First things first, we need to warn you all that this post is going to be a rather lengthy one, because we have quite a lot of things to cover and they include:-

• The stresses that miscommunication within Peverel / Solitaire, cause residents.
• More messages from SPM / PPMG customers that don’t know what to do
• Reply to Andy following our ‘allegations’

So, first up is…

The Stresses of Miscommunication

We all know how frustrating it can be when one member of SPM / PPMG says one thing, yet their colleagues do something the complete opposite!

This time, we bring to ‘Andys’ attention the worry that un-necessary threats of debt collection have on customers, when they have been told by SPM / PPMG that their accounts are either on hold or they have actually paid their fees and are still being threatened with Debt collection.

Below are a couple of copies of correspondence that we have recently received that relate to this:-

Dear TheTruthAboutSolitaire.co.uk,

I am in a dispute with Solitaire and came about your site and would like to share my situation.  Hopefully you may be offer some advice or if not point me in the right direction

I am the owner and live in a flat with Solitaire as the management company.  I have owned the property from new (3+ years) and always paid my service charge.  The building operates a communal mailbox system with no cameras watching.  A number of addresses had the locks of their mailboxes broken off in a short period (mine being one).  It became apparent  mail suddenly started to go missing and when I did intercept the mail before anyone else did I started to get mail in other peoples names.  It became apparent my address was being targeted for fraud.

I contacted Solitaire to report this and ask them to repair the mailbox.  I was told it was not their responsibility and would need to fix it myself.  I went on to ask if they could tell me or find out for me by asking Barrats (builder of the property) what type and size of lock to get and fit.  They said no and suggested me waiting by the mailboxes for someone to open theirs and ask to look at their lock.  Also around that time I lost my door entry fob so arranged for a new one to be sent.  This never arrived and I had to call Solitaire to get them to send another.  Whilst calling the representative I spoke to even said they were aware of mail delivery problems in the block and that’s why they never charged me for a second replacement fob to be sent out.  Shortly after I was visited by police in their investigation into organised fraud at my address.  I had to make a statement and was told I may be asked to attend court as a witness.

It was not long after that on one of the instances I intercepted my mail that I saw a debt recovery letter for £466 service charge plus over £500 fees added by a debt recovery firm.  I called Solitaire, explaining the situation with the police and how my mail was stolen so that’s why I never got the service charge bill but they said it was out of their hands and wouldn’t talk to me.  However when I spoke to the debt recovery company they were more sympathetic and told me not to do anything till they got back to me.  This went back and forth till I suddenly received another letter with further charges. from another debt recovery company.  When I spoke to Solitaire over the phone they said they sympathise with me but I know service charges have to be paid and the onus was on me.  They were not interested in contacting the police officer in charge of the case who said he would explain the situation to them.  They said I should have been in contact with them and when I pointed out I had but nobody bothered to mention the service charge they said it wasn’t their fault.

I am the victim of a crime here so do not think I should be penalised for it.  Am I right or wrong?

Please give your thoughts.  Thanks in advance.

AK

Here’s another:-

hi.

my partner and i live in a block of 6 flats managed by solitaire.  i have been trying to raise the following issues with them and have withheld £195 as i have not had any response from  them:

1. leaking outside roof (we live on top floor) which has caused water to leak through the loft     onto our living room floor. this was first reported november last year.

2. trying to get a breakdown of charges as ‘service charge’ does not tell us exactly what we are paying for. they are legally required to provide this.

there are other issues such as rising maintainence costs and an added ‘estate charge’ 0f £111, nobody seems to know what this is for.

we have had a hard time getting a response from solitaire and in fact the only way i know they have read my letters is if they cash the cheque that i enclose. email responses stopped in december and phoning them is a waste of time.

i have written to them several times explaining my reasons for withholding payment but have had no response other than further demands even after being told by them verbally that our account is on hold until issues are resolved.

