Without TTAS, we’d have been in trouble
By admin | January 9th, 2012 | Category: Past Articles | 25 comments
We often report on potential buyers asking questions as to whether they should proceed with purchasing a Peverel/OM managed property, yet very rarely do we get the opportunity to discover whether these buyers actually went through with the purchase.
In light of this, we thought it would be a good idea to contact those who asked us questions to see whether they now own a Peverel managed property and if so what do they think of Peverel / OM.
It’s taken quite a few day’s to receive replies from these potential buyers and there was a mixture of views, with some reporting that when they considered the views of TTAS and their solicitor that they withdrew their offers and others saying they proceeded and now regret their decision.
Here’s some of the messages we received:
Dear TTAS
Having contacted you initially for advice on whether to purchase a property that was “managed” by OM.
We eventually decided to not proceed with the purchase because of the concerns that were raised by our solicitor, in addition to these concerns being confirmed by TTAS.
It was a terrible time for us, because after so long trying to find the right home and having gone through the legal process to be only a few weeks from exchange. To have to then pull out cost us a lot of time and money on legal expenses.
In the long term, these costs were minimal compared to the fees we could have incurred had we proceeded with the purchase.
It was a very emotional time, but in hindsight we made the correct decision and as it gave us exposure and experience of something neither myself or husband knew much about.
The only drawback it had though was making us incredibly paranoid when we eventually bought a property. We went through everything with a fine tooth comb to be confident that we’d not be put in a similar position.
May we wish you all the best in promoting awareness and had it not been for your website, who knows where we’d be right now?
Hi
Thank you for your e-mail and in response to it, we did proceed with the purchase of the property in question.
As yet we haven’t received any demands for service charges as the previous owners have paid these in full until April, but from paperwork left by them we anticipate that service charges will only be around £600 for 2012/13.
My wife (who works from home) does keep an eye on the services provided as part of our service charges and has noted that common areas are not being cleaned or maintained. Although OM have told us that this is because it’s winter and they only visit once or twice in this period, when compared to other times of the year.
Do get in touch again in June and we’ll advise whether charges have increased.
Unfortunately, we were left in no other position than to proceed with the purchase of our flat, due to circumstances and now my girlfriend and I really regret this decision.
Our charges are extortionate and we do not receive any services, despite assurances that charges were only £800 per year.
When we complain to them, they ignore our e-mails and the one time I had a reply the area manager didn’t even show up for a meeting.
To say I’m upset is an understatement and wish we’d never been forced into this predicament.
It’s quite upsetting to read some of the messages received, because many of these owners are struggling to pay charges and are at risk of losing their homes, all because the “budget” they had when purchasing their properties has been exceeded due to increasing service charges and are struggling to pay the bills.
Admittedly, we are all warned about mortgage increases and that our homes are at risk if we don’t make payments, but buyers that purchase properties based on £700 per year service charges, that then double “overnight” is impossible to budget for.
How many of us on TTAS thought our charges would be what they are today? I know that I for one certainly didn’t and with many first time buyers purchasing flats – they are the ones that are at risk the most.
On the other side of the coin are the positive stories of potential buyers making the right decisions and deciding to pull out of purchasing an OM managed property having been able to undertake their own research, when concerns are raised by solicitors.
This demonstrates the role that TTAS is playing in the property sector, because more residents are able to find out the facts about their management company and with our ever growing “Find a Friend” list, it will make it easier for potential buyers to identify whether they are being told the truth.
What happened to Andrew Billson?
TTAS were first to report that Andrew Billson was resigning from Peverel/OM with a view to taking up a similar role in Barratt Homes’ very own property management company.
Sources close to Mr Billson and Barratt Homes tell us that he’s currently on ‘Gardening Leave’ and that as yet – it isn’t a definite that he’ll be heading up Barratt Homes’ property management company.
We’ve been told that apparently senior management in Barratt Homes’ have expressed concerns over his appointment and they have taken it upon themselves to ‘test the waters’ over his appointment, by contacting “others” (no names were mentioned by our sources) to ascertain (in our sources words…) “if he really did play an instrumental role in Peverel or whether it was a role inherited simply because of who his father was“.
