Leasehold Knowledge Partnership

Secretariat of the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold reform

Menu
  • Home
    • Site map
    • Archive of posts by category
  • What is LKP
    • Privacy and Data Protection Statement
    • Site map
  • HELP FORM
  • News
      • APPG
      • ARMA
      • Bellway
      • Benjamin Mire
      • Brixton Hill Court
      • Canary Riverside
      • Charter Quay
      • Chelsea Bridge Wharf
      • Commonhold
      • Commons Leasehold Debate 20/12/16
      • Communities Select Committee
      • Conveyancing Association
      • Countrywide
      • DCLG
      • E&J Capital Partners
      • Exit fees
      • Fleecehold
      • Forfeiture
      • FPRA
      • Gleeson Homes
      • Ground rent scandal
      • Grenfell cladding
      • Hanover
      • House managers flat
      • House of Lords
      • Housing associations
      • Informal lease extension
      • Insurance scams
      • IRPM
      • Jim Fitzpatrick MP
      • John Christodoulou
      • Justin Bates
      • Justin Madders MP
      • Law Commission
      • LEASE
      • Leasehold Valuation Tribunal
      • Local authority leasehold
      • London Assembly
      • Louie Burns
      • Martin Paine
      • McCarthy and Stone
      • Moskovitz / Gurvits
      • Mulberry Mews
      • National Leasehold Campaign
      • Oakland Court
      • OFT / CMA
      • Park Homes
      • Persimmon
      • Peverel
      • Philip Rainey QC
      • Plantation Wharf
      • Prostitutes
      • Quadrangle House
      • Recognised Tenants’ Association
      • Redrow
      • Retirement
      • RICS
      • Right To Manage Federation
      • Roger Southam
      • RTM
      • Sean Powell
      • SFO
      • Sinclair Gardens Investments
      • Sir Ed Davey
      • Sir Peter Bottomley
      • St George’s Wharf
      • Taylor Wimpey
      • Tchenguiz
      • West India Quay
      • William Waldorf Astor
      • Windrush Court
  • Accreditation
    • Accredited Companies
        • Block Managers Limited
        • Clear Building Management
        • Diamond Managing Agents
        • Dixon Emerald Associates
        • HML Group
        • Home from Home
        • Home Management Group
        • Hunter Grey
        • JFM Block & Estate Management
        • Jones Associates Letting & Management
        • Norwich Residential Management
        • Red Rock Property Management
        • Rynew Property Management
        • Sapphire Property Management
        • Town & City Management
        • Urang Property Management
        • Urban Living Property Management
  • Fighting back
      • Lease Extension
      • Q&As
      • Right to buy freehold
      • Commonhold
      • Bottomley blasts leasehold crimes on video
      • LVT/Property Chamber Survival
      • Tribunal triumphs … and defeats
      • Recognised Tenants’ Association
      • Right To Manage
      • Video
      • Find MP … and see how many leasehold voters
      • LEASE: what’s the point?
      • Pensioners win £68,500
      • Most damning LVT ruling ever made
      • Insurance racket
      • Local authority leasehold
      • Remember to extend your lease
      • St George’s wins £1 million
      • Leasehold law: the reforms
  • Sub-letting
  • Press
  • Contact
  • Parliament
      • Communities Select Committee
      • APPG
      • APPG December 14 2016
      • Commons Debate 20/12/16
      • APPG April 19 2017
      • APPG July 5 2017
      • APPG December 14 2016
  • Right To Manage
  • Lease Extension
  • National Leasehold Campaign
    • Louie Burns
    • Ground rent scandal
    • Michael Epstein
  • Donate
  • February 22, 2019
You are here: Home / Leasehold Valuation Tribunal / Zthank ‘eavan, Paul Chevalier has been given the push from Zenith Building, Leicester

Zthank ‘eavan, Paul Chevalier has been given the push from Zenith Building, Leicester

February 6, 2012 By admin

 

Triumph of British judicial procedure: Leaseholders at Zenith Building, Leicester, were tied up in knots with legal delays for two-and-a-half years before exercising right to manage.

