Major Victory in Largest LVT Case Brought in Britain
We’ve been informed that yesterday (Friday 12 February 2010), the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal published the decision in Britain’s largest ever LVT case brough in Nottingham, at City Heights Estate
126 Families living in 6 apartment blocks in Nottingham had had enough of 6 years of hell and got together 2 years ago to challenge ‘RIP OFF BRITAIN’ and the amounts they were being charged by a property management company who were dreadful.
The Freeholder is Peverel and they used their own Peverel Property Management company too.
After two years of fighting two non legal trained neighbours sat in court to fight the case facing an opposition of a Barrister, 2 Solicitors, an Accountant and Senior Managers from the Peverel (Britain’s biggest Property Management Company) during the six day trial.
Stories came out of drinking water being contaminated, disabled wheel chair users trapped in broken lifts, and a women falling carrying a baby on a bridge which had been faulty for years!
There was also evidence in the decision (please contact us for a copy) that shows that Peverel entered into a financial agreement with an insurance broker (Oval Ltd) and Zurich Insurance to receive insurance commissions/kickbacks for keeping 500 estates in Britain with Zurich for Buildings Insurance (ultra high premiums) of which Peverel get 33.05% of every policy (x500) in existence!!!
A major scam, but completely legal.
The court were disgusted by this and have ordered Peverel to repay 6 years of Insurance kickbacks to the 126 families!
Yesterday the court awarded the 126 families a draft amount of £187,573.53!!!
This victory, albeit a lengthy one, demonstrates what we have all been saying during the two and a half years of TheTruthAboutSolitaire and another reason for commencing the ‘Campaign Against Leasehold and Freehold Exploitation’ – because quite frankly, this proves that Peverel / Solitaire are ripping residents off!
[ADMIN EDIT]
It’s come to our attention that the above case is todate not listed on the LVT website, the case number is: BIR/00FY/LSC/2008/0031 – should those that wish to search for it directly can do, once is online.
February 13th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Well done- to all concerned and involved in this case!
A FAIR HEARING…. AND JUSTICE…. AS THE OUTCOME!!
February 13th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
Well done City Heights.
Best bit of news I have seen in a long time.
Time for handy Andy to think up something really good to explain this one!
February 13th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Really well done City Heights. Congratulations to you two mentioned – I know all too well the work you have undertaken. This wont be the last Major Case against Peverel this year – watch this space…
February 13th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Clear Message
Soon no one will be listining what awards you are winning when 2 boys have wi.p.d your a.s.s
Well done by turning the tables
February 14th, 2010 at 10:56 am
That is a really stunning victory… and unimpeachable evidence of who we’re dealing with here. Well done to all at City Heights.
February 14th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Yes, very well done indeed to the residents at City Heights. Bearing in mind the initial award of £187,573.53 is only a draft amount, it will be interesting to see what the final outcome is, and also how long Peverel are given to settle the bill….. And then whether they actually do pay up by the given date….. Place your bets.
Particularly satisfying also to read that 2 untrained neighbours sat in court opposite Peverel’s legal team, who probably thought they were home & dry. Would love to have seen their faces when the court ruled against them. And even more so when the sum of over £187k was announced. And presumably Peverel will have to pay the court costs as well, having lost…??? What a shame.
I’m very interested in the comments regarding the insurance situation, relating to Zurich polices through Oval Ltd. I’m already looking into this at my development, and have obtained a like-for-like quote from a local broker, which is only 37% of the current amount being paid to Zurich. So it would appear that my development is probably amongst the 500 estates being shafted in this way….. If it’s not, then make that total 501…..
According to the Property Manager for my development, the insurance for the development is “good value for money” – which is clearly an out & out lie. But then as 100% of the insurance premium is passed on to the residents, why should Peverel worry (or care…) how much the premiums actually are. Especially (it seems) when Peverel trouser 33% of the premiums, for doing exactly f**k all.
Let’s hope more LVT cases are brought against Peverel sooner rather than later, and with similar outcomes. They already know we are on their case, but how seriously they actually take us is questionable. An award of £187k should help to get the message across…!!!
Bring it on…!!!
February 15th, 2010 at 8:20 am
Fantastic result for City heights and at last a legal victory that can be used as a benchmark.
There is now no reason why all residents cannot copy this and reclaim overpaid premiums.
Once again a template letter for all to follow would be a great help. Any legal people on the site?
My e-mail is winging its way to the accounts department for a copy of ALL previous insurance premiums so a claim can be lodged.
February 15th, 2010 at 10:36 am
Jeez……..!!!!
Well done to the residents for toughening it out against Peverel.
How long before Peverel are in the hands of the receivers?