Therefore, it does appear that Barratt are worried about reputations and on-line campaigns such as TTAS won’t do them any favours with customers, if they start endorsing their ‘new fantastic property management division’ for people to discover that the man at the top is one with experience of ripping off leaseholders.
Watch this space for more details.
Hi all
WHO are the REAL scamsters ?
Is it Peverel the company ? – who is that in reality ?
Is it their shareholders ?
Is it their managers ?
Interesting to note that a lot of people seeming to be moving around … and lawyers seem to be on the move as well … David Edwards as reported has gone …
but so has Jamie Millar, once of Brodies – the solicitors who managed the Property Managers and Factors Association of Scotland – now renamed to leave out the word “factor” because obviously it explained what was going on .. a factor applied … see http://www.pmas.org.uk/ –
Don’t know who thought up the affinity agreement scam re elctricity … but certainly he defended it … well tried to defend the indefensible …
Happy Days
But, the danger with TTAS is that all Peverel managed properties are being tarred with the same brush (a very black one!)
There is site-to-site variation, whatever is said here, some staff that care and residents’ associations or groups that do sterling work to keep costs in check and maintenance up-to-date. I happen to live in one, and there are other sites we personally know and cooperate with. I agree though that without these people Peverel would have defaulted to the norm and things may have been pretty bad by now.
So don’t imagine that all readers here are jumping for joy that you have managed to get potential buyers to withdraw their offers. Myself and others would be pretty peeved to think all our efforts were in vain, should people want to buy / sell. My message to potential buyers is talk to the neighbours, get a breakdown of previous year’s service charges and accounts, understand what they include, what is actually provided, whether there is a reserve fund…and if there is a residents’ association or a group of active leaseholders, get their views. It may be as bad as you fear…or it may not be!
In all honesty there is no reason why people should not buy into our development or one or two others I know in the area that are well “managed” through the efforts of caretakers and residents, even if the Property Manager is not up to the mark.
We’d all like to get rid of Peverel, but the fact TTAS still exists shows this is easier said than done.
Disclaimers:
I do not have my property up for sale, or intend to
I am not a Peverel “lover”, “supporter” or “mole”
I have no links with Peverel except as a leaseholder in a property they manage
I should think your views are in a very small minority compared to the majority of other Peverel leaseholders!
Maybe…but that doesn’t make me wrong and you right. We’re both “right” according to the situations we find ourselves in. I don’t “support” Peverel as a company in any way (usual reaction on this site to anything not overtly negative). I wish we had an easy way of getting rid of them, but we’re stuck with them for the foreseeable future and have taken matters into our own hands to make the best of what otherwise would be a bad situation. But that is not reason to turn away prospective purchasers…that was my point.
I note that cutbacks are being made to HM’s hours.
Why?
I know Peverel have to cut back on everything in their desperate attempts to survive but why HM’s?
Surely if their wages were paid by service charges, which are seperate from Peverel funds cutting their hours produces no saving for Peverel. Unless that is(and in no way am I suggesting this is the case) Peverel have due to an administrative error been paying less to HM’s than has been demanded through service charges, and pocketing the difference. If that was the case(however fanciful that Idea might be to NOTB award winners)
That would produce substantial savings for a very short of cash Peverel.
If the arguement is that HM’s hours are being reduced in the name of efficiency, and that the reduced hours worked will be all that is needed, that begs another question.
Since Peverel were the managing agents when HM’s were working longer hours, if Peverel now say those hours are not required, why were residents being charged for hours that were not needed?
This would point to a failure of management and residents should demand a refund.
Muddy, as usual you make some thought provoking comments.Yes, sites like TTAS do tarnish the image of Peverel(howver justfied) and yes can make it more difficult to sell to escape from the clutches of Peverel.
I could have sold and let everyopne else get on with it.
But my moral code would not let me do it.