 

An epic right to manage battle, begun in July 2009, involving some of the most controversial figures in property management finally comes to a conclusion this week.

The Zenith Building, a smart block of flats in the centre if Leicester, went out of the frying pan and into the fire after its landlord, City and Thames, sold the freehold to Sinclair Gardens Investments (Kensington) Ltd – which is generously mentioned on the Internet.

“People think right-to-manage is the solution to all their problems, but with freeholders who fight every step of the way, the amount of time it takes to finally take control of the place where you live is beyond belief,” says Susan Hunt, of HunterGrey managing agents who fought the RTM action.

Hunt got involved in the Zenith Building after Sheel Dhir, 33, a friend who has a flat there, called her in as felt she was being overcharged by the then landlord City and Thames (Leicester) Ltd.

“What leaseholders want is consultation over expenses, transparency in their dealings and disclosure of all relevant information, including expenditure,” says Hunt. “And they weren’t getting it.”

Zenith, has 58 residential units and two commercial ones, but around 120 leases, as there are separate ones for the ground-floor car parks.

Two extra parking spaces seem to have been created and sold elsewhere.

The Landlord, who is based in London, was served a section 82 notice but failed to respond and had to be prodded with notice of default to offer up the details of the leases. He dropped the bombshell that he was selling the freehold for £375,000.

This price was way beyond the means of the leaseholders, and, in fact, he sold the freehold to another company, Sinclair Gardens Investments, for £375,912.

Susan Hunt

Sinclair Gardens Investments may not have been aware of the RTM underway, as its modus operandi are all too familiar:  move in its managing agents Hurst, which then employs its own insurnace broker Princess Insurance Agencies.

Arm-twisting comes in the form of a firm of solicitors called Chevalier and Co, headed by Paul Chevalier, who also figures strongly in a Google search.

The landlord, managing agent and insurance broker are based at the same address in Bognor Regis, which is hardly the ideal place to manage an apartment block in Leicester.

They resisted the RTM at every possible stage as can be seen in the chronology below.

“They made the original landlord seem like a saint,” says Susan Hunt, who acts as company secretary for the RTM company.

“It does not bear thinking about how much time this has taken us. It is horrific. Fortunately, LVTs are quite sympathetic to lay people taking control of the place where they live.”

For the residents of Zenith Building it will hopefully be worthwhile.

Sheel Dhir says the epic struggle would never have succeeded with an ordinary solicitor.

“Susan was prepared to put the time into this and she was fanatastic,” she says. “There were times when I felt completely bullied by these people. It got so bad I actually moved out of my flat.

“It is so ironic. I am actually a property developer, but I got stuffed at my home in the Zenith Building.

“I have never behaved anything like this in my dealings as a property developer. You build flats and you sell them, you don’t sneak around squeezing the residents for more money by passing on the freehold to sharks.”

In its first year of management, Susan Hunt – who, like so many of the best managing agents got into this line of work by accident – is having to lay heavy charges as there is no reserve fund. But its estimate of £58,000 for 2012 is still a bargain compared with Sinclair Gardens/Hursts estimate of £92,000.

“The Leasehold and Commonhold Act 2002, introduced by the Labour Government, should have resolved these problems. It had the chance then to stop leasehold being sold to flat owners, in its present form, and to insist that everything newly built should be commonhold or that the Block Freehold should always we transferred to the Leasehold Owners without charge’.

