Anger as Flintshire grandmother battling dementia is told to remove garden furniture outside her home
NEIGHBOURS have signed a petition to support a grandmother who has been told to have the garden furniture outside her property removed. Teresa Davies, 63, said she was left needing help to sleep after being informed by Countrywide Estate Management that the garden furniture she had placed outside he…
Countrywide Estate Management features in a Flintshire local newspaper after allegedly threatening to take away a woman’s flower pots from her front garden.
Neighbours on the leasehold houses estate have signed a petition backing their neighbour, the newspaper says.
“Teresa Davies, 63, said she was left needing help to sleep after being informed by Countrywide Estate Management that the garden furniture she had placed outside her home on Maes Deri in Ewloe had been the subject of complaints and would be taken away,” reports The Leader in Flintshire.
The issue highlights that leasehold house owners are tenants, and must conform to the idea of communal leasehold living decided by the freeholder, and its management.
It is unknown who the freeholder is.
Countrywide Estate Management gave a “formal notice” and said any items “stored within the communal areas” on August 15 will be “removed immediately and the cost of doing so charged back accordingly”.
“If somebody were to injure themselves on any item that doesn’t belong to the estate the leaseholder who owns the item will be responsible for any legal action,” Countrywide Estate Management is quoted saying.
LKP raised issues in Swindon concerning Countrywide Estate Management, where residents’ management companies had not been handed over to the leasehold residents.
Countrywide ‘ripping off’ leaseholders, MP tells Commons. And it is given the boot by Bovis Homes
The management company, believed to manage around 100,000 leasehold properties around the country, left the trade body ARMA after it introduced new standards for membership two years ago.
The LKP Countrywide Estate Management archive is here: https://www.leaseholdknowledge.com/category/news/countrywide
Related posts:
Council’s section 106 is delaying the hand-over of residents’ management companies, Countrywide tells leaseholder in complaints ruling
Stop keep asking who our members are, ARMA tells pensioner
Countrywide ‘ripping off’ leaseholders, MP tells Commons. And it is given the boot by Bovis Homes
Countrywide Estate Management is OUT of ARMA
Gateway Property Management takes over as Countrywide is given the boot by Bovis
Daily Mail says blue chips are cashing in on ‘rip-off ground rents’
I feel sorry for the agents. No really. One has to love the timing of picking on a pensioner’s flower pots in a fenced garden – perchance possibly demised to her house? Picture does not reveal if communal. Mind you, PR advisers perhaps have little added value in leasehold property management decisions?
Communal garden or not, at least this stuff now gets media attention.
Neighbours here-abouts used to have flower pots removed routinely but somehow no exterior maintenance got done to the buildings. Since RTM the site is cluttered with sweet scented flowers in pots and urns and attract pesky butterflies. Outrageous nuisance but hides the smell of fresh paint.
Name the complainants I say. Natural justice for flower pots and gnomes!
Lovely also covers their verbal shite so well – nice bit of Lavender or equally pungent.
Countrwide appear to be having a tough time of it lately according to their latest published accounts.
Write downs mentioned in the accounts include 8.1m pounds redundancy costs,15.8m pounds property provisions including 4.1 m pounds dilapidation costs (And you are going to love this one) 7.4m pounds for ONEROUS CONTRACTS!
A further write down of 19.5 million pounds of impairment charges from writing down goodwill associated with conveyancing operations was recorded in the accounts.
In a post accounts statement Countrwide announced that they were selling 9.99% of their shares in order to pay down loans.
To the Editor, “Y Y” can you stick these Y’s in my last post please? It’s COUNTRYWIDE!
Ha ha ha ha hee hee hee -NOT. I wonder if the fragrant Monsieur Tuttiett is the freeholder.? However, ( Serious face ????) It has been widely reported that plant pots have attacked innocent passerbys causing untold trauma and in some cases fatal injury.. Plant/ flower pots are a serious danger to the public and must be removed by Freeholders from all leaseholders premises without delay- for a fee of course.!!
As Bradley Emerson is but a junior in the world of property management, he might like to be aware that if he does remove any property belonging to Teresa Davies without her permission, it is very likely that he would be prosecuted under the Theft Act and end up with a criminal record.
This would make it very difficult for him if he wishes to pursue a career in property management as his record would have to be disclosed.
Mr E, a question. If individuals wishing to pursue an illustrious career property management, that great bastion of rectitude ( fnarr fnarr) then that begs the question- How on earth are there so many thieving dishonest folks working in the ‘Profession ‘ ?? It follows that some if not all of these individuals must have had their collar fell- Non?
