Welcome to part three of our Review of the Year, that covers events that occurred between July and September.

During this period Peverel accepted our Q&A request, we discussed the risks of appointing a new managing agent and how we thought residents should approach this, in addition to celebrating our 3rd Birthday that made TTAS the longest service campaign website created by a leaseholder for leaseholders.

Hope you enjoy reminiscing…

July

Don’t gamble with your new managing agent

We started the month with an article that covered the risks residents are exposed to when they are given the opportunity to replace their existing managing agent.

Many felt that it would always be a massive gamble to appoint a new managing agent, but how should residents go about choosing the right one?

Should you choose a large national company or small local independent one?

There are many negatives and positives whether you appoint a large or small company, in terms of what they can do for you.

Large national companies can give the appearance of security when it comes to being confident that your funds are safe and that they can offer competitive discounts, due to the size of their portfolio that allows them to “buy services in bulk”.

However appearances can be deceiving and as we saw with large the large well known companies such as Woolworth, Zavvi and Jane Norman, who all went out of business in 2010/2011. This demonstrates that large companies are not immune to failure and therefore, if anything residents need to undertake greater research into larger organisations, when compare to smaller ones.

With smaller independent property managing agents, your development becomes personal and isn’t just a number- meaning that you can build a rapport with your property manager to address any issues you have.

In addition to this, smaller companies are likely to be local, meaning that you have the advantage of being able to visit the agents in person, in the event of problems contacting them by phone.

Disadvantages that smaller agents may be faced with is their “buying power”. They may only have a small portfolio, meaning that they can’t demand heavy discounts when trying to secure suppliers, however as they are a smaller agent their overheads will be lower, meaning that they can pass the savings on to residents.

We still believe that providing residents undertake thorough due-diligence and undertake research into their prospective agent, such as visiting reference sites, speaking with their existing clients – you’ll be able to ascertain whether the company in question is suitable for your requirements.

Sublet demands on the up

Earlier in the year, we revealed a new Peverel associated company namely, Proxima GR Properties.

At the time, it wasn’t clear who Proxima GR Properties were and what their responsibility would be. It wasn’t long until their hand was revealed and we discovered that they (working in association with Estates & Management) would be the ones to start clamping down on leaseholders who we’re sub-letting their properties.

Homeowners who were subletting their properties told us that they had never received “sub-let demands” in the past, but suddenly they were arriving.

Even owners that weren’t subletting were saying that they were being threatened with demands for sub-letting.

As time went by, we discovered that there wasn’t a fixed ‘sub-let fee’ and that it was varied, which was the point that angered homeowners.

It was obvious that Proxima GR Properties were attempting to exploit a niche market and by charging variable sub-let fees, were profiteering.

To demonstrate this, we obtained their accounts from Companies House that were submitted in 2009 and it reported the company have a turnover of £10.9million with an operating profit of £10.9million too!

We continue to receive messages from angry homeowners who remain aggrieved by these demands.

Q&A session with Peverel

In light of an article that featured Lee Middleburgh (MD Of Peverel Property Management) in Property Week, who mentioned that for people to trust you, you have to talk to them.

We approached Peverel with a request to submit questions to them in an attempt to obtain answers to many questions we had and also questions that TTAS contributors had.

Happy 3rd Birthday TTAS

As we waited for a reply from Peverel to this request, TTAS went on to celebrate our 3rd Birthday.

August

Q&A request accepted

We started the month on a great note when Peverel accepted our Q&A request, although it was agreed on the provisio of a number of ground rules.

TTAS then requested contributors to send their questions to us and these would be submitted to Peverel for answering at the end of August.

Official ePetition launched

On the 8th August 2011, we launched a brand new ePetition asking for the Government to consider regulation of the property management sector.

This ePetition is still live and we are still looking for support, as we need over 100,000 signatures for the petition to be considered by the government.

If you haven’t already done so, you can sign it by clicking the link below:

September

Largest leasehold tribunal settled

The Daily Mail, featured an article on St George Wharf who reported that they had settled out of court with Peverel following their successful LVT tribunal against them.

You can read the full report by clicking here

Q&A replies

Peverel sent us their replies to our Q&A and we published them in four parts and they were rather comprehensive.

These can still be viewed by clicking one of the links below:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Other events that took place

TTAS found out that Peverel were using us as part of their LVT defence cases, when we discovered that they were trying to belittle residents that brought LVT cases, by suggesting that we were encouraging such cases.

The BBC ran a report on their website about how service charge complaints are up by 46% among leaseholders.

Conclusion

Tomorrow we look back at the final months of 2011, before we gear ourselves up for an interesting 2012.