CQRA AGM highlights

At a packed AGM, members were told that another £70,000 is being refunded to Charter Quay owners as HML Andertons were able to underspend their 2011 budget (a 10% underspend). 

HML Andertons had already cut the 2011 budget by 18.25% from the previous year. Overall this means service charges for 2011 were down by more than 25%. In 2011 Andertons were also able to buy out of the related party contracts on Door Entry CCTV and Aerial contracts which the landlord held with one of the companies he owned. 

These refunds are added to the LVT repayment from Peverel and will be credited in the July service charge demand. In total these two credits add up to more than a quarter of a million pounds being duducted from the second half years service charge demand.

Members were also advised that HML Andertons are due to begin consultations shortly on a major upgrade to the TV Aerial systems 

For each of the last three years CQRA has asked for £75 per flat in membership fees to help fight our legal cases. With no LVT case in prospect (for the first time in 4 years) the committee proposed reducing membership fees to just £10. This was unanimously supported. Charter Quay has an incredible and continuing signup rate of over 90%.

Full minutes of the meeting will be sent to all members in the near furture.

Vincent Tchenguiz and Peverel Named and Shamed

The London Evening Standard reported: 'Vincent Tchenguiz and his former management company, Peverel, were the only freeholders and managing agents to be named and shamed earlier in a House of Lords debate on leasehold service charges.' You can read the full article here, just under the Ryanair story.

Universities Week 2012 - Monday 30th April - Monday 7th May.

To find out what Kingston University is doing locally click here.

Universities Week is back! And this year the theme of the week is the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Bigger and better than ever, this year universities across the UK will be demonstrating their amazing and varied contributions to the Olympics – from arts and culture, sports and community investment.

There is also going to be free guided tours of Dorich House Museum in Kingston Vale on the 3rd May. The place is full of Dora Gordine’s sculptures and Russian artefacts, so it might be worth a look. To book an 11.30am or 2.30pm tour please email Anne  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

News Flash: CQ Successful LVT case mentioned in House of Lords

During the Grand Committee debate today in the House of Lords, Baroness Gardner of Parkes introduced a debate to discuss leasehold problems. She cited Charter Quay as an example of the issues relating to Leasehold Management and the onerous contracts successfully disputed by ourselves through the Leasheold Valuation Tribunal. 

Read the debate in Hansard at:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201212/ldhansrd/text/120423-gc0001.htm#1204233000167

CQRA AGM 28th April

Will take place at the Rose Theatre starting at 10:30.

Kingston U3A Orchestra Summer Concert

Kingston U3A Orchestra Summer Concert will take place on Sunday 20 May at 3pm at New Malden Methodist Church. Check the article for details. 

Peverel Apologises to Charter Quay

We have received a letter of apology from Mr Lee Middleburgh, Managing Director of Peverel Property Management. He apologises for the many issues which arose on our site under their management and the difficulties we faced in having to take matters to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. CQRA thanks Peverel for making this apology.
The full letter can be read here
If you would like to comment, please contact the LVT team.

Do you trust Estates and Management?

The recent LVT decision to reappoint HML Andertons indicated that the Tribunal saw no evidence that our landlord had changed their ways. Their agent Estates and Management shows why the LVT was right.

The Managing Director of Estates and Management, Michael Gaston, owes us £93,575 in relation to the “common area rental charges” which he has already accepted should never have been collected.

In 2010 Mr Gaston said on record he knew £93,675 was due but did not pay. In 2011 Mr Gaston fully agreed to pay back the money but did not pay. Now in 2012 Mr Gaston claims not to know how much is due becasue it is subject to a negotiation.

So can Estates and Management be trusted? Evidence, we think, Mr Gaston speaks louder than words.

Based on your evidence Mr Gaston the CQRA have recommended to HML Andertons to sue Estates and Management for every penny you owe us.

Mr Gaston, the LVT thought you were not to be trusted. We know for certain. 

Read the full details here. What do you think? Why not take part in our survey:

Estates and Management, do you trust them?

No, I dont think Estates and Management can be trusted Yes, I think Estates and Management are an honourable and trustworthy organisation. Processing....

Replacing the water meter for Stevens, Ravens and Taggs House 20th March

The main water meters for Stevens, Ravens and Taggs are to be replaced. This will cause a temporary disruption to the water supply.