I know whatever difficulties I may face, the end of Peverel will increase my property price, as will every other property increase without Peverel.
I come back to that Raply comment about the “Dribbling Geriatrics”
That is the reason I cannot take the easy option. I owe that generation. We owe the generation.
TTAS and Peverel action you have helped so many which we are grateful, however, individual like me has been very difficult at the same time clear example how our weak and vulnerable have been suffering. I am just a living example to expose the truth.
I hope there is no gagging order to print this.
I am disturbed by the below info as it contained wrong information. No one has contacted my solicitors who are only appointed to sell my property and to receive payment from Peverel Insurance Policy underwriter Aviva and Loss Adjuster Cunningham Lindsey. Where this info comes from unless the syndicate released after receiving my email of 30th October 2011? The question needs to be asked why the info was kept under cover. Has all the traces of the email have been wiped out so no one made to answerable? It was sent to MP Lee Scott, Housing Minister, Aviva, Cunningham Lindsey, Stuart Court and Vincent.
It has caused pain to my family in India and in this country by receiving phone call from the police and not knowing the reason.
“Balbir Vogg, also known as Nicky Vogg, was last seen when she met her solicitor in central London on October 27.
Her car, a blue Honda Jazz was found abandoned in Lakeside Avenue, Redbridge on November 2.
Officers would like to speak to anybody who may have seen her or her car on the day she disappeared.
Ms Vogg is described as a “large build” asian woman with short black and grey hair.
Anyone with information should call Det Insp John Arnold on 020 8345 2790.”
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/crime/concerns_grow_over_missing_redbridge_woman_nicky_vogg_1_1135500
The long live the bulling policy is still live and kicking. I am protesting on the highest level so pay up my rightful insurance claim NOW. The second part of my email was not carried out as my data got missing so my protest got stopped. What happened to my data is a mystery.
I have time to think and now in far better position. It makes no difference if I am dead alive or missing so Vincent here is another chance for you to do your dead and help to be pay my claim in full which Aviva must pay.
The police knocked at my status hotel door on 3rd January 2007 at 3 am as I was criminal and then not bothered to rectify the info that I was no longer missing.
Perhaps police would now give me the chance to record and issue me number of the report. It has been denied to me today my Charring Cross Police today and also in 2007 as no one would register it at that time. What is point of the report if I know nothing what is in it? Telling me I am taking to much time at the counter and must leave without giving opportunity to listen fully is nothing more then repeating the past history.
I sincerely hope no evidence was removed from my home and destroyed or gone missing so the syndicate is laughing all the way and may be in a chance to share the loot of my unpaid insurance claim. One wonders why everyone is standing by and no one prepare to help and what are their motives? Perhaps someone comes and share their view explaining why insurance clauses cannot comply.
A few, or even many, buildings with good staff is not enough to warrant a favourable view of OM. In our case, as in many, they were there all along. Peverel became their employer later. It didn’t do any real checks on people it employed later, as we discovered when one turned out to have a criminal record (discovered too late, alas).
Peverel is not an ethical company and many of its business practices are corrupt (kickbacks from suppliers e.g.) or at best very questionable (having conflicts of interest again and again). Then there’s the incompetence, the complete lack of any standard procedures from site to site. The business model is simply own the freehold with one hand, appoint yourself managing agent on the other, and get creative about ways to inflate service charges year after year. It may be legal now but it certainly isn’t ethical. Peverel cares about three things I believe:
Income
Expenditure
Avoiding prosecution
Health and Safety are commonly reviled but I know that OM pays specific attention to compliance with the law. The corollary, however, is not good: it is, apparently, it it’s not illegal then… It doesn’t matter whether the job is well done, not done or botched, or if the charge is unreasonable.
I would not be greatly surprised at this stage if there wasn’t a need for a few showcase sites, and I would treat with skepticism any suggestion that this company has changed its spots. It needs to be consigned to the scrap heap as soon as possible.
Ditto.
How anyone can ever defend Peverel I’ll never know.