 

‘It should make us ashamed that our law allows people to behave in that way’ – MP

Footnote: Dr Ian Twinn, former Tory MP for Edmonton, referred to Mr
Chevalier in these terms in the House of Commons on March 8 1996:

“Paul Chevalier and Linda Malthouse deserve to have their names mentioned as much as possible, especially under the cover of parliamentary privilege in connection with their disgraceful activities. They have threatened and abused leaseholders and extorted money in the most disgraceful way. It should make us ashamed that our law allows people to behave in that way. They have used bullying tactics and threatened the full force of the law to try to seize properties when small parts of bills have not been paid, and have tried to load up mortgages behind home owners.”

 

CHRONOLOGY
July 7 2009:                             Zenith RTM company incorporated
September 18 2009:              Section 82 notice served on City and Thames
March 4 2010:                        Notice of Default served on City and Thames (Leicester) Limited
April 27 2010:                         City and Thames hand over lease details
July 22 2010:                           Freehold sold to Sinclair Gardens Investments (Kensington) Limited
August 25 2010:                      Notices of Participation sent to Leaseholders
January 19 2011:                     The Notice of Claim was served on Sinclair Gardens Investments (Kensington) Limited and Hurst Management
February 18 2011:                   The Counter Notice was served by P Chevalier and Co (Landlord’s Solicitors)
April 14 2011:                           Zenith RTM apply to the LVT for determination
May 11 2011:                             Directions issued by the LVT
June 1 2011:                              Respondent (Sinclair) served their case to the LVT
June 27 2011:                           Zenith responded with skeleton arguments
July 5 2011:                              Attended the hearing at the LVT offices in Birmingham accompanied by one of the Directors.
July 13 2011:                            The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal found that Zenith RTM Company Limited did have the Right to Manage
July 19 2011:                            Zenith submit Section 93 notice duty to provide  information (no response)
July 29 2011:                           Chevalier submit application for leave to appeal
August 4 2011:                         Zenith reply why leave should be refused
August 25 2011:                      Permission to appeal refused by LVT
September 6 2011:                 Chevalier and Co apply to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) for permission to appeal against LVT’s refusal to allow the appeal
October 12 2011:                     Letter and bundle of documents received dated the 10th October 2011 from the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber)
October 17 2011:                     Zenith respond to Upper Lands Tribunal
November 17 2011:               Upper Tribunal refuse permission to appeal
November 18 2011:               Zenith submit Section 93 notice duty to provide information
November 21 2011                Chevalier write stating the Date of Acquisition will be the  May 17 2012, because they may apply to the Senior Court for a Judicial review
November 23 2011:              Zenith respond saying the Date of Acquisition is  February 17 2012 – three months from the determination of the last appeal
December 2&8 2011:            Further correspondence over this issue of take over date
January 2012:                       Hurst sends out request for 6 months service charges and a shortfall from 2011.
February 1 2012:                  Hurst write in response to a leaseholders letter saying that unaccounted funds will be passed over to the new managing agents
January 30 2012:                 Concession from Landlord’s Agents (Hurst Management) saying that they will allow us to take over the maintenance and cleaning from February 17 but will only answer the Section 93 notice if we send £300.
February 3 2012:                 Letter from Hurst saying that the date of acquisition is three months after the landlord decided not to proceed with the Judicial review. That they want £300 for information payable to their solicitors and that we can expect another bill for landlord’s costs. They have NO reserves or services charge monies to hand over to us whatsoever
February 3 2012:                Zenith reply that we are taking over on the February 17 2012 because that is the date three months after the final appeal (Section 90 (5) of the 2002 Act)

 

6.02.12 Susan Hunt, of HunterGrey, adds this message re the epic strggle for RTM at Zenith Building, Leceister:

You may be interested to note that we have received a letter today (16.02.12 ) from Hurst Management charging the following to the service charges for termination of their management:

1st January 2012 to 24.03.2012 (bearing in mind the acquisition date is 17.02.2012)   £4036.42
Notice fee to terminate their agreement                                                                                   £4384
Administration fee to close accounts                                                                                            £960

In other words, for 48 days management they want £9381.22.  They want £300 to send any paperwork to us and P Chevalier Solicitor wants £1,531 for Landlords costs.