Work will take place on Tuesday 20^th March 2012 between 10:00am and 4:00pm.

The details are: 

Location: Basement Car Park under Ravens House, left hand side of tank/pump cage at high level on wall.  

Works needed: Exchange the 100mm Main and bypass located outside the property.

Duration: The exchange will take 1-2 hours. In addition, the water supply will be affected during this time. Standards works should result in a water disruption for 30-40 minutes for each meter.

If you have any questions please contact the concierge on 0208 547 1052 or  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Marek Szczytko Concierge Manager

Abandoned bikes going, going.....nearly gone

Editor:  This is a copy of the notice posted around the site. You have been warned!

Dear Resident,

It is over 3 months now since we removed all abandoned bicycles from the bike stores located in Garricks House and Stevens House car parks. All removed bicycles are still in our storage room and now we are going to dispose of them.

Please check if your bicycle is still in the bike store. If it is not - this is the last chance to claim it back. We will be removing all the abandoned bicycles from site on Monday 19^th March 2012.

 

Thank you,
Kind Regards,
Marek Szczytko   Concierge Manager

LVT Reappoints Andertons and criticises our landlord again!

Today the LVT published its decision for HML Andertons to continue as our Tribunal appointed managing agent until the end of 2014.

In their findings the Tribunal makes very strong criticisms of our Tchenguiz group landlord and his managing agents. READ MORE HERE

Official - Kingston Voted Happiest Place to Live

It comes as no surprise to residents living in Charter Quay (pictured above) that Kingston has been voted the happiest place to live in London and the surrounding areas. The findings, published in the Evening Standard, highlighted easy access to London, lots of open spaces, and with good shops and restaurants.

Quick Report - CQRA Extra Ordinary General Meeting February 2012

A large number of leaseholders attended the CQRA Extraordinary General Meeting at the Rose, our on-site 900 seat theatre, on Saturday 4th February. We were delighted that the Rose were able to provided us with their main auditorium as a venue for this important meeting, and would like to thank them for all their help.

Following a four year battle against the landlord for mismanagement, it was explained to the members how as part of the various LVT cases we have now recovered a staggering £400,000. We also hope the court's appointed receiver manager, HML Andertons, will soon complete his action to recover a further £93,000 from the landlord for monies he wrongly collected in rentals for the common areas. This would take the total recovered to over half a million pounds.

It was also explained that we have probably saved a further half a million pounds over the last three years under receiver manager, HML Andertons, who have introduced a number of cost savings and helped us end what the LVT described as “onerous” 14 year contracts which the landlord had previously signed with related party companies.

There was an unanimous vote in support of the motion: The meeting supports HML Andertons application to the LVT to extend their appointment as the property managers for Charter Quay from 3rd August 2012 to 31st December 2014.

We would like to extend our thanks to the members of the Charter Quay Residents' Association for their support - we now have 94% of the 244 leaseholders as members of CQRA.

"There is no reason to believe that there will be problems in the future" says landlord.

CQRA EGM 4th February

CQRA is holding an Extraordinary General Meeting for all owners to consider the future management of the site. The meeting takes place at 10:30AM, 4th February, at the Rose Theatre. If you are an apartment owner it is important that you attend.

The three year management order by the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal appointing HML Andertons in place of the landlord's management is due to end in August. Our landlord wants the site to return to their management and has told the Tribunal "there is no reason to believe that there will be problems in the future".

We know the very opposite to be true. In November 2011 the Tribunal ruled about the landlord's actions in 2008 and 2009. They highlighted various issues: the sweetheart deals with related companies; the onerous contracts and the huge insurance commission rake off. The Tribunal ruled the landlord's managing agents actions in the handover to Andertons were "disgraceful".

Owners should know one more thing about our trustworthy landlord. They charged us over £93,000 for "notional rentals of the common areas" covering the years 2005-2009. All five years of this "rental" were taken from our service charge account in 2009 just before the landlord's managing agent was thrown off the site.