Last year I asked for the trees in the back garden here to be lopped – they were getting out of control. Backing onto to this garden at the side there is a hideous overgrown garden belonging to an absent landlord that’s never been touched for decades and it is so bad it has been affecting the light in this garden. At the same time I asked Peverel to contact the landlord and I was assured they had but nothing happened. So instead of waiting until that garden was dealt with before tackling this one along comes Peverel’s cowboy ‘tree surgeons’ who attack the trees in this garden first. Directly in front of the overgrown trees in that neighbour’s garden at the side of my flat was a beautiful old Elder tree that is no more. Instead of lopping it right back as requested it Is now a stump and I am furious a. And so is the neighbour above me. The other trees in the garden they lopped was a cowboy job.
We also had a beautiful large ornamental pampas-grass in the centre bed that acted as a screen and gave shade in the summer for anyone sitting there. That too has gone. I understand now that another neighbour had asked for that plant to be cut back but instead it was pulled out without any consultation with other residents.
I know now that Peverel do this to save money and yet continue to charge us a huge service-charge. It’s cheaper to get rid of a beautiful plant or tree rather than pay gardeners to take proper care of them. The pampas-grass has now been replaced by non-descript ordinary looking plants/shrubs that they say are much easier to maintain. Typical.
Before the HM left I asked why he didn’t call meetings to discuss the garden before these jobs are carried out. He said that at the last such meeting he lost the argument over a proposed alteration to a part of the garden and so he decided not to have any more! I was one of the residents who voted against it because the idea had been put forward by another resident really for his own benefit – a waste of money and unnecessary.
What a shower. Hopefully it will soon be Peverel no more.
Fleeced,
Muddy’s views may reflect a small minority, but thankfully for me ,size is not everything!
It is to Muddy’s and TTAS’s credit that views with which me may disagree are posted.
None of us are right about everything and an alternative view is something we can learn from.
Now i know executive salaries are controversial. Information on Peverel Action, reveals that in 2009 Keith Edgar was paid about £153,000.
Looking at other pay rates for a company of comparable size to Peverel, actually it is quite a low figure.
It certainly would not attract the most talented candidates.
So to have the job Keith Edgar has, employing 4500 people, and accepting that kind of salary would reflect in my opinion the very low calibre of Mr Edgar.
To put things into context, an estate agent in London selling 30 properties a year would earn more.
I think it would be fair comment to suggest that Peverel reflects the abilities of Mr Edgar.
Well, isn’t that in the ball park of the Prime Minister’s salary? (thanks to Gordon Brown!!) — for a more responsible job. Please, the world has had enough trouble with penis-measuring by proxy in the salary dept. Besides, do you know that his earnings didn’t include components other than salary?
OMhostage,
I don’t! That said I would love to cut his perks off!
The point I am trying to make is that anyone of real ability would not settle for that size of salary.
The fact that Mr Edgar is paid what he is being paid and the fact that Peverel is run the way it is, even without the scams, suggests that Mr Edgar is not of sufficient calibre to command the appropriate salary that a company the size of Peverel would normally pay.
You may think that due to the Peverel business plan, which is dedicated to fund the holding companies debts,
and providing very poor service to residents, and treating their staff poorly as well, they need someone like Mr Edgar to allow them to get away with all their strokes.
Returning to my normal subject, service charges, a brief update.
Before challenging any other item, I have gone back to the first basic.
Are my payments for service charges paid into my trust fund?
This should be easy to show. After all, if I pay a cheque for £231,78, not only should I get a receipt, I should be able to see an entry on the trust account statement for £231,78.
Peverel are holding back on this request. After months of negotiations , things have gone very quiet.
In a previous post, I mentioned my concern over what appeared to be unaccounted for funds.
Since it is so vital that we have confidence our funds are safe, both Peverel and Zolfo Cooper, kept stressing
that those funds were safe when the holding companies collapsed.
That was last April. Since then, we have had no further statement about the trust funds from either Peverel or Zolfo Cooper. It maybe, that Zolfo Cooper as administrators have told Peverel not to make any financial comments. It maybe that once Zolfo Cooper had a chance to look at Peverel’s books, they realised they could no longer give an assurance about the safety of our funds.