February 15th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
Brilliant. To all that have done their bit well done! I am so proud of you. i am still fighting on the Ravenscroft front. You may remember i challenged Peverel to take me to court, so far nothing and my accounts are still on hold. You have proved my point that by a few sticking together and showing a bit of bottle he mightiest of the bullies can be brought down, and brought down they will be! I have never met anyone on this sight but each and everyone of you(with the exeption of Arsenal supporters)i think of as true comrades in arms. Bless you all Michael
February 15th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
ABSOLUTELY LOVING IT !!!!!!!!!! Oh how i would love to be a fly on the wall in Peverel offices right now!!!! Congratulastions City Heights – i bet you feel you won the EuroMillions!! Come on Andy, we are all waiting to hear from you!!!! What you got to say??!! Same cr*p as normal?!
February 16th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Hi everyone,
We do feel that it is important to let you have the history behind the recent decision by the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal regarding the City Heights development in Nottingham and correct some factual inaccuracies in Admin’s posting.
The LVT application was made by residents at City Heights in October 2008. The LVT was for a service charge determination as to whether the service charges, charged by Solitaire Property Management, were reasonable for the six years from the initial year ending March 2004 through to the year end March 2009.
We accept the findings of the tribunal as determined so far and are now calculating the apportionments due to property owners for their period of ownership. This will take 10-14 days to complete as our aim is to credit the relevant service charges to all property owners in March in line with the tribunal determination.
Before commenting on the specifics of the tribunal’s decision I thought it would be useful to summarise what has happened since the Peverel Property Management took over management responsibility for Solitaire in mid 2008.
Very soon we found that Solitaire had some good and committed people but were operating with poor management practices, particularly for those developments managed through Solitaire’s Leicester office. Senior management responsible for implementing these unsatisfactory practices are no longer with the business.
In the Summer and Autumn of 2008 we made immediate changes in the operational structure of Solitaire, centralising customer service management at Barnet, closing the poorly organised Leicester office, and implementing new property management standards by restructuring the entire Solitaire property management team in the Midlands.
In March 2009 we wrote to all customers outlining our intention, over the course of the year, to implement a number of significant management and operational changes that we knew were necessary to improve our service to and relationship with customers.
Key elements of our plan, implemented by the end of last year, included:
• Increasing the size of the Customer Service team so that Property Managers visited developments more frequently
• Supporting Solitaire employees in terms of their personal development, training and education.
• Introducing a new Property Management IT system to estimate, commit and report on expenditure in a more timely and accurate way
• Migrating details of over 40,000 homes to the new Property Management system
• Introducing an enhanced Solitaire website to allow customers the opportunity to manage their account, receive development-specific information and make all service charge and other payments online
• New banking and accounting arrangements
• Restructuring sales ledger and purchase ledger so that customers received service charge invoices on time and contractors get paid promptly
We completed the transfer of many of the support functions to Luton in October 2009. As property managers were now field based, the office space at Barnet was no longer required and the Solitaire head office was closed in November. The Customer Service team was transferred to Luton to complete the systems and process elements of our plan.
At the same time, working with ARMA, we underwent an independent audit of our work to overhaul and improve Solitaire. The audit clearly highlighted the historic defects and deficiencies of the systems and processes within the businesses we inherited. However, the audit went on to indicate that our new systems and processes meet the demands of customers and the service charge management code fully. In no area were specific additional requirements highlighted.
As mentioned, the LVT determination related to the six years up to March 2009 and its decisions reflect management and practices that are no longer in place. The vast majority of issues raised with the tribunal in the City Heights hearing related to a period of management prior to Peverel Property Management’s involvement.
We were pleased therefore that City Heights residents who represented the development told the Tribunal members that, since April 2009, the management of their development had greatly improved.
Even though Solitaire Property Management will cease to manage the City Heights development on 1st April 2010, our Property Management team continues to help resolve all legacy and current issues at the development. This decision to transfer the management of the development was instructed by the freeholder, in agreement with Solitaire. The consultation process regarding the appointment of a new managing agent, in accordance with Landlord & Tenant Act legislation, has now commenced.
Finally I would like to point out a few factual inaccuracies and also comment on some of the issues raised in Admin’s post:
1. The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal is a ‘tribunal hearing’
2. The Freeholder for City Heights is Holdings & Management (Solitaire) Limited, which is NOT part of the Peverel Group.
3. There was no evidence at the hearing that the drinking water at City Heights was contaminated. There was however a lack of documentation to prove that the water systems had been chlorinated for a period of management prior to Peverel Property Management’s involvement. This again illustrates poor record keeping by the previous Solitaire management, and the challenges that Peverel faced upon handover
4. As far as the footbridge was concerned, Peverel was unable to find any record of an incident as described so it was impossible to validate what had happened here under the previous management
5. The current Solitaire property management team were unaware of any incident when a disabled person was trapped in a lift, nor is there any record of such an incident. There was, however, one incident when a resident was trapped in the lift on a Saturday. Action was immediately taken to assist the resident and a lift contractor was called to deal with the situation.
