One Year of PeverHell
We’ve been contacted by ‘A N Onymous’, who has been a frequent contributor to TheTruthAboutSolitaire and wanted to share their opinion of Peverel, as it is now over a year since they ‘took’ over Solitaire Property Management and their view is that nothing has changed. (one that many of us would also agree with)
‘A N Onymous’ addressed their message to us ‘One Year of PeverHell’ and below is the correspondence, they’ve asked us to post, that highlights their problems.
“My customer reference/account number 00157/001060.
My lease document tells me that Solitaire are responsible for the management and maintenance of the development where I live. In return we, the residents are required to pay them a management fee. Since 1999 this fee has more than doubled yet the standards of management and maintenance remain abysmal.
Andy from Solitaire/Peverel has informed me that the Regional Property Manager completed a site inspection on the 15th July 09. From time to time I take photographs of the development and indeed I took some on the 23rd July 09 just eight days after the inspection. Here they are:
Anonymous' Image 1
Anonymous' Image 2
Anonymous' Image 3
The bin store gates depicted in the photo have been dropping off one by one over several years as a result of rusty hinges. The post you see sticking out of the ground with its sign missing is one of several and they have been like this for as long as I can remember – another one fell off last week as a result of rotting wood. The weeds you see growing out of the guttering are only the latest – we have had much, much worse.
I have had a wander around the development today (17th October) and the problems depicted in the photographs of 23rd July have still not been attended to, three months after a Solitaire/Peverel ’inspection’.
I have often wondered whether Solitaire/Peverel managers actually ever visit the developments for which they are responsible or, do they visit and simply ignore glaringly obvious maintenance issues such as these. It seems to be the latter.
The Peverel Property Management website says; ‘Our core focus is delivering excellent levels of service to our clients’. These photographs seem to contradict this nonsense and are clear evidence that nothing has improved one year after the Peverel takeover.
I would like Andy to address the following points.
1.Why did the Regional Property Manager fail to attend to the glaringly obvious maintenance issues illustrated in the above photographs after the site inspection of 15th July 09 ?
2.Solitaire/Peverel have been paid to manage this development yet they have failed to do so properly. As a gesture of goodwill to the residents here do you think it right that at least some of the management fee be refunded ?
If any visitors to TheTruthAboutSolitaire have issues that are still yet to be addressed, feel free to e-mail us, attaching photo’s and your experiences. We’ll then bring your case to the attention of everyone in an attempt to get Solitaire / Peverel to sort your problems.
October 20th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Nice to see actual pictures. I have some but am not sure how to post them on the site.
We are in a Solitaire Managed Block of 17 Apartments.
Prospect House, Green Lane, Standish, Wigan WN60TU
As well as numerous other problems with Solitaire we also have severe leaking guttering problems.
The water hits directly onto the pathway leading to the front entrance.This should have been looked after by routine gutter maintenance having been done. Every downspout is clogged and has not ever been cleared by yourselves. It is a service we have already paid for.
I am soaking wet with dirty rainwater. You have left the issue so long that the gutter situation all around the building is awful. You need to come WHEN IT RAINS to see how intolerable the situation is. I can send my entire file of letters that I have sent to you which documents that this has been an on-going issue. We have people living here who have children. How are they supposed to cope?
Clare Dhillon. #8.
October 20th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Hi Glynn
If you would like to e-mail photos and a bit of background on your issues to admin[at]thetruthaboutsolitaire[dot]co[dot]uk (replace the words in [] for the symbol) and we’ll publish your story, together with the photos.
This applies to anyone else that would like their issues highlighted on TheTruthAboutSolitaire
Regards
Admin @ TTAS
October 21st, 2009 at 6:01 pm
[...] It appears they did see some improvement in service when it appeared the BBC TV consumer programme Watchdog was about to take the company to task, though recent posts on the website suggest the improvements are not consistently applied. [...]