So, what we have, is a company that we have no financial statement more recent than 2009.
A company that cannot show funds being allocated to individual trust accounts.
Confusion as to the status of the trust fund, and what money is actually safe.
A lack of statements regarding the safety of our funds.
When challenged, no answer to my concerns.
It just gets better!
May I advise all on this site, who are thinking of giving Peverel any money, the next 12 weeks are going to be crucial. Clearly I cannot advise you not to pay your service charges, but If you could withold those payments for the next 12 weeks on the basis of your concerns that payments are not being passed to your account I think it would be a wise move.
However, before you do this, you must consider, that if you take this action, particularly for the next 12 weeks, as in the next 12 weeks that are crucial to Peverel, you run the risk, that especially over the next 12 weeks, denied of cashflow, the consequences of your action of bringing Peverel to its knees.
Hi all
Well thats my old neighbor fallen down the stairs …
Came out of his dimly lit flat – well with peverel’s charges he is having to save on the electricity – into a the hallway just a step from the stairhead.
dazzled by the excessively bright lights …
tripped over the shadow on the top stair …
and down he went …
major trauma to the head. he is now having operations on his brain, and seems like it caused a stroke …
the lighting does NOT meet the building regulations … viz
a) no diffusers are fitted – which they MUST be … that causes the shadows
b) no glare allowed – well the lux is TEN TIMES the statutory minimum …
the contractor who installed the lighting is unregistered and unregulated.
indeed trading standards have been after him for claiming that he is NICEIC approved.
no decent contractor would EVER fit stuff that did not meet the regulations … regulatory bodies like NICEIC make sure their members dont, AND are up to date on the latest regulations
but ” hi discount geo and mate bubba ” sure did.
anyway so thats him in hospital, and his wife in a care home… guess he will have to go and join her …
and what is even sadder is hat he voted for this lighting because he wanted to keep in with the moles …
question is does this count as attempted corporate man slaughter ?
who cares .. he is just an old guy
sad days
A Reviewer – that’s terrible. Hope your neighbour recovers from his injuries. Doesn’t sound good at all.
Sounds like somebody has some serious questions to answer. The electrical contractor (in the loosest terms, by the sounds of it) needs the book throwing at them / him, and Peverel should also be made to explain why they employ the services of an unregistered operative (was going to use another word, but thought better of it).
Sounds like your local Trading Standards department need to be contacted, along with the Building Control department, and perhaps the local Fire Safety Officer as well.
From how you describe what has happened, I’d say somebody is liable.
Hi
Wrote to Peverel in these terms ….
“In the days between Christmas 2007 and New Year, Peverel Scotland Ltd caused to be erected light
fittings which are unacceptable for several reasons. The way in which this action was taken, and the
installation itself raise serious questions as to the fitness of Peverel Scotland Ltd to be allowed to trade as
a firm of property managers.”
I obtained a copy of the relevant regulations from Building Control, BUT due to poor wording, they have NO CONTROL over the COMMON AREAS of multi occupation dwellings … e.g. a block of flats unless a building warrant is required. No warrant is required for replacement of lighting.
I had long discussions with the technical director of the IEEE. He said wait for the inevitable accident and hope they die, then a coroner’s enquiry can be instigated, and that can lead to the necessary changes in regulations which can retrospectively be used to sue peverel, the people instructing them, and the contractor.
also had a go at the NICEIC, and loads of other authorities … a lot tried, but most turned out to be spineless wonders – sorry state civil servants wishing to ensure that they get their early retirement with a grand pension.
So is a difficult situation … poor old guy would be better off dead anyway …
sad days
Since, Peverel are going through such a tough time, I think it my duty to try and raise the morale of everel staff.
(that was not a typo, it was everel that took the “P”.
So, my idea would be at the start of every day if all the staff sang the company song.
To the tune of 10 Green Bottles.