I have not commented on the issues relating to insurance as they are the responsibility of the Freeholder.
Finally in your “City Heights Update” post you state that the BBC was ‘banned’ by Peverel Property Management from filming on the development. This simply isn’t true. When assisting the BBC reporter with his story on Friday evening, our spokesperson mentioned that the BBC normally has the courtesy to request permission to film outside a development so that the managing agent has the opportunity to inform the freeholder and residents.
Many thanks again for your time,
Andy
Solitaire Online Feedback Manager
February 16th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
Breathtaking arrogance and the usually lack of contrition by Andy, Peverel et al.
Jokers!!
February 16th, 2010 at 7:07 pm
As I’ve commented in several previous posts, they’re not fooling any of us…..
“Andy” states that “our aim is to credit the relevant service charges to all property owners”, so am I right in thinking that this means a “credit note” will be attached to each affected account, rather than a cash payment being issued…??? If it is the latter, then that’s one way of not having to find £187k in one go….. The financial hit would be offset until the next Service Charges are due on the accounts.
If all developments that were “looked after” by Solitaire Property Management prior to Peverel taking them over in 2008 were to follow the same course of action as “City Heights”, I wonder how many would reach a similar outcome at a LVT “tribunal hearing”…??? And if so, how many thousands of individual accounts would then be subject to receiving a credit…???
Just how much of this could the coffers at Peverel take before the sudden dip in money coming in became an issue…???
I also wonder if, deep down, The Peverel Group are starting to rue the day they acquired Solitaire Property Management…??? If “City Heights” is anything to go by, it could turn out to be a VERY costly acquisition…..
Oh, and if “Holdings & Management (Solitaire) Limited” are not part of The Peverel Group (as “Andy” states), then who are they? Presumably not part of what is/was Solitaire Property Management, either…??? So is the (Solitaire) part of the name purely a coincidence, or were they part of Solitaire Property Management prior to Peverel’s takeover, but were then split off & not part of the Peverel deal…??? If so, why…??? Perhaps “Andy” can elaborate further…..
Having looked on Companies House website, there appears to be no registered company named “Holdings & Management (Solitaire) Limited”, but there are several variations on “Holding & Management (Solitaire) Limited” (the difference being no “s” on the word Holding). Of these companies, all have their registered address at either 302 Regents Park Road (which is the same address as Estates & Management Limited), or Lynwood House, Barnet (being Solitaire’s address). Again, perhaps “Andy” can elaborate further…???
Following on from “City Heights”, does anybody know of any more LVT “tribunal hearings” coming up…..?????
February 16th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
OK Andy, since there has been an improvement in Solitaire/Peverel as you claim, let’s see these changes reflected in our over-inflated bills.
The service charges for my freehold house were £41 a year 13 years ago, now they are £260 a year, an staggering increase of 650% in 13 years. My council tax is £900, my service charges to you amounts is 30% of my council tax.
This is only for a small piece of land in front of my house for access. The piece of land could have been adopted by the council, but Solitaire kept it to keep exploiting freeholders. I get nothing from Solitaire, only bullying letters to pay my bills.
So Andy, I hope my annual service charge is reduced to a realistic sum of £60 a year from the current £260.
In fact Solitaire should hand over this access land to the local council. Why do you insist on ‘managing’ it? You are only using us as easy cash cows.
You have not swept in front of my house for years, I have to sweep myself, otherwise the drains get blocked with leaves. There are light bulbs which has been broken for 9 years.
But you are extremely efficient in collecting your money, sending threatening letters, automated intimidating solicitors letters. You have bullied us for the past 13 years.
Solitaire Peverel will NEVER change or improve, you had 13 years to change already!
February 16th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Hi,
How do I get a copy of the list detailing the 500 developments covered by the ‘agreement’ to basdically fix residents with Zurich for buildings insurance at super high premiums, I have always been sceptical about the charges detailed on the annual buildings insurance certificate provided in the name of Zurich and would be interested to know if we have fallen fowl to this surely illegal activity of solitaire
Sue
February 16th, 2010 at 11:43 pm
Can an admin send me a copy of all the docs as I believe our development will also be affected by this LVT and insurance issue.
Many thanks for your help!
February 17th, 2010 at 9:29 am
I’m with Suzanne – can anybody provide a list specifically listing the 500 developments that are insured by Zurich, as arranged by Oval…??? I suspect my development will be on the list (it certainly fits the profile…), but it would be interesting to see.
The total of 500 developments was mentioned in the adjudication of the City Heights LVT tribunal hearing, so presumably there is some sort of evidence to back up this number…???
