1/12/19: The
Service Charge continues to be witheld until such
time as the director and committee fulfill their
legal obligations to the residents and give
unconditional access to the 2017/18 Account
Inspection. Further to this, a request has
been made to Inspect the 2018/19 Account - to date
there has been no response to the email request.
|
Service Charge Witheld at 1/12/19
£329.60 |
*
29/11/19:
Condition 2 - Letter regarding the Account
Inspection
"You
will adhere to, non-disclosure of the
outcome of your visit to our Office,
there are to be NO comments placed
ON YOUR WEBSITE
or discussed VERBALLY
outside of this Office."
Do the director and committee not realise that by
attempting to gain a signed non-disclosure they have
raised a red flag which indicates that they know
there is the possibility of something incriminating
turning up during an Inspection of the
account which they want to keep hidden from the
residents at all costs. They can't even claim
confidentiality because what we are talking about is
the residents funds who are entitled to
inspect the accounts and see where every penny is
spent!
*
OUTCOME
OF THE SCHEDULED ACCOUNT INSPECTION 27/11/19
UNBELIEVEABLE!
On
arrival to carry out the Inspection as
scheduled, I was presented with the following
letter which I was expected to sign prior to
being allowed to make the Inspection. I
refused to sign and would not agree to any of
their conditions consequently the inspection did
not take place, however the meeting continued
with the managing agent when a number of matters were
discussed relating to the accounts in general.
The
director and committee are once again playing
stupid games in order to ensure that this
account is not inspected,
their behaviour is even more suspicious when you read
condition No 2
in their letter below.
Sooner or later they
are going to have to allow an Inspection to take
place so they may as well agree to it - without
conditions - and put this matter to rest once
and for all.
So
the situation has not changed and my withdrawal
of the Service Charge continues until such time
as the director and committee give unconditional
access to an inspection.
*
18/11/19
- Response Accepting this Appointment
Dear Mrs. M.......,
Thanks for your email giving an
alternative date for the Inspection of the
2017/18 Account to take place, 1pm on Wednesday
November 27, 2019 will be fine.
Email with an
alternative Date to Inspect the 2017/18
Mon 18/11/2019
Dear Mrs S.......
Apologises for the
delay in replying. Would the date 27th
November 2019 at 1pm, be convenient for to
attend our Office.
Please advise,
Many Thanks V....
M.......
*
Follow-up email - Inspection of 2017/18 Account
12/11/19
Dear Mrs. M.......
As
you haven't responded to my email below, I'm a
little concerned that perhaps you did not
receive it and may be expecting me to attend the
meeting which you set up for tomorrow afternoon
the 13th Nov. Perhaps you could confirm if you
have in fact received it and what alternative
arrangements you can make in order for the
Inspection to take place.
I
look forward to hearing back from you.
*
Inspection of 2017/18 Account - A Development
On
November 8, 2019 I received the following email from
the managing agent. From it's contents it
would
appear that the
director and committee have decided to comply with
their Legal Obligations contained within the Lease
and abide by the Landlord's & Tenants Act 1985, and
agree to allow the Inspection of the 2017/18 Account
to take place without conditions attached.
Hi Mrs
S.......
I would
like to Invite into our Office to inspect the year
17/18 Accounts, I have a free Afternoon on 13th
November 2019, 1pm. Would that be a suitable time
and day for you.
Please
advise. Many Thanks
V....
M.......
There follows my response:
Dear Mrs. M.......
Many thanks for your
message and invitation to Inspect the 2017/18
Account which is appreciated, unfortunately I have
an appointment on Wednesday afternoon which I can't
put off. Would it be possible to move the
Inspection to another day of your choosing - I am
available any other day next week or when ever would
be convenient to you.
Thanking you in advance
and look forward to hearing back from you.
*
Update -
Service Charge witheld at
November 1, 2019
Inspection of 2017/18 Accounts
Further to the
meeting with the managing agent on
3/10/19, this was followed by a
number of phone calls
from
their solicitor. The purpose of these
communications were to discuss the options they were
willing to consider with a view to resolving the
issue, these options were:
(1) paying all monies owed before an Inspection
takes place
(2) pay a deposit on monies owed before an
Inspection
Neither of these are acceptable and the parties
concerned were informed again that as soon as the
Inspection of the 2017/18 Account takes place
without conditions, reimbursement would be made.
The
Service Charge will continue to be witheld until
such time as the director and committee fulfill their
Legal Obligations and allow the
Inspection to take place.