last week we had a letter from property debt collection ltd demanding £941 including the £195 i withheld, £600 new bill and costs of £146. my patrner phoned solitaire and was told that the debt collection is to be put on hold until somebody can call us back monday(its now thursday-no call yet). when she asked how they were able to put the debt collection on hold she was told that pdc ltd is part of solitaire. as we have no written proof that this is to be put on hold we are expecting another letter from debt collectors. where do we stand if we do get further letters?  we are going around in circles with them and getting nowhere.

as well as these issues as a block of 6 flats we are currently at stage 1 of official complaints procedure because of rising bills and failure to fix roof and respond to other issues. a rep came out 2 weeks ago and promised us the world but it was a waste of time.he hasnt kept any of his promises to us.

Thanks

P

In addition to these, we were also copied into correspondence from a resident that despite having a credit note from SPM / PPMG, which meant they deducted this figure from their yearly service charge and then paid SPM – they received a legal letter from SPM demanding payment in full!

Does this suggest that the ‘new system’ implemented in 2008/2009 is still not up and running properly?

Moving on to…

Customers Not Knowing What to Do

The ‘guises’ of PPMG certainly appear to be doing what PPMG wanted and that is to confuse residents as to who they are dealing with, despite the management company remaining as a guise of PPMG.

The following message was received from a frustrated resident with a story of familiar woe…

Good Afternoon,

I have a flat (mortgaged) in Cardiff and I have rented this out since owning it in 2007.

It is getting increasingly difficult just to cover costs and a big factor is the extortionate service charges, my latest bill from Consort Property Management being £943.15 for the next 6 months!

Peveral (is this the same company?) Property Management’s rule or policy that I have to pay another £100.00 plus vat when I have a new tenant move in to the property and another £25.00 plus vat if they extend the let beyond six months (but not exceeding 3 years) is something that I have not experienced with “management” companies
before.

Is this legal?

My letting agent suggests that this company has lost a number of contracts in the Cardiff area and I am hoping that they will be replaced at Cardiff Bay as soon as possible!

Please advise if there is anything that I can sign, attend or support to assist with this.

Although it doesn’t help my situation, it is reassuring to know that I am not alone in thinking that I am getting fleeced.

My confusion though is who is the worst company or are they one of the same?

Consort Property Management or Peveral Property Management?

Any thoughts or advice would be hugely appreciated.

Kind Regards
LH

Those of you that are landlords will be aware of this ‘money making policy’ by PPMG – to charge for amendments to tenants and others will probably say that they live there, just to get out of paying these fees.

It is apparent that whichever way you turn (and we aim this at all PMCs and not necessarily just PPMG) – that we must pay for the privilege to live in our homes, even when we come to sale, they will have us over a barrel, because they demand payment to issue paperwork to your solicitors (two lots of fees one to PPMG and one to E&M / Freeholder)!

PPMG must love customers that aren’t aware of their guises and will continue to ‘palm’ customers off with the excuse that all of us have heard

“oh sorry, but that was when <ENTER PPMG GUISE>, were responsible and it’s not our fault.  You need to speak with them”

It’s a continual excuse when it comes to PPMG and they’ll never admit that they are in the wrong, which then leads on nicely onto our reply to Andy in regards to our ‘allegations’ from a contractor of theirs.

Response to Andy

You requested further information in regards to our allegations so that you can investigate further. 

Without wanting to sound rude, but I’m sure that the BBC (when they investigated PPMG / SPM) didn’t reveal their sources / whistleblowers to you, therefore, why do you expect us to do that for you?

Having posted the ’allegations’ (which we’d like to point out, was allegedly the case) – other contractors have contacted us to give their views of this process and many share the same opinion.

The kind offer from Lee Middleburgh to meet is very welcoming and in fact, there is no need to visit your offices, because on Thursday I saw them for myself and was turned away when I asked to speak with someone in regards to our development. 

I suppose I should have said I was from TTAS and I’m sure I’d have been given the VIP treatment!