This abuse of leaseholders is absolutely disgusting.

Related posts:

£30,000 bill for RTM ‘fiasco’ McCarthy and Stone gives Peverel the push at 25 retirement sites Pensioners lose leasehold right to manage application for the third time Solicitors squabble in High Court, while leaseholders face a £30,000 right to manage legal bill Israel Moskovitz fails – again – to appeal against the Regent Court right to manage

Filed Under: Leasehold Valuation Tribunal, News, Sinclair Gardens Investments Tagged With: Bognor Regis, Dr Ian Twinn, HunterGrey, Hurst, Leicester, Paul Chevalier, Princess Insurance Agencies, Sheel Dhir, Sinclair Gardens, Susan Hunt, Zenith Building

Everything important

Abacus Land 4 Limited Adriatic Land AgeUK Alexander Bastin Alex Ellison Alok Sharma Amanda Gourlay Anchor Andrew Selous MP Anthony Essien APPG ARCO ARHM ARMA ARMA-Q Baroness Gardner Barratt BBC R4 You and Yours Bellway Benjamin Mire Beth Rudolf Blythe Court Bob Bessell Bob Smytherman Bovis Homes Brandon Lewis British Property Federation Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation Campaign for Housing in Later Life Canary Riverside CARL Cath Williams CentreForum Chainbow Charter Quay Cherry Jones Churchill Retirement Living Circle Residential Management Limited Cirrus Citiscape Clive Betts MP CMA Commonhold Competition and Markets Authority Conveyancing Association Countryside Properties plc Countrywide Countrywide Estate Management Court of Appeal Cypress Place Daily Mail David Glass DCLG Deep Sagar Dennis Jackson Dudley Joiner E&J Capital Partners Ed Davey Elim Court Eric Pickles Estates and Management Esther Rantzen exit fees Federation of Private Residents Associations Financial Times FirstPort Flood Re forfeiture FPRA Galliard Gary Murphy Gavin Barwell George Osborne Glyn Jackson Grant Shapps Grenfell cladding ground rent ground rents Ground Rents Income Fund plc Help To Buy Heysmoor Heights Homeground Management Limited HomeOwners Alliance House of Lords IRPM Israel Moskovitz James Brokenshire MP James Driscoll James Tuttiett James Wyatt Janet Entwistle Janice Northover JB Leitch Jeffrey Fairburn Jim Fitzpatrick Jim Fitzpatrick MP Joanne Darbyshire John Christodoulou John Fenwick Joseph Gurvits Justin Bates Justin Madders MP Justin Tomlinson Katie Kendrick Keith Hill Laceys Lakeside Law Commision Law Commission LEASE Leasehold Advisory Service leasehold houses Leasehold Solutions Lendlease London Assembly Long Harbour Lord Best Louie Burns Mainstay Margaret Anne Kirmond Mari Knowles Mark Prisk Martin Boyd Martin Paine McCarthy and Stone Mercia Investment Properties Limited Mere Court Michelle Banks Mulberry Mews Mundy National Leasehold Campaign New Capital Quay NHBC Nigel Bannister Nigel Glen Nigel Wilkins Oakland Court OFT Parthenia Patrick Collinson Paula Higgins Persimmon Pete Redfern Peverel Philip Rainey QC Phillip Rainey QC Plantation Wharf Private Eye Professor Nicholas Hopkins Prostitutes Redrow Regent Court Rendall and Rittner Retirement Retirement Security Limited RICS right to manage Right To Manage Federation Rob Plumb Roger Southam RTM RTMF Sajid Javid Sally Keeble Sebastian O’Kelly SFO Shula Rich Simon van Houten Siobhan McGrath Sir Ed Davey Sir Peter Bottomley Sonia McColl OBE Southwark Steve Morgan Sunday Times Susan Wood Tanfield Chambers Taylor Wimpey Tchenguiz Tchenguiz Family Trust Team The Daily Telegraph The Guardian The Sunday Times The Times Triplerose Trust Property Management Vallea Court Vincent Tchenguiz West India Quay Will Astor William Waldorf Astor Y and Y Management Yianis Group You and Yours

Contact LKP

Need help?

