The Truth About Solitaire Property Management & Peverel Group Companies

It’s September, it’s been a four day week, following the Bank Holiday – but thank goodness it’s Friday!

Last week was quite frankly ‘manic’ and all of the updates that we had to post, certainly kept us busy and the reaction that we have had from many of you has been astounding, so thank you to everyone that has sent us information we requested.

This week we have seen lots of activity on TTAS in regards to the revelation of who / what the ‘IRPM’ (Institute of Residential Property Management) is and yesterday’s post by ‘Nirmal’ – which listed the names of each of the PPMG Employees, who hold a qualification with them, was very much of interest.

If you haven’t seen the list – click here to see Nirmal’s post.

There are many names that are familiar and it’s also good to see that management within PPMG also hold these qualifications. 

However, it’s a shame that despite these qualifications – that as Charles Roberts also commented- are there to “help provide better knowledge and experience” – none of the PPMG / CBG Property Managers (PM’s) seem to bother to use the information that they have learned.

Maybe so many PPMG employees hold the qualification, because it covers things such as ”how to avoid contact with serial complainers”, “how to source contractors, that give the PM’s benefits” – things that PPMG excel at. (we jest)

Clearly, there is a lot of sceptism about this qualification, with some contributors mentioning that this organisation was setup by ARMA – which if true, demonstrates that they at least ‘tried’ to regulate the industry at least.

It’s a shame that because these organisations are setup by members of PMC’s – that they all preach the gospel, but actually never put the words into action.  Therefore, when things go wrong, there isn’t anyone there to punish the company in question.

In fact, the way some PMC’s are running, in our eyes is very similar to the banks and some higher profile football clubs.  They can do what they want, beit – getting into massive debts, to try and achieve glory / profits and when it all goes wrong and they end up owing money to HMRC (football clubs) or needing loans from the Government (the banks).

That they get away with it and the only losers are us – the general public, because when we’ve bailed them out, their back to their old tactics again, but with a little more caution shall we say.

What needs to happen is for the Government to clamp down on this type of trading, discipline / fine / punish the traders of the larger companies – even if it puts them on the brink of going out of business or in fact, as most of us would like – put them out of business, so that the small – caring and trustworthy PMC’s can step in and reap the real benefits.

If all the PMC’s provided a good service, your homes were looking neat / tidy – we’d all happily pay reasonable service charges….

When will PPMG realise that to stop the complaints, residents money needs to be spent on maintaining the development in question and not lining the pockets of the group, to make the portfolio look attractive to backers of Mr Tchenquiz, so that he can buy up more property / land and charge more of us extionate rates, so that the whole process starts again.

[ADMIN EDIT - 10.41]
We’ve just received message from ‘Andy’ – who surprisingly e-mailed us from his corporate e-mail account which was related to Marlborough House Management (m-h-m.co.uk) and confirmed his identity to us (don’t worry Andy – we wont publish it).

He asked for the post by Nirmal to be amended and not list the names of Peverel Group employees who hold the IRPM qualifications, because it was not appropriate to the ‘context of the thread’

We’ve replied to Andy to say that this information is already in the public domain via the IRPM website and that if the PPMG employees didn’t want their names listed on the IRPM website for others to find, they should have requested them to be removed / not published.

In addition to the fact that PPMG should be proud for us to publish this information, because at least it demonstrates that PPMG employ qualified PMs and not just any random person who applied for the job off the street! 

Therefore, until IRPM remove reference to these employees – Nirmal’s post will remain unedited.  However, in the event that we do have to remove the names, we’ll publish a link for everyone to visit and look up the employees for yourselves.

We haven’t posted this message to provoke a reaction from PPMG, but we feel that TTAS visitors should know that PPMG are trying to moderate information that is published on TTAS and unless it is deemed as litigation or is libellous, we try not to edit visitors posts.

We do not see how posting this information, is any different to posting information that is available on websites such as Companies House about PPMG companies.

TTAS Contributor ‘Nirmal’ raised a very important point in a recent comment of his, when he raised the point of whether anyone had noticed a change in the way they were treated, having highlighted a complaint via TTAS?

When TTAS was first setup, we found that when residents referred to the website, their concerns were acted upon and is it possible that now the site is so popular, PPMG have given up trying to ‘protect’ and ‘surpress’ these complaints and are more than happy for them to be in the public domain.

Posting on TTAS is at the discretion of the contributor and if you wish to use your full name as a username – you can do, but most people prefer to have an alias that is difficult to identify by PPMG.