The
resolution to this ongoing issue is simple and it's
time that the director and committee took their
legal obligations seriously and ALLOWED THE
INSPECTION TO TAKE PLACE WITHOUT CONDITIONS
and bring these
shenanigans
to a close!
|
Service Charge witheld at 1/11/19
£291.30 |
*
21/10/19 - Letter received requesting a Meeting
A
further meeting requested to discuss 'issues' -
see here
for full details and the
response
to the request.
*
A
Meeting with the Managing Agent 3/10/19
(Abridged)
The
Managing Agent requested a meeting with with me
to discuss the Service Charge Issue relating to
the Inspection of the 2017/18 Account.
After
some discussion on various aspects of the issue,
I was asked if I would agree to the removal of
the sign in my window and to paying the monies owed
- I stated that I would concur with this request
as soon as the Inspection had taken place and
not before. The managing agent then
requested that I put in writing my commitment to
reimburse the Service Charge which has been witheld to date - see the confirmation email
below:
"Dear Mrs M.......
Further to the meeting of today, you
requested that I put it in writing that I
would reimburse the Service Charged owed to
you once the Inspection of the 2017/18 had
taken place, I don't understand why you
needed this confirming again as I already
stated this to you - in writing - on a
couple of occasions including on the website
- which you say you haven't looked at."
The matter remains
unresolved.
*
Service Charge witheld at
October 1, 2019
Inspection of 2017/18 Accounts
Until such time as the director and
committee of the SRA Ltd fulfill their
Legal Obligations and allow
' unconditional access'
to inspect this account, the Service
Charge will continue to be witheld.
|
Service Charge witheld at 1/10/19:
£253.00 |
*
Service Charge witheld at
September 1, 2019
UPDATE
£214.70
*
WINDOW NOTICE
The Sycamores Committee
now state they are
taking Legal Action to recover the Service
Charge witheld to date.
After 7 months of
silence and no communication from them on this
matter, they say
they will allow an Inspection of the 2017/18
Accounts. However it comes with a number of
unacceptable conditions attached before they
will let the inspection go ahead.
It is questionable
why they have waited so long before they have
addressed the situation - and why now!
Given that it is
the director and committee who are actually
guilty of breaching the Lease and being in
contempt of the Landlord & Tenants Act Law
1985, this does not appear to be a very sensible
approach on their part to addressing or solving
the matter. To say the least it is rather
bizarre as their handling of the ongoing
situation will no doubt come under investigation
if or when it ever gets to a court situation.
Once again - until
such time as they fulfill their Legal
Obligations and allow proper and unrestricted
access to this account, the Service Charge will
continue to be witheld.
*
Response email
sent 17/8/19 to the Managing Agent's letter of
Aug 14, 2019
Dear Mrs. M.......
Thank you for
your latest letter of August 14, 2019 where you
informed me that the director and committee
intend proceeding with legal action against me
to recover the Service Charge I have witheld to
date.
To be absolutely
clear - my reason for witholding the Service
Charge was, and remains to gain proper access to
the 2017/18 Accounts which they are legally
obliged to allow, and by continuing to refuse to
allow proper access they themselves have been
and are guilty of the following:
(1) in breaching
the Lease of the estate
(2) in being in
contempt of the Landlords & Tenants Act 1985
the latter being
a prosecutable offence in itself.
I strongly advise
you to consider the facts, the reasons for the
initial reduction in the Service Charge, and
eventually the full amount of the Service Charge
being witheld, and the sequence of events which
runs from Dec 2018:
·
Fact : December 6, 2018, an official
request was made to the Accountant and committee
to inspect the 2017/18 Account.
·
Fact : December 8, 2018, I informed the
committee that I would be reducing the amount of
monthly Service Charge by £3.30 per month. This
was due to a threatening Solicitors Letter
dated December 1, 2017 regarding the website,
and the reason for the reduction was fully
explained at the time.
·
Fact : January 5, 2019, there had been no
response to my original request, a further
message was sent to the Accountant and committee
on 5/1/19 asking for a response.
·
Fact: January 16, 2019, there had been
no reply to the request so I forwarded the
request to the managing agent.
·
Fact : January 31, 2019 - A reply was
received from the managing agent stating my
request to inspect invoices and receipts
relating to account 2017/18 had been refused
by the committee, no explanation was given for
their refusal.
·
Fact : April 4, 2019, I informed the
managing agent and committee that I would be
making a further reduction totalling £10 per
month relating to 2 further threatening letters
received from the Solicitor on June 12, 2018 and
June 25, 2018, again the reason for the
reduction was fully explained.
·
Fact : April 19, 2019, The committee were
notified that my Service Charge would be
witheld until such times as they complied with
their legal obligations towards the residents.
They were also informed at the same time that as soon as an Inspection of the account was
carried out that the monies witheld would be
reimbursed.