LKPhelp2The leasehold game is weighted against ordinary home-owning leaseholders, who aren’t professional players. LKP was set up to redress the balance, to help you win your disputes or at least avoid disasters.

If you have a leasehold problem, you can email sok@leaseholdknowledge or take a chance on calling 07808 328 230.

Or fill out this form, which ensures that you provide the essential information.

LKPnewsletter3

Professional services

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

Law

Right to manage

Lease extension / enfranchisement


capitalleasehold6-9ins

Landscaping

limetree

LKP Managing Agents

Big managing agents are big because they have got business from developers or large-scale freehold owing companies. Doubtless they are very obliging.

Not a single one is big through consumer choice.

Managing agents accredited to LKP want business from leaseholders. Many are former leaseholders.

All have signed undertakings of good practice and have provided extensive references … from leaseholders.

They can also hand-hold leaseholders through right to manage at minimal cost.

Contact Sebastian O’Kelly at LKP for further details: sok@leaseholdknowledge.com, 07808 328 230

Please click on logos for link and details

What is LKP?

Sebastian O’Kelly
Martin Boyd
sok@leaseholdknowledge.com
martin.boyd@leaseholdknowledge.com

Please use the HELP FORM for ALL non-urgent matters.

Only call the numbers below if you are familiar with the LKP website and feel your issue can only be dealt with on the phone.

020 8050 2602
07808 328 230

The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, a registered charity and the secretariat of the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold and commonhold reform, is explained here

Managing agents can apply to become an accredited managing agent here

LKPnewsletter3

Find everything here …

The reason why

Why should Will Astor, Tchenguiz etc be paying to remove Grenfell cladding?

More reasons "why" ...

Tweets by @LKPleasehold

Press

Leasehold is a feudal, wasting asset with opportunities for exploitation, says the Financial Times in a devastating article

Full Press archive

MPs don’t like what they see …

Leaseholders in local authority and housing association blocks will have Grenfell cladding bill paid by government

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (145263): Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department’s press release, Government announces it will fully fund unsafe cladding removal in social housing, published on 16 May […]

Labour MP Helen Hayes ‘disappointed’ by Sajid Javid’s response on leasehold scandal

Time for DCLG Select Committee to call in developers to demand details of the scale of the leasehold rip-offs Labour MP Helen Hayes is “disappointed” by Communities Secretary Sajid Javid’s response to the leasehold crisis. Ms Hayes, who is MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, was responding to Mr Javid’s presentation on Wednesday to the […]

More Posts from this Category

Ground rent scandals

E&J Capital Partners ‘compelled’ to sell freehold to Taylor Wimpey house to pensioner for £38,000 (plus £4,000 costs)

Ground rent speculators E&J Capital Partners were “compelled” to sell pensioner Trevor Nowell the freehold to his Taylor Wimpey leasehold house for £38,000. Once Mr Nowell, 79, began the enfranchisement process, the valuation of the property’s freehold was decided by the professional advisors employed for both sides (which Mr Nowell ended up paying for, as […]

Victoria Derbyshire told ‘we must end cheating speculators in leasehold housing’

Shady speculators in UK property assets including residential freeholds were raised on the BBC TV’s Victoria Derbyshire show yesterday.  It can be viewed here at 1:44 Sebastian O’Kelly, of LKP, said in an interview: “We are told that residential freeholds are bought by pension funds and that it pays for your and my pensions. “Absolute […]