When complaints started to grow via the website, ‘Andy’ asked visitors to contact him direct so that he could handle your enquiry, to which we then started asking contributors to use their client reference number on their postings to help ‘Andy’ identify them – thus revealing the identity of the contributor to PPMG / SPM.

If you feel you haven’t been treated in the way that you deserve to be treated by PPMG, all because you contacted TTAS to help fight your cause – let us know, because if this type of ill-treatment has occured – it should not be allowed and PPMG should be a lot more professional than resenting a resident for publicly highlighting their failings.

Over the Bank Holiday weekend we received the following message from a contributor to TTAS, asking for us to try and help them get a response from Solitaire’s Online Feedback Manager – ‘Andy’ in regards to their complaint.

Hi there.

I was wondering if you might be able to get ‘Andy’ to respond about this.

Since an LVT decision was handed down on the 7th of May http://www.rpts.gov.uk/Files/2010/May/11002QYB.pdf) we had been chasing Estates and Management (E&M) who were chasing Solitaire to provide a completion statement for cessation of services. After several missed completion dates the final date was the 27th of August for completion and the transfer of the freehold from E&M to us.

The transfer of the freehold occurred however Solitaire have refused to provide a completion statement as requested by the leaseholders and the freeholder.

They are still intending to charge us for their services despite being advised it is to be terminated.

They have been advised by the previous freeholder E&M, they had been advised by our solicitor, and also by myself in chasing with them all of us had advised the 27th of August is the date that their services are to completed (the transfer from Peverel E&M of the freehold to us the leaseholders).

Solitaire called our Solicitor on the 26th of August and advised that this was the first that they had heard of this request and that they will not be providing a completion report and will continue to act as our property management company.

Rather absurd as the LVT decision (Link provided above) clearly shows that Solitaire Property Management Group was at the tribunal and that they have known all about out intent to complete and be absolved of them.

We the freeholders (and the leaseholders) do not want Solitiare to provide any service. We had advised several completion dates to which they should provide a completion report, all of which were missed and as such they are now going to continue to charge us for unwanted, unrequested ‘services’ beyond the 27th of August.

It is ridiculous that a property management company can refuse the request of the freeholder, leaseholders and solicitors for a completion statement, let alone claim to not be aware of this.

Our contact at Solitaire is our Property Manager: HD (*Admin edit – PMC name abbreviated).

Is this something that the you can help push Solitiare so that we can finally be free of Peverel? They are intent on remaining our property management company and charging us for the priveldge.

Regards,
RK

Having exchanged correspondence with RK, we were then advised this morning (Tuesday 31 August) that Peverel have written into RK’s development leases that Solitaire as the management company is a party to the lease, (which eliminates RK’s ability to have freedom of choice and choose a capable company, so that to have someone else would be a violation of the lease arrangements, talk about a monoply amongst their group).

Apparently, Peverel are holding firm that they cannot be removed and will do all they can to keep making money from them.

Are there any other TTAS contributors / visitors that have reviewed their leases to find that it is a tri-party lease and have SPM listed as a party and therefore, makes the removal of these companies even more difficult?  If so, do let us know.

In the meantime, we anticipate that RK will finally receive the reply that they have been waiting for from ‘Andy’, from us publicly posting this complaint / case. 

Although – prior to ‘Andy’ asking for help identifying RK’s development, the RPTS link above provides you with all the information you require.

On Friday TTAS saw it’s first response from ‘Andy’ (Peverels Online Feedback Manager) for a couple of weeks.

One of the things that we picked up on, which many visitors to TTAS had also noticed was the tone of the reply.

Not for the first time, Andy used the phrase ‘allegations’ in reference to our post about Amalgamated Lifts securing the lift maintenance contract on 300 Peverel properties in the South East.

We merely referred to a public document, which suggested that PPMG were addressing it’s supply chain. The fact the report mentioned that it would reduce costs for residents, was contradicted by emails TTAS received from residents at developments that Amalgamated now maintained, who reported their service charges had increased, in particular the ‘lift maintenance’ was one of these.

Therefore, how can Peverel so openly try to publicise cost savings for residents, when that apparently doesn’t appear to be the case.

The tone of the response didn’t come over as though it had been thought about, reviewed and appeared to be quite a ‘frustrated’ and ‘annoyed’ reply.

We may be misinterpreting the message, but after last weeks developments, did TTAS actually provoke PPMG to get even more annoyed at us and that was why ‘Andy’ was short and sharp.

Who knows, but we’d like to hear from anyone who has contacted ‘Andy’ direct and had a satisfactory reply / resolution to their problem or are still waiting for assistance from him?