To make sense of my previous post:
” If individuals wishing to pursue a career in management” have to disclose any record of criminality, then how is it possible that there are an abundance of girls and boys with a propensity for criminal acts working in the ‘business’? It’s like the Mafia.
Exactly like the mafia. And like the mafia, accounts can be their achilles heel. HMRC where art thou…
Also add in to that ELDER ABUSE – any monies demanded can be passed off as FINANCIAL ABUSE. Enter the world of Safeguarding to vulnerable Adults too.
yeah well, some managing agents are brilliant at harassing old ladies, about their flower pots or their kitten, being a breach of covenant. They are just a bit slow to deal with leaking roofs and present accounts… our (ex) managing agents practically fainted if anyone mentioned accounts. What a joke! When is the government going to realise that managing buildings is a responsible job and needs to given to responsible people?
We leaseholders need to set up a facebook campaign in the style of Katie Kendricks ( NLC) which currently has 6’600 members. We have got to take these venal managing on and NAME & SHAME them . They might threaten to sue for ‘ Harassment’ with their dodgy solicitors letters. POPPYCOCK! We must rid ourselves of these parasites. For too long have they intimidated and threatened vulnerable leadeholders to fill their greedy boots. No longer must they stuff their salivating mouths with leaseholders gold. I am a bit of a luddite when it come to facebook etc but I will play a major part if someone wants to join me in bringing crooked agents and their Freeholders to heel?
Bought a Leasehold have you, that’s a different tune to the one that was sung on NLC site before you were kicked off. Until you can curb your outbursts, you’re not safe to know or be around.
Now now B. Curb your your enthusiasm!! am a pussy cat and adorable to be around and am fortunate enough to own a shared Freehold property and also a leasehold property. . I shan’t respond to anymore of your strange outbursts.
Disagree with you Kim, though I understand your frustrations.
Though it sounds good in theory, supporting sites such as this one, NLC and for those affected by them About Peverel, is far more effective. The reason being is that Facebook is far more likely to publish rants against developers (which they can handle easily) without incisive comments and solutions that have not been properly thought out. Very solid foundations are being laid. Though a long hard battle, the tide is turning. Let us stay with the winning formula.
Dear MRr E , as you have been around this paticular block far longer than I ,I shall defer to your better judgement! Yes, I am frustrated that a fluorescent light is not being shone on the ‘Managing Agents’. Hopefully they will be caught in the slipstream of this ground rent scandal…..
We have tried to introduce a forum on LKP in the past.
We do not like Facebook, which is impossible to search or archive and which can be switched off at any point.
We could start again with a good interactive forum like Muut. https://muut.com/tour/
If you two would care to curate it, we are on for having another go.
Flat owners should have a forum from an organisation that is not trying to cheat them.
Not a fan of face-ache book so can’t join any campaigns there. Been thinking for a while what a shame it is LKP doesn’t have a user forum with searchable threads.
Years ago I landed on the Long leasehold Questions bit of the Landlordzone site and got such great advice from knowledgeable folks there I sort of never left and now regularly offer my own pearls of strictly non-legal wisdom based on far too much research and experience for sanity. Sort of, ‘save yourself, it’s too late for me’.
Given the name, both landlords and leaseholders seek advice, but my heart isn’t in helping landlords and some attitudes to ‘their’ tenants are revealing. The other problem is, it is possible to have ‘advice’ posted from a freeholder who will admonish how leaseholders are ‘merely tenants’ and the landlord ‘owns’ the building.
The subtleties of leasehold tenure as an estate for a term and that leaseholders have a registered title (hardly mere tenants), or that the freeholder owns a reversionary interest, get lost in the shorthand. It’s truth but not the whole truth.
Also, given the sensitive legalities around leaseholders going public online, I also like the protection of the forum privacy rules: “No names, no pack drill”, so that people adopt avatars. Individuals do not have limited liability or insurance.
There is advice on the Martin Lewis forum but although some of it is grand I have also found keen actors straight out of a feudal morality play.
All said, if LKP launched a forum along similar privacy lines dedicated to leaseholder rights I’d put in for a transfer.
Mr E, what do you think of admin’s excellent idea? I am willing to curate with you! I have not done anything like this before but am sure I will be capable of doing a good job..
Mr E, what do you think of admin’s excellent idea?? I am ready and willing to help curate an interactive forum on the LKP site to help shine a spotlight on the nefarious practices of Freeholders and their venal puppet managing agents. Flat leaseholders need an unbiased forum. We could knock LEASE into a cocked hat!
Kim. I agree it is a good idea (any publicity etc) but unfortunately I would not have the time to do more than I am doing at present. Much of my efforts are off site.
Mr E it is a shame as I am sure we would have made a ‘dream team’ and been the scourge of the spiv agents out there!