Ground rents are so valid … to pay out £300m bonuses to Persimmon cronies

Yet another example of cronyism at work as 130 Persimmon staff share out a £300 million bonus thanks to spreading leasehold houses around the country. The company’s hilariously mis-named “long-term incentive plan” – short-term fill-yer-boots, would be more accurate – has already seen CEO Jeffrey Fairburn being awarded a £112 million bonus. The company’s regional […]

More Posts from this Category

Grenfell cladding

You need professional property managers to deal with fire safety in high-rises, says FirstPort CEO Nigel Howell


APPG, April 26 The chief executive of FirstPort welcomed more professionalism in the residential property management sector, especially when dealing with vitally important issues such as tower blocks with defective cladding. Nigel Howell also told the APPG on April 26 how his company responded to the discovery of Grenfell cladding at Citiscape in Croydon, where […]

Slough Council v Benji the Binman over Grenfell cladding costs at Nova House

Slough Council – which made the unaccountable decision to buy the freehold of Grenfell cladding site Nova House for £1 – was in tribunal earlier last week against a formidable opponent, Benjamin Pell, better know to journalists as Benji the Binman. Mr Pell, who came to national attention after raiding the dustbins of London’s leading […]

More Posts from this Category

When leaseholders unite …

LKP and Bottomley at Number 10 to reverse flawed reform of recognised tenants’ associations

LKP chair Martin Boyd and Sir Peter Bottomley attended a meeting at Number 10 yesterday to urge government to overturn its flawed statutory instrument to reform recognised tenants’ associations. The MHCLG announced changes in October and made the existing arrangements even worse for leaseholders. The key hurdle faced by leaseholders is to contact their leasehold-owning […]

More Posts from this Category

Disgraceful …

Stop auction of ‘worthless’ flat at Blythe Court and alert authorities, Commons asked

Sir Peter Bottomley has urged the Commons to intervene in the auction sale of Flat 1 Blythe Court, where the freeholders and managers are Martin Paine and his wife Anne Kirmond. Flat 1 Blythe Court is up for auction with Barnard Marcus on February 2 in central London with a guide price of £65,000. Sir […]

More Posts from this Category

RSS Latest news from Better Retirement Housing

  • Your Housing Group shared equity retirement flat sells for £39,000, after three years on the market
  • Family outraged by £50,000 exit fee at Retirement Villages’ Mayford Grange
  • Move beyond feudal leases, says Association of Retirement Community Operators
  • Downsizing pensioners assailed by ‘fleecehold’ charges, reports Daily Mail
  • Rectory Court slashes service charges after dumping Stonewater for right to manage LKP accredited managing agent

LKP Managing Agents

London and South East

Tyne and Wear

Colchester

Swindon

Manchester

 

JFMManagement

London

Town&City

Nationwide

 

UrbanLivingLeeds

UrangFulham

RedRock

Essex / Middlesex

NRMlogoNorwich

 

Nationwide
Rynew

East London

Diamond

Epsom, Surrey

BlockManagers

Essex

jonesassociates

Macclesfield

DIrection

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

Find Everything

Essential reads …

  • Ground rent scandal
  • Parliament
  • MPs’ APPG on leasehold
  • Benjamin Mire
  • Moskovitz / Gurvits
  • Oakland Court
  • McCarthy and Stone
  • Persimmon
  • Recognised Tenants’ Association
  • Grenfell cladding
  • Canary Riverside
  • John Christodoulou
  • Peverel
  • Peverel Cirrus story so far
  • Charter Quay
  • Forfeiture
  • Plantation Wharf
  • Law Commission
  • Plantation Wharf
  • West India Quay
  • LEASE: what’s the point?
  • Tchenguiz
  • Sean Powell
  • Press
  • Exit fees
  • William Waldorf Astor
  • Martin Paine
  • LKP anthem
  • LVT/Property Chamber Survival
  • Most damning LVT ruling ever made
  • Pensioners win £68,500
  • Park Homes
  • Redrow
  • Retirement

Copyright © 2019 Leasehold Knowledge Partnership