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Hi everyone
I have read Admin’s post with the message and photographs from ‘A N Oymous’ who, as admin has said, has been a regular contributor to this site. ‘A N Onymous’ posted under what I now realise was his real name on this site on 26th July asking:
Hello Andy. My account reference number is 00157/001060. From this information you will be able to determine the development where I live. Would you please give me the date of the most recent visit of a Solitaire manager to my development.
I was able to supply the information that was requested via a posting on 6th August:
Thanks for providing your account reference number. The most recent visit of a Solitaire Property Manager was on the 15th July 2009 when the Regional Property Manager for your development completed a site inspection. I hope this answers your question but should you have any other queries regarding your development that you would like me to feed back to the Solitaire team please feel free to contact me directly via andy.solitairepm@peverel.co.uk.
Unfortunately we had no further contact, either by a site posting or direct email.
In answer to the question posed by ‘Admin’, I can confirm that contractor work orders were raised on the 23rd July to deal with the most urgent problems. This followed a site inspection made by a senior member of the Solitaire Property Management team on the 15th July, as part of an overall audit of developments in the West of England.
In view of the ‘A N Onymous’ comment, a further detailed site inspection of this development will be made by the Solitaire Property Management team early next week and I will get back to everyone with news of this inspection as soon as I can.
The bin store shown in one of the photographs is redundant, as they were built prior to the introduction of larger rubbish collection bins by the local authority. As such, they are no longer used for the purpose they were designed for. The team has confirmed that a contractor will attend to remove the damaged door hinges to make this store safe.
In these circumstances I would suggest that ‘A N Onymous’ might wish to refer to our Customer Complaints Procedure (available as a download from our website ww.solitairepm.co.uk and make a formal complaint direct to the Managing Director (Operations). In view of the postal strike, might I suggest you email your letter direct to me at andy.solitairepm@peverel.co.uk.
Hi Glynn Williams
Thanks for supplying detailed information of your problems. These have passed to the Regional Property Manger responsible for your development and I will get back to you with a response as soon as I can.
Hi Stuart Gh
When I first started posting back in May I did personally reassure everyone that we are listening and, most importantly, working to make things better. Making such fundamental changes to practices and working procedures isn’t a simple task but our determination to make a difference to everyone hasn’t changed.
As I have posted previously this month we have written to all Solitaire customers updating them on our progress in improving our service. I will post further news and updates in the coming weeks.
I am here to help solve problems, listen and improve our service. If there is any constructive feedback you would like me to put in front of the Solitaire team please feel free to contact me directly via andy.solitairepm@peverel.co.uk.
Many thanks,
Andy
Solitaire Online Feedback Manager
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:34 am
Andy,
I read with interest your post to ‘A N Oymous’ – but again your response is typical of what we have come to expect from Solitaire (wordy but with little substance!)
You confirm that a Solitaire Inspection took place on 15th July 2009 – A N Oymous’ pictures are dated 23rd July 09 (i.e. after the Solitaire Inspection) and that work orders were raised on the 23rd Jul 2009 – coincidentally on the date the pictures were taken. From the picture of the grass growing from the guttering it is obvious that this has not been attended to for some considerable time! So what indeed was inspected at the first inspection? And also you say that “a further detailed site inspection of this development will be made by the Solitaire Property Management team early next week” following these recent comments! Will this subsequent inspection be as ’successful’ as the first set of Inspections? And if this is now going to be a ‘detailed’ Inspection then what was the first,…a day trip out for the property manager?!?
Also I now note the mixed methods of communications from Solitaire: Postings on this site, direct emails (I assume in a vain attempt to divert issues away from the public web site), physical letters sent out and the odd phone call! It’s absurd that I only know about the CareLine service (at an additional cost!) through this web site and that there has been no ‘official’ confirmation of this from Solitaire to ALL it’s customers (particularly when additional costs are involved!) – there is probably only a small minority of us who have been lucky enough to find this web site and publicise our problems on it! The various methods of communication is a perfect way for Solitaire to send mixed messages and still deliver the terrible service we have come to expect!
