.

“And this doesn’t include what we’ve already paid out on waking watch and similar.”

Waking watch is itemised as costing £134,000 by Savills for 2020.

Flats at the site range in value from £150,000 to £500,000.

A further massive concern is that the six directors at the site have had their directors and officers insurance cover withdrawn and cannot obtain an alternative.

One has to question whether the RCM directors could – or should – actually continue in these circumstances. An alternative would be to ask for a section 24 court appointed manager as a matter of urgency and suspend the RCM.

The directors are informing Mr Jenrick that they are “considering resigning on mass”.

Two weeks ago Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that £1 billion would be made available to remediate apartment blocks caught up in the cladding scandal.

Related posts:

Mike Amesbury: Young, highly mortgaged, often shared owners, with now uncertain employment … are facing homelessness and ruin over cladding cladding scandal Covid-19Cladding remediation to restart despite pandemic Robert Jenrick £1 billion claddingCladding leaseholders rejoice after Robert Jenrick secures £1bn in Budget … on top of £400m already pledged Cladding victims unimpressed by Robert Jenrick on BBC1’s Question Time Top civil servant warns Robert Jenrick over £1bn cladding bailout … promises post-Grenfell blame game won’t happen again

Category: Cladding scandal, Latest News, NewsTag: Cladding scandal, Covid-19, Islington Gates, Robert Jenrick, Savills, Waking watch contracts

Latest Tweets

Tweets by @LKPleasehold

Mentions

Anthony Essien (34) APPG (37) ARMA (87) Bellway (30) Benjamin Mire (32) Cladding scandal (71) Clive Betts MP (31) CMA (45) Commonhold (52) Competition and Markets Authority (41) Countryside Properties plc (33) FirstPort (42) Grenfell cladding (56) Ground rents (54) Harry Scoffin (150) James Brokenshire MP (31) Jim Fitzpatrick (35) Jim Fitzpatrick MP (30) Justin Bates (40) Justin Madders MP (67) Katie Kendrick (37) Law Commission (60) LEASE (66) Leasehold Advisory Service (62) Leasehold houses (32) Long Harbour (48) Martin Boyd (80) McCarthy and Stone (39) National Leasehold Campaign (38) Persimmon (49) Peverel (61) Property tribunal (49) Redrow (30) Retirement (37) Robert Jenrick (33) Roger Southam (47) Sajid Javid (38) Sebastian O’Kelly (55) Sir Peter Bottomley (201) Taylor Wimpey (106) Tchenguiz (33) The Guardian (33) The Times (31) Vincent Tchenguiz (43) Waking watch contracts (40)
Previous Post: «Consumers' Association self-puffing Consumers’ Association boasts sorting ground rent scandal and prompting CMA mis-selling investigation
Next Post: The Times reports criticisms of Jenrick’s two-storey planning windfall to what he called ‘egregious’ freeholders »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Newdeal

    March 23, 2020 at 3:06 pm

    Quite often Tower blocks are 50% or more ‘buy-to-let’ business investors,

    Shouldn’t you differentiate those leaseholders who bought a home, and leaseholders who are ‘investor Landlords sub-letting for rental income? ; some may be buy-to-let lettings companies?

Above Footer

Advising leaseholders. Avoiding disasters.
Stopping forfeiture. Exposing abuses. Urging reform.

We depend on individuals for the majority of our funding.

Support Us and Donate

LKP Managing Agents

Become an LKP Managing Agent

Common Ground
Adam Church
Blocnet property management2

Stay in Touch

To achieve victory in the leasehold game where you are playing against professionals and with rules that they know all too well - stay informed with the LKP newsletter.
Sign Up for Newsletter

Professional Directory

The following advertisements are from firms that seek business from leaseholders.
Click on the logos for company profiles.

Footer

About LKP

  • What is LKP
  • Privacy and data

Categories

  • News
  • Cladding scandal
  • Commonhold
  • Law Commission
  • Fleecehold
  • Parliament
  • Press
  • APPG

Contact

Leasehold Knowledge Partnership
Open Data Institute
5th Floor
Kings Place
London N1 9AG

sok@leaseholdknowledge.com

Copyright © 2023 Leasehold Knowledge Partnership | All rights reserved
Leasehold Knowledge Partnership Limited (company number: 08999652) is a company limited by guarantee that is a registered charity (number: 1162584) with the Charities Commission.
LKP website is hosted at www.34sp.com
Website by Callia Web