This is not exactly what admin has asked for, but it may serve a useful purpose for those starting out on the RTM path.

Back in the 1980s, the Right to Buy legislation that made it possible for council house tenants to purchase their house was extended to cover co-ownership developments.

As part of the purchase process of one such development, a company was set up that owned the freehold and each co-owner became a leaseholder of that company and was given 1 share in the company. When one of the flats was sold on, the share certificate was re-issued in the name of the new owner / leaseholder. The leaseholders also held the positions of director (max 12) and company secretary. An AGM was held annually to which all 158 shareholders were invited and held a vote. Managing Agents were appointed to manage the site and a caretaker was employed to look after the flats and site. The lease was for 999 years and the ground rent was fixed at £50 a year (no rent reviews were written into the lease. The service charge was set at £12 a month per unit( this was the 1980s!) An annual return had to be submitted to Companies House.

After several years, the roof needed attention and the Board of Directors had to make the difficult decision to either increase the monthly service charge, request a one-off payment or raise a bank loan to get the work done. The decision was made to increase the service charge. Over the next few years the service charge had to be increased 3 times to ensure that there were sufficient funds to carry out the day-to-day management and to hold sufficient reserves for future maintanence work.

The development remains a popular site to this day and leaseholders / shareholders have had no problems in selling their properties to new owners.

The success of the management of the site was down to :

*a simple but effective legal structure
*a well drafted lease
*co-operative working between leaseholders on the board and the managing agents
*leaseholders willing to fulfill the role of director and company secreatary and give of their time and energy to the site

Being involved in the management of your block of flats is not always an easy task, but you have the satisfaction of knowing that – subject to the law – you are in control,you are maintaining the asset value of your home / property.

BNS Management Services – http://www.bns.co.uk
Contact: Andrew Simmonds

They are a small family orientated business, with very high values of customer service.

On the 1st of November, they took over as being management agents of our development and since then, they’ve fixed all of the issues that residents had with the communal Sky TV feed, fixed problems, arranged for fly tipped rubbish to be removed, organised bi-weekly cleaners, PLUS, they recently held our estates AGM that residents attended to discussed budgets and explained the situation of our estate accounts,

This is the type of service that Peverel / Solitaire try to portray, but will never match in a million years.

On a side note, Solitaire are still to abide by the Independent Adjudicators decision of reimbursing me my adjudication fee! If they can’t abide by the law, what hope do we all have!

A friend of mine who lives at a large development in ‘Portishead’ on the outskirts of Bristol, told me that their site had come to the point of their contract, whereby after 5 years they could replace Peverel. Much to Peverel’s surprise, they are in the process of being replaced by BNS!

I’m in support the CALAFEX campaign!! Bye Bye Peverel / Solitaire!!!

[ADMIN EDIT]
Sheps, thank you for your support of the CALAFEX campaign