We stumbled across the following Industry Today report on Amalgamated Lifts and how they had secured the contract with Peverel Property Management, to maintain up to 300 lifts that will be adopted over the next twelve months in the South-East.

One of the points that we found of particular interest was the quote:-

As part of Peverel’s drive to reconcile the number of suppliers they use and deliver best value for money for their clients and residential customers, the company has conducted a nationwide tender to create a Framework Agreement with their suppliers

Pardon us for almost spilling our tea over the keyboard….. we were shocked to read that they are trying to reconcile the number of suppliers to deliver best value for money to their clients and residential customers!

Does this mean that finally, they are trying to appear as independent and are opening up the tender process to all channels now, rather than to those that ‘reward’ them?  No comment!

Will this mean a reduction in charges to customers?  Probably not, it’s likely that they will probably have secured a low price for this service from Amalgamated Lifts to then add a premium on top!

AllAgents.co.uk Reviews

When TTAS was first setup, there were very few reviews of Solitaire Property Management on this website, but over the last few years, well in fact months – a lot more people have reviewed SPM and not surprisingly have rated them 1 out of 5!

This was the rating from 120 reviews, but does say it all really!

If you haven’t added your review to the AllAgents website, click here to do so.

Hello to Peverel

We mentioned earlier today that it had been very quiet on the Peverel front with ‘Andy’ not having contributed to the website that much.

Well, we’d like to re-assure everyone that Peverel are still very much monitoring the website on a regular basis, because our website statistics tell us, that since the 13 January – they have visited the site over 7800 times! (These figures are returning visits and not unique hits from them)

Now, let us cast our minds back to July 2008 when the website was first setup and they didn’t pay much attention to us for over six months!  Oh, how times have changed, eh!

Finally – Thank You

Recent posts have provoked a great reaction from visitors to TTAS and we have received many messages of support to thank us for setting up TTAS and for taking the decision to ‘out’ our friends.

We’d like to say a big thank you to all of the contributors and visitors to TTAS, because without you and the information that has been shared by ourselves and others – none of us would be in the position where we are now.

Our aim has always been to promote awareness of SPM, it just so happened that on this journey we discovered the tangled web that was Peverel and the even greater web of Consensus Business Group and how both of these companies have managed to monoplies an industry that had no regulation, to take full advantage of residents who unknowingly stepped into this predicament.

If anything, what encourages us is the fact that now – once and for all, people can purchase properties and find out the real facts of the management company – if it is a PPMG / CBG company. 

This is something that none of us had the opportunity of doing and people can purchase a property in the knowledge of what they can expect and what they are getting themselves into, without the feeling that many of us have of “being conned / not told the full story”

We also appreciate the fact that we have probably made it harder for residents to sell properties with PPMG/CBG associated to them, but without this medium – none of us would be any wiser and we’d all still be complaining as individuals without knowing that there are others out there with the same complaint and to know now, what can be done to remove these awful companies.

Those of you that have smartphones will be pleased to know that we have recently enabled a ‘smartphone friendly’ theme, so that you can view TTAS even better when on the move!

We hope that this will make visiting TTAS from mobiles a lot easier to use and to contribute too.

Should anyone experience technical difficulties with this mobile friendly theme, please let us know and if necessary we’ll disable the feature, however from testing that has been undertaken, we have had positive comments about it.

A big thank you to those TTAS visitors that have spent time to document their experiences of Peverel and sent them to ‘research@thetruthaboutsolitaire.co.uk’.

The stories so far are a perfect example of what the publicist has been looking for and demonstrates a common theme that we are all too aware off!

However, those of you that may be reading this and thinking “that’s okay, they’ve got enough stories, so I don’t need to send mine” – think again!

This is possibly the best opportunity that we have had in the last two years to try and expose Peverel (& associated companies) for ripping off not only retirement property owners, but also ourselves as leaseholders / freeholders! So now is the time to have your say and make it count!

Therefore, send us your stories to research@thetruthaboutsolitaire.co.uk to help build a comprehensive list of Peverels failings to prove that the issues are nationwide and that they are to blame.

Let’s also prove that it’s not simply a case of “serial complainers” as Mr Rapley of Consensus Business Group once quoted.

It’s time to crank up the pressure on Peverel Property Management, just like when they threaten us with debt collection and give them something to worry about, because they must be concerned as ‘Andy’ has been rather quiet of late!

Has he been told to stop posting by the powers that be??

Ohhh to be a fly on the wall in Peverel towers right now!

TheTruthAboutSolitaire (TTAS) and the Campaign Against Retirement Leasehold EXploitation action group (CARLEX) have been contacted by a journalist who is looking for stories of woe – from Peverel / Consensus Business Group PMC customers.