My own experience: I have had a response from my Senior Property Manager: EveF to the emails I previously sent you but it was the usual waffle and didn’t really resolve any of the problems I raised. Since I received that I have been ill (partly I would say due to the stress from having to constantly battle with Solitaire!) and away from the UK with work so have not been able to get back to EveF even though the only way I have of doing that is by the general Customer Services email – no direct contact which I am not too happy about! I am slowly catching up with everything and I will reply to EveF shortly and copy you as I’m unaware if you have seen her message or not?
With all the promises of Solitaire improving I, and it would seem others too, have not seen ANY improvements through our experiences. In fact I would say that things have got considerably worse. Now with the Barnet Office due to close in Nov then I can only imagine that things will get worse still and that Solitaire will hide behind the “ONLINE PERSONAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT ACCOUNT SERVICE” – the benefit of the TTAS site is that we ALL can see that Solitaire’s service is consistently bad to all of us! In the past I have felt that I am on my own in this battle and it was the TTAS that got my hopes up that ’something’ could be done. By all your claims that you have made about services improving, not once has been mentioned the thing that most of us worry about: the exorbitant charges we pay for the little or no service and the ever increasing amounts at well above any reasonable rate! I assume all the changes that are being implemented at Solitaire (new systems, phone lines etc.) will only serve to try and justify further increase in charges rather than decreasing these seeing as a lot of your offices have now closed and that should mean less operating costs for Solitaire!
I am still far from happy with Solitaire and at the moment this situation is only getting worse not better!
Regards,
Nirmal
PS And what is the point of referring us to the “Customer Complaints Procedure”? Apart from adding to the paper work we have to deal with if you cannot resolve any issues directly what would be the point of going thru the Customer Complaints Procedure to probably only be fobbed off again!
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:50 am
Andy
I will acknowledge that your involvement with various problems on numerous developments up & down the country does seem to be having an effect, and that things are finally getting done. This includes the development I live on in Cheltenham.
But it must be a major source of annoyance & embarrassment within Peverel that it takes your involvement – and, frankly, your kicking of backsides – to actually get things to happen. It’s obviously keeping you fully occupied, but if things worked properly in the first place, your position shouldn’t need to even exist…??? You shouldn’t need to have to chase Property Managers – they should respond directly to queries received from residents in developments they manage (or are supposed to manage…). It shouldn’t take pressure from yourself to get a response issued from the appropriate PM. But this seems to be the case in many examples, even 1 year after Peverel took Solitaire over, and started with the improvements so lauded by yourself.
Yes, things have improved. To a degree. But there is still much scope for further improvement – surely you & your superiors realise this? But will you acknowledge it publicly…???
October 24th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
[...] 2009, based on the experiences of ‘A N Onymous’ – who asked for his post ’One Year of PeverHell‘ to be published on TheTruthAboutSolitaire, to highlight their [...]
October 30th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Hi Nirmal
I thought I would respond to some of the points you have raised in your posting. I have posted earlier this month about how Solitaire were contacting customers to let them know of the changes that are taking place as part of our commitment to keep customers fully informed.
Over the past few weeks a letter from our Managing Director (Operations) has been sent to all Solitaire customers informing them of a number of important changes. The last batch was released to the Royal Mail on Monday. A copy of this letter was posted first on this site in early October and I have also posted it on a separate thread.
It lets people know of our new dedicated customer website “Your Property Online” which enables residents to access development specific information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A postcard explaining the registration process for this online facility was sent with the letter explaining how residents can register for this service by visiting http://www.solitairepm.co.uk. Hundreds of customers have already registered for this service that is provided at no extra cost so we know the letters have been arriving with customers despite the postal problems.
The letter also informs residents of the Solitaire Careline “Out of Hours” service, which has been put in place to provide emergency maintenance cover for all Solitaire managed developments across the country. It also states that the cost of this new service is less than £5 per property owner per year.