• Michael Gaston the Managing Director of Estates and Management Ltd, the landlords agent, admitted in an email in November 2010 he should not have charged for these "rentals" and assured HML Andertons that he would pay the money back - They have not.
• In February 2011 Michael Gaston's PR man advised the Surrey Comet they would pay us the money back - They have not.
• In 2011 Andertons started a court action against the landlord to recover the money to the service charge account.
• In December 2011 the landlord went to court to try and have Andertons case struck out. They failed and had to pay Andertons legal costs.
• The issue is due to go to a final hearing this year. In addition to the £93,000 Andertons are seeking to recover legal costs and interest.

So when our landlord says "there is no reason to believe that there will be problems in the future" we hope you understand what they really mean.

If on the other hand you think our having to figtht them every inch of the way for the last four years is a reflection of how they would behave in the future. If you think that they might be looking for payback on the massive legal costs they have incurred not to mention the repeated humiliation in the courts and in the press. Or if you are just angry that they have never apologised to you. We recommend you turn up to the EGM on the 4th February.

We need you to turn up to the EGM to help keep the landlords hands out of your pockets! 

To see some of the other sites ongoing experiences with Peverel and more Peverel revelations you may like to read TTAS web site here

To see what the London Assembly thinks about the problems with leasehold service charges please read their latest discussion paper here

 

Theatre Planning Application

The Council has sent out a planning application notification for the Theatre to erect a canopy over the main entrance and make changes to the stair tower.
Details of the application can be found on the council website: here 

Charter Quay Finally on the Map

In 2011 Charter Quay regularly appeared in the press with reports on our successful LVT cases. So it seems quite right that we start 2012 by finally appearing on the map.

After eleven years of no show, Charter Quay has properly found its way on to Tele Atlas, the mapping system used by most sat nav companies. You will also be able to direct visitors to the site using google maps. Click here to see. Wadbrook Street is also correctly shown, and someone has even added the names of each of the blocks.

Now visitors just have to cope with the Kingston one way system in order to actually get here. Happy New Year!

LVT Award calculation.

Following discussions with Peverel the CQRA are pleased to announce we have agreed to accept a total offer of £186,057.18 (one hundred and eighty six thousand and fifty seven pounds eighteen pence) in respect of our 2008/9 LVT award on behalf of our members.

Recycling at Charter Quay

Charter Quay is part of the Kingstonfirst mixed recycling and cardboard scheme which since its launch in 2009 has recycled 527 tonnes of cardboard and saved 679 tonnes of CO₂. The certificate shows Charter Quay has saved over half a tonne in CO₂ since being part of the scheme.

The recycling record of Charter Quay is good but can we encourage users to ensure the items are not contaminated. By thoroughly sorting items ie avoiding putting plastic bags in the glass, plastic bottles and paper recycling and mixing paper and cardboard you are helping save costs and reducing land fill. Plastic bags should only be put in the general household waste bins.

If you have any problems putting recycling in the bins please talk to the concierge and
if you have any questions check out our recycling document. 

December Press Coverage

Unsurprisingly our LVT win is attracting press attention. Readers may recall how important this was in the past in terms of making Peverel live up to their promises and in exposing the issues to help other developments.

Surrey Comet  , Leasehold Knowledge Partnership,  Daily Telegraph,  Yahoo Finance, Daily Mail & Property Mentor

 

Sunday Mail highlights need for leasehold reform

The Sunday Mail article highlights the need for leasehold reform and quotes Charter Quay and St Georges Wharf at Vauxhall as two developments which have succeeded in obtaining LVT judgements to the benefit of residents.

Does the following sound familiar?  "Vacuuming up freeholds, moving in rapacious managing agents and then loading charges on to hapless leaseholders has proved to be a goldmine for unscrupulous operators." 

We doubt Peverel and Estates and Management see Charter Quay as such a goldmine these days.

Peverel PR Rebuttal to bad press

Understandably highly paid PR teams are trying their best to bury the findings of the LVT case and belittle the impact. The main rebuttal from the Tchenguiz group to these articles states "To keep this award in perspective, the award was for only 18 per cent of the total sum claimed. Most costs were found to be completely reasonable."    
Reasonable, of course! Read what we think here.

Back to the Future

The 2012 Service Charge demands at Charter Quay are going back to levels last seen in 2005.

