Whats going on with Solitaire’s accounting systems?
There has been an increase in the number of compliants on TheTruthAboutSolitaire from residents that have received invoices on one day, to then receive another invoice the following day asking for even more money.
How / why has Solitaire allowed these mistakes to happen? Are they mistakes? Who knows?
Having seen accounting systems implemented in the past at previous companies I have worked for, there has always been a period when the old and new systems run alongside eachother, until they have been confident that the new system is working correctly, before decommissioning the old system.
Solitaire Property Management / Peverel Property Management cannot blame the system or ‘paperwork’ being lost, during the relocation of offices. This has got to be human error and the fact Solitaire are not admitting to the mistake, would suggest that they are assuming people will pay for the inaccuracies, without realising the mistake.
When you consider the number of residents that probably just pay invoices, for a quiet life, unlike many of the contributors on TheTruthAboutSolitaire, who have grown wise to their tricks!
This is not the first mistake that residents have had to encounter from Solitaire / Peverel of late. Who else has received the letters from Solitaire that had spelling mistakes, only for Solitaire to advise that ‘apparently the wrong template was loaded onto the system’.
Doesn’t portray Solitaire / Peverel in a very professional way does it.
ARMA
I’ve been contacted by ‘Sheps’ and he has advised that ARMA are currently fighting his estates cause with Solitaire, following the inaccuracies on his accounts, which has lead to residents refusing to pay, until provided with correct information.
He’s advised that a lady called Geraldine Shortall of ARMA, even referred to his initial complaint to them from a year ago about Solitaire, when he copied in their e-mail address to all correspondence that he sent to Solitaire and fellow residents. (You may have seen some of the messages that he has kindly posted on the TheTruthAboutSolitaire).
This goes to show that ARMA do actually record your complaint, even if they do not initially respond or act on them.
This would also suggest that ARMA are starting to acknowledge customer complaints, (in this case against Solitaire) and could be the ideal opportunity for those people who have received the inaccurate bills, to make a complaint to ARMA about Solitaire?
We recommend that should you send any correspondence to Solitaire that you copy info@arma.org.uk into your messages.
Andy recently mentioned that he was disappointed that I felt that things weren’t improving at Solitaire Property Management / Peverel Property Management, and referred to Andrew Billson’s comment that things would be in place by Summer of 2009.
It is now July and if this isn’t long enough for us to comment on whether things have improved, then Andrew Billson should have covered himself by saying something like “we hope to have things completed by the end of the summer” (e.g. by September).
Maybe, Andy could explain just what has happened for us to see all of these erroneous invoices be received by residents and what Solitaire are doing to correct this?
July 9th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Well I wish you luck with ARMA and hope you end up feeling more satisfied than I did.
I have made the point elsewhere that we have to bear in mind who pays the subscriptions which keep these sort of bodies going.
Unless we organise our own body to represent us it is difficult to escape the conclusion that Peverels/Solitaire will never have the assistance and pressure to face the degree of change they need to undergo.
July 9th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Could we start an online group who all subscribe to not pay, collectively, until we get issues resolved. Such a group could then be used in representations in defence of any invoice disputes or legal cases.
Also maybe we could have a register of property name, type e.g. number of beds etc and the amount being invoiced and then we could all look at the charges to see if there are any variances in them and the reasons why.
I am going to post this under other sections as well so that it isn’t missed.
I for one am happy to disclose what i am paying if it helps others and indeed me and perhaps we could have a league table of charges across different geographical areas.
[ADMIN EDIT]
Brian, I like your thinking. I’ll see what I can do in regards to setting something up for people to add their figures. We need something similar to the Official Petition, hopefully I’ll be able to produce this. Apologises if I can’t, unless there is a web programmer out there that is a Solitaire sufferer that could do this?
July 10th, 2009 at 8:56 am
When I asked our property manager a couple of years ago how they arrived at their annual management fees he said it was all to do with the number of units in a development; for argument sake 1-15 units they could charge so much a year per dwelling, 16 – 40 it was then another band and so on and so forth. These were guidelines drawn up by I presume their governing body – ARMA(?). We were a group of 13 flats and the annual management fee (incl. VAT) from 1st January to 31st December 2009 was £3,406.00.
July 10th, 2009 at 10:36 am
I have just recieved my bill and letter of explanation from Solitaire for more money. The letter is signed ‘Solitaire’ which gives me the impression that no individual is prepared to properly sign it and take responsibility for its content.
I have also noticed that the bill itself is called an ‘Application for Payment’ rather than ‘Invoice’ on their regular bills. Other things that appear on their regular bills seem to be missing from this ‘Application for Payment’ they are;
The ARMA logo is missing.
The ‘payment due’ date is missing.
The ‘interest may be charged on late payment’ bit is missing.
In addition, Solitaire cannot even prove that I am in receipt of the bill as it has not come via registered on recorded post. So I am in no hurry to pay this bill – if I pay it at all.
I think it would be a good idea for as many of us as possible to hold back this payment until a proper justification in put forward by Solitaire. I would suggest that those paying by direct debit cancel it.
Maybe we could take up Andy’s suggestion. Ask our respective Solitaire manager to visit us, ask him/her to explain what’s going on, and if we are satisfied hand over the payment (in 1p coins).
July 10th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
a n onymous – good point(s). The same applies to the bills I’ve received from Solitaire – no ARMA logo (although it is still on the bottom of the accompanying letter explaining the software system cock-up…..), no “payment due” date, no “interest may be charged on late payment” statement, as on previous bills.
And yes, it does state “APPLICATION FOR PAYMENT” at the top – they are applying to me, for payment. Sorry Mr. Solitaire, your application has not been sucessful this time….. Maybe when you show that you are actually worth paying (i.e. you actually do something, like manage & maintain the development I live in), then a further “Application for payment” might be more sucessful (although there is no guarantee…..).