1500 estates managed by Peverel
1500 estates managed by Peverel
And if one estate does a RTM,
There would be,
1499 estates managed by Peverel.
1499 estates managed by Peverel
And if one estate does a RTM
There would be,
1498 estates managed by Peverel
1498 estates managed by Peverel
and if one estate does a RTM
There would be,
1497 estates managed by Peverel
keep singing until you reach zero!
Nature is both a wonderful, yet savage in its brutality entity.
Look how a magnificent beast can be brought down by preditors who have no mercy.
Notice how a crocodile will fight for hours with a larger prey.
Imagine the python squeezing the life out of its victim.
Watch in awe the macabre desperate death throes of the victims.
Such is the state Peverel are in.
I warned some time ago, that if Peverel were in severe trouble, watch out for strange actions, or odd charges.
On Peverel Action, an estate that had achieved RTM were complaining that 25% of their funds are being held back, but were being charged extraordinary amounts for administering the RTM.
I presume this is from our friends at E&M acting on behalf of Proxima.
Legal Services Manager 2.5 hrs @ £200p/hr
Head of Client Accounts 2.75hrs @ £175p/hr
Developer Relations Manager 2hrs@£100p/hr
Legal Secretary 2.25hrs@£75 p/hr
Area Manager 1hr@150/p/hr
Personnel .75 hr @ £100 p/hr
Clearly these are ridiculous charges, that have not been incurred by the freeholder.
Even as in my opinion fairly formed by my experience of E&M as crooked as they are, they have never in any claim or LVT claimed these charges before now.
So if anyone receives charges like this you must challenge.
The first question that springs to my mind is to ask E&M to name those people they are claiming for, and to show the work they actually did.
I would also ask, how do they know the costs to be claimed, when no accounts have been filed?
I would also question the term Legal Services Manager.
In previous charges E&M were claiming for a Solicitor, who in some cases had their chargeable fees reduced on the basis that he was an “In House” Solicitor, so his costs would be less.
So presuming a Legal Services Manager is not a Solicitor how is it that E&M are claiming £200 per hour, yet, Richard Sandler the “in house” solicitor was “only” claiming £180 per hour?
I can understand in a large firm, perhaps the size of Ford or BA, needing a Legal Services Manager, but please this is E&M! I have seen their offices, not exactly Canary Wharf is it?
So how many solicitors do the actually employ? I think it may be 2, at a push 3! You do not need a £200 per hour Legal Service Manager for that do you?
I have mentioned “pecuniary advantage by deception”
If E&M are claiming for people that do not exist, that is very bad news for them, very bad news!
Also, I am not sure what Richard Sandler earns, but let’s guess it’s £100,000 a year. If he does 37 hours per week, and has four weeks holiday, that’s £56 an hour, not £180 an hour.
In reality, a solicitor at the same grade as Mr Sandler, if in his own practice in a suburban location around £230 per hour has been deemed a reasonable charge. Since Mr Sandler is an “in-house” solicitor £180 per hour charges have been accepted.
Where Mr Sandler appears to attract the scorn of various LVT’s is the apparent confusion as to who Mr Sandler
is employed by, and who in reality he is representing?
For example, does E&M who he is registered with have the authority to act on behalf of Proxima/
If Mr Sandler represents Proxima, why is he not registered as working for them?
If E&M are authorised, then why have they tried to charge for researching the ownership of the freeholds?
I challenge anyone from Peverel/E&M to prove that they have any of the staff they are now trying to claim for.
Show me where in any career available advert, where any mention of a Legal Services Manager is made?
Show me who runs the “Ground Rent Uplift Department”
I think most people might conclude that both Mr Sandler and E&M are so discredited, they are trying to withdraw from the line of fire. Such is the dire financial position, that where in the past they would be devious in applying charges, so it would take years of investigation to uncover their scams, they are now in the position
that anything will have to do, however easy their actions are to expose.
As i said, especially in the next 12 weeks, watch for anything unusual.
Further research reveals two solicitors registered with the Law society as employed by E&M.
Mr Richard Sandler and MR Mohammed Bux..