The closure of the Solitaire Barnet office is explained within the letter and confirms that all Customer Services 08450 345 790 (lo-call), email and web address contacts remain unchanged. The Solitaire website http://www.solitairepm.co.uk will have the new Luton address details shown from Monday 2nd November.
We are confident that by introducing these new systems that it will enable us to deliver further improvements to our customer service standards.
Nirmal if you or anybody has any further questions relating to any of the changes that have been made, then please feel free to email me directly andy.solitairepm@peverel.co.uk
Thanks
Andy
Solitaire Online Feedback Manager
November 4th, 2009 at 8:31 am
I would make a group effort to withhold your management fees to get their attention, they are obviously not giving you what you pay for so there is no need to pay it.
November 6th, 2009 at 8:12 am
[...] answer, remain unanswered (I refer ‘Andy’ to A N Onymous’ follow up to his ‘One Year of Peverhell‘ titled ‘Wheelie Bad Property [...]
November 20th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Hi Glynn Williams
I promised to get back to you following your original posting.
The Regional Property Manager responsible for your development has been in touch and confirmed that the contractor he appointed completed the remedial works to resolve these problems on the 11th November.
If you still have any outstanding issues that you would like me to put in front of the Solitaire team please feel free to contact me directly via andy.solitairepm@peverel.co.uk.
Many thanks,
Andy
Solitaire Online Feedback Manager
November 20th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
DO NOT WITHHOLD PAYMENT OF YOUR SERVICE CHARGES – you will be in breach of contract and Solitaire will absolutely love that – they will start sending letters like the banks do and charging you 50 quid plus Vat for the privilege.
hire solicitors, go to LVT or county court, ignore anything andy says he is just here to stall court & LVT actions.
January 11th, 2010 at 10:07 am
[...] We Want Our Money Back! Filed in Uncategorized on Jan.11, 2010 On the 18 October 2008, we highlighted the plight of TruthAboutSolitaire contributor ‘A N Onymous’, with the posting titled ‘One Year of PeverHell‘ [...]
January 14th, 2010 at 11:03 pm
I can only agree with the complaints above.
However, the problem is that it’s not that straightforward to replace Solitaire with another company or to exercise the “right to manage”. At the end costs may not be saved and it brings a lot of hassle – and Solitaire knows it. I’ve spent a few hours trying to figure out how best the property management could be changed and there doesn’t seem to be an easy way. Solitaire is so obviously playing on this fact that it’s disgusting, but I can’t realistically see that enough people can be seriously bothered in a community in order to change the setup.
If anyone finds a good solution or a good property management company, let me know.
Else, I will setup one and take it from there. Anyone knows a good property lawyer? I’m myself a surveyor and thinking about changing jobs anyway.
Regards, Lilla
January 15th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Response to Lilla: it’s not straightforward to replace Solitaire, but RTM is a great solution – it requires a bit of organising and it serves its purpose: if enough people are THAT bothered about Solitaire they WILL want to do something about it.. Otherwise you can try to force the freeholder (often connected to Peverel/Solitaire) via the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (Google RPTS= residential property tribunal service)to replace the property management company but that does not give you the control RTM does.
Loads of solicitors have guides to the process – where I live we got 24 out of 27 flats to become RTM members, and even though we had to get a barrister to look at some aspects of our claim, the total cost (legal fees) was about £550 per flat. We’ll easily recoup that.
There are also companies that will actually do the RTM claim for you, in return for them being awarded the management at the end. It removes your choice, and I’m very sceptical about the low fees they seem to offer. Get an independent solicitor to manage the process for you.
Our new management company is a firm of chartered surveyors. RICS has much MUCH stricter rules (this is just one example) about looking after client’s money. Good luck and don’t give up. And even if your freeholder contests your RTM claim, don’t give up, pay the extra to get your case looked at by a “direct access” barrister. If your claim looks legally sound, the barrister will write up your case quoting the relavan law and case law, and you apply to the RPTS for a LVT – if it’s a simple case you’ll be given adate within about 8 weeks.
Moral of the story: just don’t give up! Good luck