They would really like to speak to others about the treatment they’ve received from the likes of Peverel and others, with the ultimate goal of producing more case studies to promote to the media. At present, they are acutely aware that so far the only examples they’ve got published are based in London – hence they’re keen to speak to people from outside of the south-east of the country.

Obviously TTAS is full of stories of ‘woe’ – but defining and identifying where these problems are is difficult and that is why we have setup a dedicated e-mail address, where you can send your story to with any contact details you wish to include, for the journalist to contact you direct.

The e-mail address is:

research@thetruthaboutsolitaire.co.uk

Although the e-mail address is via TTAS, the message will also be copied directly to the journalist in question, as well as ourselves and is why we have asked for contact details to be included on the message, so that they can contact you.

It would appear that finally, there is a publicist out there that is trying to fight our corner and we say – good on you!

For anyone that may have any doubt as to the legitamacy of the ‘journalist’, they were instrumental in getting the Telegraph to report on Mr & Mrs Houston, in addition to this report in the Metro newspaper, plus they have attracted TV companies to be interested in the PPMG story.

We look forward to hearing from you all and do remember to keep us updated on developments at your site!

Many will have read yesterday’s posting that referred to the Telegraph article, that feature Mr & Mrs Houston who were due in court to try and get the fees back from Peverel.

It’s come to our attention that Landmark Leashold Advisory Services were supporting the Houstons throughout this case and they’ve given us a bit more info!

Apparently, there was a catalogue of errors on behalf of the court and the other side who turned up with a monstrous legal team, who had little difficulty in tying Mr Houston up in knots with probing questions, that would confuse anyone!

It is possible that the legal team that turned up, were the original legal team that appeared It would appeared for the original LVC case?  (LVT report http://www.rpts.gov.uk/Files/2009/December/D_50002QZ6.pdf)

Once again it was a case of David versus Goliath and unfortunately in this case – Goliath won.

However, in the words of James from Landmark – “We must break a few eggs before we can make an omelette” and in this case, we’d like to think that although they won this time, much has been taken from this experience to make the next case a whole lot harder for Peverel to defend!

This could explain why the Telegraph report was withdrawn from their website, because they had heard the outcome of the court case?  We don’t know, but at least it has helped to attract further media coverage of Peverel and once again today we have been contacted by further news agencies – so this matter is certainly not going to go away!

Following the publication of the Telegraph report yesterday, it would appear that this provoked readers to have a ‘google’ of Peverel, because we have been inundated with messages from people with problems!

Not only that, this coverage has also put Peverel back on the media companies radar, as we have also had many enquiries from members of the press – so watch this space for more details!

Here are a select few of the messages that we have received to demonstrate to Peverel that it isn’t a ‘small minority of serial complainers’ – it is rife throughout their customers:-

Good Morning,

I have come across your site after searching for Solitaire Property Maintenance online. We moved into our lovely new home 3 and a half years ago, and Solitaire Property Maintenance have now decided to send everybody on the estate a bill for nearly £10,000 every year to maintain the estate.

Now let me tell you that the estate is small and only consist of 50 properties, now within these 50 properties there are 3 communal area’s of grass that are roughly around 6ft x 12ft in size and 3 lamp posts.

Solitaire is taking the proverbial. Is there any way to get them removed from our estate?  Can we petition or complain to a governing body?

Any assistance would be great

Best Regards
NB

Good afternoon, I am after a little advice and its looks like you can help or point me the right direction.

I live in a 3 bed flat managed by Solitaire and E&M with my wife and 2 dogs and have lived there since it was first built with as normal, all the problems that seem to come with dealing with these idiots.

I recently received a letter stating that I have not had consent for my pets the live at the flat and they need to be re-homed immediately. Obviously I was dumb struck and contacted them straight away, I was unaware that consent was needed as I have had them for near on 5 years with no issues but never the less I made this statement and they said that they would be in contact. 

Over a month later I receive a letter confirming that consent will be granted and that all I need to do is to forward the consent charge and admin fee to them ……………. £460.00 !!!

As you can imagine I was stunned to get a bill for this amount, I am in the process of contacting them but was wondering if you have any prior knowledge of others being fleeced for this reason. I just can’t understand where they get this figure from….what are they having to do that cost this amount, maybe a ~£25 admin fee but not £460.

Your advice / comments would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

KP

Hello.

I have been having issues with Solitaire for many years and so have my neighbours.  We seem to go through account managers who never respond back or leave.

We are a set of 5 houses, all freehold.  We currently pay just under £2000 which is split between the 5 houses and pay every 6 months.