·
Fact:
Not once between December
6, 2018 and July 22, 2019 (7 months in total)
have they made any effort to contact me either
by telephone, letter or email, with a view to
discussing this matter and possibly having it
resolved.·
It appears that
instead of considering and responding sensibly
to my last letter on this matter, the director
and committee have again decided in favour of
threatening me, as they have done so many times
before. Frankly - I continue to be appalled by
this unreasonable behaviour - and in the event
that this goes further than their repeated
threats, I look forward to my day in court when
they will have to justify their position in breaching the
Lease and being in contempt of the law itself as
outlined earlier.
Yours faithfully,
*
Another hand delivered letter
from the managing agent on
behalf of the committee.
*
Response sent via email to the letter below on
9/8/19
Dear Mrs M.......,
I acknowledge receipt of your hand delivered
letter dated August 7, 2019, and thank you for
the clarification as to which accounting year
you were referring to in your previous letter as
there had been some confusion on your part
whether it was Account Year 2017/18 or the
Account still uncompleted for 2018/19.
As already stated I will reimbursed monies owed
and remove the notices as requested once a full
Inspection of the 2017/18 Account has been
completed and not before.
I look forward to your response when hopefully
common sense will prevail and this matter can be
resolved in a reasonable manner which would be
in the interest of all concerned.
cc The committee - Doris Clark,
Joyce Lowes, D M....., S T......
8/8/19 Latest from the committee and managing
agent
*
Confused management & committee
Referring to the letter received from the
managing agent on behalf of the director and
committee dated 23/7/19 which was received on
the 29/7/19 and responded to, there has been
no reply from them to the request to clarify
which accounting year they were referring to.
It would appear they must still be confused and
can't make up their mind about what they are
talking about and offering, or perhaps they
were being
deliberately
ambiguous for some unknown reason when they
stated
"view
the Audited Accounts once completed for year
ending 17/18".
So to
clarify - the Inspection requested and
originally refused by the committee (see here)
is for accounting year 2017/18 - this is the
year prior to the managing agent taking over on
1/4/2018, it is Account year 2017/18 which was
'audited' and issued to the residents and
presented at the Agm in 2018. It can only be
assumed by their statement to "view
the Audited Accounts
once completed
for year ending 17/18",
that they are referring to accounting
year 2018/19 and not 2017/18!
To bring the managing agent and committee up to
date, the amount of Service Charge being witheld
is £176.40 which includes August, and as
previously declared in a letter to the committee
and managing agent dated 19/4/19, this will be
reimbursed once an Inspection of the 2017/18
Account has been made and not before.
Regarding the 'Threat', please take note, this
is not the first time that Legal Action has been
threatened, these were an attempt at the time to
bully and intimidate which proved unsuccessful
then and won't work this time either, but the
committee are free to go down that route if you so choose
- after all neither the managing agent or
committee have to foot the bill, as usual it
falls to the residents to pay.
It's
good to remember that the committee have shown
themselves on numerous occasions to be
untrustworthy, and have been prepared to breach the
lease and break the law when it suits them. They are not fit
to hold the positions they do, however they will
continue to do as they please until such times as
the residents take control and decide not to vote them
back in.
*
NOTICE -
1/8/19
Service Charge witheld at August 1, 2019
£176.40
*
Response sent
29/7/19
*
Service Charge -
For the period 1/4/19 - 31/3/20
Reference letter to the residents dated 1/4/19
where it states:
NO ACTION REQUIRED - All payment plans will
remain the same.
Once again attention is drawn to the
Clause 3.5 of
the Lease:
In
calculating
the amount of Service Charge from time to time
the Lessor
shall take into account any past deficiency
and any future expenditure (whether annual or
recurring or not) which may be likely to be
incurred by the Lessor under any of the heads
aforesaid so as
to enable the Lessor to meet such expenditure
out of the funds in the hands of the Lessor
representing service charges paid by the Lessees
of Dwellings in the Scheme if and when such
expenditure shall be incurred and shall also
take into account and give due allowance for any
surplus arising out of such service charge
previously collected but not in the event wholly
expanded.
The director and committee once again are in
breach of the terms and conditions of the Lease
and their responsibilities, anyone reading the
highlighted areas above would have no difficulty
actually understanding what it means, so why
don't they.
For the past 3 years that I know of there has
been a huge shortfall each year with regard to
the amount of Service Charge received, this has
been documented in an earlier article which
can be viewed here.
The Service Charge is intended to be self
financing for the most part, this is normally
achieved by looking at the previous years
expenditure and setting the level for the coming
year accordingly.
What has been happening is that this shortfall
has been subsidised out of the Sinking fund
which is intended for
major future
expenditure and
not for
the day to day expenses and repairs and
renewals, in fact nowhere in the Lease does it
state that this is allowed.