2012 service charge demands arrived with an early Christmas present for Charter Quay owners. HML Andertons continue to reduce costs while the service levels go up. For most owners this means a further reduction following on from the amazing 18.25% decrease last year. The 2012 current account expenditure is therefore back to a level last seen in 2005.

The Residents Association stressed to HML Andertons the importance to owners of keeping charges consistent from year to year. By keeping the total bills for most owners at the same rate as last years we are able able to put aside an additional £170,000 towards long term reserves. This will pay for the major upgrade to the TV aerial system planned in the next few years.

If you have feedback on the 2012 service charges, please contact us by clicking here

“Sorry seems to be the hardest word”

Following receipt of our latest LVT decision we asked Mr Lee Middleburgh MD of Peverel to apologise for the disgraceful behaviour of his subsidiary CEM and their staff which was highlighted in the findings. He wrote back to say:

I have checked with our legal team who have indicated that the tribunal determination has not yet been received.

When it is received we will review it carefully and respond appropriately.

No doubt we will be in contact soon.

Regards

Lee Middleburgh

We are still waiting for his apology. 

Somehow OM Property (Peverel) is nominated in this years Property Management awards as finalists in the customer service, web site and property managers sections.

The Editor for News on the Block, organisers of the Property Management Awards, attended part of our LVT hearing. We hope he noticed that four out of the five witnesses for the Landlord are OM employees. It seems odd that anyone can jump from 'disgraceful' to 'award winning' in a single bound.

If you have any comments on this or our other articles please contact us by clicking HERE.

The LVT brands CEM - a DISGRACE

Our four-year fight on behalf of the leaseholders at Charter Quay at the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal has just finished. The LVT has now published its final judgment and once again it is heavily in our favour.

You can read the full decision:  HERE

LVT strongly criticised Tchenguiz group controlled Peverel/CEM for:

• Entering into onerous contracts without review

• Entering into contracts with related party companies

• Entering into contracts without checking the market

• Taking excessive insurance commissions

• Employing an unqualified surveyor for specialist work

• Being uncooperative when handing over the site to the Receiver Manager appointed by the LVT

• The “quasi Biblical” structure of the Tchenguiz group

In its decision, the Tribunal has determined that:

•     Peverel/CEM must repay 75% of 2009 management fee (and 50% for 2008)

•     Insurance commissions for the landlord be reduced from over 30% to10%

•     100% of the drain repair costs be refunded

•     Majority of the CEM/Peverel surveyor fees be returned

•     The new contract charges for Interphone were not allowable and should be returned

•     Our hugely expensive abseiling window cleaners costs were totally unreasonable and must be repaid

We have pursued three cases against the Tchenguiz group controlled Peverel/CEM companies:

·      To remove managing agent in 2009.

·      To recover unreasonable service charges for 2003 - 2007

·      To recover unreasonable charges in 2008 - 2009

For the CQRA Committee the case was not just about the money. What mattered to us was to show up the poor performance of Peverel/CEM, controlled by the Tchenguiz group. From all our contacts we know know that the quality of service they provided to us also impacts many other sites.

To most owners the important thing is the size of the award. Our first calculations gives us an award of around £150,000.

Unfortunately the LVT has no ability to award costs so all the thousands of hours of time, effort and expense put in by CQRA to allow us to recover these monies cannot be reclaimed. However the landlord, who is normally able to pass on his costs under the terms of the lease, has also been specifically prevented from doing so in this case under the Tribunals decision. The Tribunal also awarded the maximum allowed by awarding CQRA £500 towards its application fees.

When CQRA won last time around it took over a year before Peverel paid the compensation. We hereby put them on notice they have 21 days to pay this time.

The Tribunal described CEMs behavior during the handover as disgraceful.

We have asked Mr Lee Middleburgh, the MD of Peverel, to apologise to the residents of Charter Quay on a number of occasions for the behavior of his company. We ask him again. By now, surely, he must be ashamed of what he, his company and his colleagues have done.

 

Goodbye from the Charter Quay LVT Team

After three very long years our three cases at the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal are at an end, and the Charter Quay LVT team would like to say Goodbye.

 

We would also like to invite the MD of Peverel Mr Middleburgh to apologise to the residents of Charter Quay for all the things he and Peverel got wrong whilst managing the site. Read more here...