I live in a semi-detached house.  Running parallel to my house is a 3 car parking bay which has a few shrubs and bushes in it.

This car park is for use for the 5 houses above.  Three of the houses are nowhere near the parking bays and so do not use it.

We have a garage and driveway so we do not need it.

There are no out buildings, no need for the fences to be looked after only a few bushes.

When we moved in, we were informed about the property management, but in 1998 the cost where about £20 (£100 for the 5) which was reasonable.

They after a few years, the costs rose to £170 (£860) per year.  This was just management fees.  We then had liability insurance (which I understand being a private parking area).

On this, it had terrorism charges on it, in which I asked them and they told me it was compulsory but speaking to the Insurance company they took the policy with stated that if there was no buildings then terrorism charges need not apply.
 
On many occasions we have spoken to Solitaire and never ever got any answers.  In fact, an old lady over the road was told that if she did not pay, they would come around and take things to that value which shook her up considerable.

I have been told, if you do not like it, buy the land off us!.

I am not opposed to paying costs, but the costs I feel need to be on a level which it is fair.

One other point, my wife complained that she had not seen anyone cut the bushes and within 24 hours a man was there and took all of 3 minutes to tidy up, in which 2 minutes was having a drink and something to eat before starting (wife was watching from window).

Is there anything I can do, as If I call Solitaire, our “costs” seem to rise the next year.

One other thing, that if we owe Solitaire property management monies, then until they are paid we cannot sell our property,

I am very nervous, as the charges have been moving up and basically in the position of someone being pressed by heavies to pay protection fees which we cannot control

I do have more details, but not on me at the moment as I write this

Many Thanks

A

We, a group of 30 retired leasehold flat owners have struggled through nearly three years of dispute with our Management Company and have found the going very difficult and at times depressing. 

It is a complete maze even trying to find out where you stand as leaseholders.

The whole sector has and is growing in a random way. It always requires solicitors and organisations such as Lease have difficulty giving help because of this. 

Our Residents Association have managed to recover between £10.000 and £20.000, with a further £10.000 to £20.000 to be returned to us when the company’s audit is complete in the autumn.  You might say that we have done a good job bu there are problems still outstanding. 

Even if we have a satisfactory result with those, the major problem will still exist.  That is, of course, how to ensure that the inadequate accounting procedures, together with poor management practices bordering on the unethical are not continued. 

Our Landlord/Management Company(ies) are listed as ‘Social’.  This means that we cannot change them.  How then can we bring this to a satisfactory conclusion? 

There seems to be no ‘body’ we can approach who will look at our case and take it up with the companies concerned.  We have contacted M.P’s, ARHM, The Housing Ombudsman, Lease, etc., etc. With little or no success. 

Apart from all the hard work in detailing all of our disputes and all the correspondence and meetings, we feel a little happy with the results we have achieved but still very alone. 

We can well imagine that there are many groups of Retired Leaseholders scattered around the country who are completely unaware that they have problems and even if they do, are without the expertise and stamina to go through what we have done. 

This problem is one of lack of regulation and compounded by the unethical behaviour of Management Companies which becomes more apparent as time goes on

N

There is a common theme hear, whereby everyone is asking for regulation of this type of ‘malpractice’, but it is left to the residents to fight their corner, because the Government / local MPs appear to not have the courage to stand up to these rogues….. 

If it was anyone else, they’d be up before the Magistrate having to justify this type of behaviour – but when you have lots of money and the backing of a ‘billionaire’ (who’s also being chased for his assets), they can carry on trading this way!

If there are any members of the press reading TheTruthAboutSolitaire – more coverage is needed, because the Government have already palmed us off by saying that RICS are responsible for Regulating the Industry, but that isn’t good enough, we need someone to fight on our behalves, rather than having to fight ourselves!

If there was a body that would take up all the legal wrangling, residents wouldn’t be scared of fighting Peverel / Consensus Business Group – but because the responsibility falls at the residents door, it’s intimidating and disheartening to continue the fight.

TheTruthAboutSolitaire has found that those developments that have managed to be rid of Peverel / Consensus Business Group of property management companies, have had certain individuals who have been determined to take up the fight on behalf of their neighbours and not give in.

WANT RID OF PEVEREL ASSOCIATED COMPANIES?
YOUR DEVELOPMENT NEEDS YOUR HELP

CANVAS YOUR NEIGHBOURS
SETUP A RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
PETITION YOUR FREEHOLDER

FIGHT BACK IN NUMBERS, NOT AS INDIVIDUALS – YOU’LL THEN SUCCEED