It would appear that in this instance, the
director and committee choose to ignore the
terms of the Lease to keep the Service Charge at
a low level. In the past because of this
practice, the Sinking Fund percentage was
actually increased from 3% to the current 5% to
cover for the shortfall in Service Charge.
Isn't it about time that the decisions relating
to the estate's finances were handled properly
and not at the whim of the director and
committee!
*
Letter sent to the director,
committee & managing agent by the
website owner 5/4/19
Dear director, committee and managing agent,
A Further Service Charge Reduction
No doubt the annual account for year 2018/19 is
now complete and included in that will be
charges for 2 further letters from the company
solicitor to myself, these were mentioned in my
letter to you of 9/12/19.
I wish to inform you that I am now making a
further reduction in my Service Charge
contribution for the same reason outlined in
that letter, this will apply from 1/4/19 until
31/3/20.
Please find enclosed my cheque for £28.30 for
April 2019's charge, this is the reduced amount
I will continue to pay until the end of this
financial year.
Yours faithfully
*
Question sent to the managing agent, director
and committee 25/3/19
Observations on the Service Charge
What is the criteria used to work out the level
of Service Charges for different types of
properties on the estate i.e:
|
Property Type |
Monthly Payment |
| |
|
|
2 Bedroomed apartment
....................................................................... |
Around
£44.00 |
|
2 Bedroomed apartment with
garage
................................................... |
? |
| |
|
|
2 Bedroomed terraced bungalow
with own garden
......................... |
£38.30 |
|
2 bedroomed terraced bungalow
with own garden and garage
........... |
? |
| |
|
|
1 bedroomed flat
................................................................................... |
£38.30 |
|
1 bedroomed flat with garage (if
applicable)
......................................... |
? |
There appears to be
an anomaly, why would a 1 bedroomed flat
have the same charge as a 2 bedroomed
bungalow with a garden?
Note:
To date there has been no response from
either the managing agent, director or
committee on this matter.
*
The
Service Charge
Owner/Residents pay an Annual Service Charge
towards the upkeep of the estate, this covers
the day to day repairs, renewals, gardening,
window cleaning etc. This service charge also
pays the Accountant, the Company Solicitor and
the Managing Agent for their services.
In
the accounts for the year ended 31 March, 2018,
this is what each resident has contributed on a
Monthly basis towards the Service Charge for
these major items in comparison to what they
contributed in previous years:
Comparison of Residents Monthly Service Charge
Contribution
|
Service Item |
2017/18 per
Month |
2016/17 pper Month |
2015/16 |
|
|
Electricity |
£2.28 |
£2.43 |
£2.20 |
|
|
Insurance |
£12.25 |
£13.13 |
£12.19 |
|
|
Repairs & Maintenance |
£7.92 |
£8.19 |
£51.29 |
* |
|
Gardening Expenses |
£9.70 |
£8.18 |
£7.85 |
|
|
Cleaning and Window Cleaning |
£5.95 |
£5.79 |
£5.00 |
|
|
Legal
and Professional Fees |
£4.85 |
£0.00 |
£1.00 |
|
|
Management Fees |
£8.07 |
£8.07 |
£8.02 |
|
* This was due to the Painting
Contract
It's
interesting to note that when a comparison
is done between previous years, it shows
that the actual Service Charge Receipts did
not cover the Expenditure, in each of the
last 3 years compared, there has been a
shortfall which has been subsidised by the
Sinking Fund which is why the Sinking Fund %
was increased from 3% to 5%.
Comparison
between the Service Charge Expenditure
against actual Receipts
| |
2017/18 |
2016/17 |
2015/16 |
| |
|
|
|
| Total
Expenditure |
£34,857 |
£31,040 |
£31,040 |
| Total Service
Charge Receipts |
£26,588 |
£26,629 |
£27,516 |
| |
|
|
|
| Actual
Shortfall between receipts and
expenditure |
£8,269 |
£4,411 |
£3,524 |
There are
regulations covering the use of the
Sinking Fund in the Lease which can be
viewed here,
however there is nothing which says it
can, or should be used to subsidise the
Service Charges - hopefully someone (the
director,committee or managing agent)
might be good enough to clarify this
point eventually.
With
regard to the calculation of the Service
Charge itself, it clearly states in the
Lease under Clause 3.5:
The decisions which the director and committee
are and have been making over the past years
with regard to the amount of Service Charge
levied could be seen as bad housekeeping at
least for all those decisions could have been
made with the best of intentions for the
residents. Do they not realise that
all they are doing is deferring the ongoing
shortfall onto the families of the residents in
the event when properties are sold.
*