How do we get definite confirmation that our own development is included (or not, as the case may be…) in the mystical 500…???
February 17th, 2010 at 11:36 am
A sure fire way of knowing if you are in the “fortune 500″ is to get a copy of your insurance certificate. Your Landlord have to supply this to you. On that certificate it will state Oval as the broker and Zurich as the insurer. Also there will be no mention of your site name and it will refer to any freehold or head leasehold interest of the Peverel group.
February 17th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Ok my certificates state ‘oval insurance broking limited’ and the policy is with zurich.
any recommendations on what to do next on this?
our policy is around £2500 per year, so over 5 years of the development that totals around £12500, giving peverel a tidy sum of £4125
rip off merchants are my thoughts!
February 17th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
anyone able to advise re rivergate flats peterborough, yearly fee was £2000 last year for peverel doing nothing!! as far as i can see!!an increase from £450 a few years ago prior to them owning the freehold which they sneaked in and bought without telling any of us residents. they do very little in regard to our maintenence fees and its impossible to get hold of them, they even put up scaffolding on one of the block of flats pretending they were painting the windows etc but no painting was done!!i feel we are being ripped off just like others in this column
February 18th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Hi yael and c
This is your first port of call. Give them a call and you will find them very helpful
http://www.lease-advice.org.uk/
This is the heavier and legal stuff that’s been made easier to understand by the above
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2002/en/ukpgaen_20020015_en_1
You will always find someone to help here of email the site administrators.
Good luck and get rid of Peverel
February 19th, 2010 at 12:32 am
Andy
Solitaire Online Feedback Manager
I live at City Heights and i am seriously offended by your comments AND MISLEADING STATEMENT!
Solitaire, e&m or Peverel, whatever name you want to go by, have ruined our lives for the past six years! You have robbed us, ignored us and lied to us. THE SOONER YOU ARE GONE THE BETTER!
Even now the LVT is over you continue the Insurance scam by keeping City Heights Building Insurance policies with Zurich, through Oval at ULTRA high premiums, taking your kickbacks. NO LANDLORD should be making a profit in this way! The list of activities your Insurance arm claim they do to justify the commission is nothing short of armed robbery and you know it!
Everyone knows a women carrying a baby fell on the Franklin Bridge because she sued the estate for compensation as you very well know.
You also know residents in Nightingale House were reporting dirrhoea and sickness during the two year period the water tank was not chlorinated!
You also know a disabled women was trapped in the lift as during the LVT a Solitaire employee admitted this.
You also know the only reason why Solitaire are going as the property managers at City Heights is because the Residents Association started action to discharge and it was halted when you gave in and agreed to walk away. You only agreed because the evidence was so stacked up against you, you knew an LVT to appoint a new manager would have to prove failings and this could be easily achieved and would seriously damage your PR!
I also know from emails the Secretary of the City Heights Residents Association sends round that Morris Flynn, the BBC Reported said, and i quote, ‘We have been told by Peverel we do not have consent or authority to film on any land belonging to the Freeholder’. Anyone can call the BCC and ask for Morris Flynn and check exactly was Peverel told him. I have called Morris and he said he is happy for anyone to call him, as he said this is what he was told.
I also know that the Peverel Property Manager for City Heights accidently sent an email to a resident on City Heights just weeks before the LVT inwhich they slagged him off. The email was suppose to be seen by internal staff only but she sent it to the resident in error. Deny that Andy! Deny Peverel sent the resident a box of chocolates, a bottle of wine and an apology card! I have seen the card!
You people are just terrible and you play this PR game trying to make out the whole world is wrong and you are right!
I tell everyone who reads this….. start an LVT against Peverel if only to get back the Insurance Kick back payments!
City Heights Resident (Nottingham)
March 10th, 2010 at 11:26 am
I have followed the ‘truth about Solitiare’ website for some while and have to congratulate all those at City Heights. I own a flat in a block previously managed by Solitaire. The management was appalling. Fortunatley I am a Director of a Company, Hunter Grey whose business is block management. We formed a Right To Manage Company and took over the management from Solitaire last year. We now manage the block ourselves and have turned it around. My message to anyone who has a flat managed by Solitaire is form an RTM Company, make getting rid of poor management a first priority. Susan Hunt
May 19th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
We have our insurance certificate, issued by Zurich with Oval as the broker, which appears to be a block policy, and says “Any freehold owning company within the Peverel Group of Companies and any freeholders, management companies, commonhold associations and head lease owning companies with an insuranble interest in the insured property and any owners of property in Scotland for whom the Peverel Group of Companies has instructions to arrange insurance and the lessees where they are required to be joint insured under the terms of the lease.
Peverel does not own the freehold, but they are managing agents, and they arrange our insurance. Do you think we could still be members of the 500?