Are E&M trying to suggest that employing just two solicitors requires a Legal Services Manager?
Are E&M expecting anyone to believe that if they do employ such a person, the chargeable rate is more than for an actual solicitor?
Come on E&M, I know you have come out with some corkers in the past, like pretending to have done a ground rent survey, claiming that you were subject to abusive calls etc that never happened!
I remember, in your prime, you at least told better lies than you are doing now!
Trying to screw residents for a few extra hours work over a LVT is one thing, and is standard practice for you, but, inventing staff, in order to increase charges takes you out of the administrative error zone, into the area of fraud that can get solicitors struck off or staff ending up in jail.
It’s going badly wrong for you E&M isn’t it?
In hindsight, I bet you wish you hadn’t have taken me to court that day.
Ok, it cost me a couple of thousand pounds to “lose”, but what must you have thought after the case, when you realised I had set a trap for you, and you had kindly walked straight into it?
This is nearly over. But for you taking that court action, you gave me the protection i needed. I could not have carried on this fight, without that.
So whatever I have cost Peverel since the case is thanks to you E&M. Well done!
18 january 2012. we live in fairhold/peverel managed flat. today the manger apparently delighted because he says peverel been sol/jb safe/letters to residents to follow in next few weeks!!!! true?
We had a budget meeting this morning and the same was said there – so looks as if it might be true – really scary!
TTAS, Peverel Action and CarlEX must pile on the pressure even more now…!!!!
With Peverel continuing as managing agent the prices of these homes will remain depressed and very difficult to sell.
There was even talk of a new electricity company emerging namely Peverel Energy – HONEST!!!!
I forgot to mention in my previous post (I was still suffering from shock you see!!) Peverel has become so penny pinching I note that on the budget accounts for the first time we are now being charged to register for the Housing Ombudsman Service – £32 for the privilege of complaining about Peverel!!!! I said it was the landlord’s responsibility to pay but as usual all the other residents happily accept the rip-off and so Peverel gets away with it.
Fleeced,
Looks like the talk of ‘Peverel Energy’ is correct:
http://www.micrographix.co.uk/projects/brochure-design-peverel
Now we enter a very interesting phase. We have to be patient and see if the sale of Peverel includes Proxima, who own the freeholds, or the OM/Kingsborough side of things. Also it will be of interest to see the who the real power behind the buyer is?
I do not think the sale of Peverel will be of too much concern to us.
If the new owner carries on like the previous owner, at worst our position does not change. We just keep on going as we have been. All the previous problems remain, including the lack of account of “Trust” funds.
Despite what may be said, a new owner is either going to “downsize” the company, or they know and have prepared a business plan based on many estates leaving forcing the “downsize”
This will result in a mass of job losses in the Peverel Group. A few months ago, i warned that major job losses were coming. For anyone thinking of leaving now, you are too late. When I said it was your last chance, I meant it was your last chance.
What any new owner is going to have to come to terms with is our determination not to be cheated, and our experience in making sure every scam is thwarted.
So if you are the new owner, and you are reading this, The ink on the brochure is not even dry for Peverel Energy, and even now, we are watching for any attempt from OM to buy electricity from Peverel Energy.
May I suggest to any new owner, they need to do the following to develop a successful business.
Properly account for all service charges. Properly seperate “trust” accounts so they are clear, and have their own bank account numbers.
Call of all LVT actions in which you are being challenged and settle. Pass on all funds to new RTM companies.
If a development wants a RTM, provided it is lawful, grant it, without challenge.
A business with a willing client base is far easier to manage than with a forced client base.
Any contractor that has in the past involved themselves in Kickbacks never use again.
Any member of staff that has been negligent or has lied, Sack!
Confirm, that any shortfall of funds, however caused will be bourne by you and not the residents.
Confirm that all charges, which are just revenue raisers will be stopped.
Of course my “wish list” may be fantasy. However, without this happening a baptism of fire awaits the new company.
Couldn’t believe it this morning when I heard another classic Peverel remark. The Area Manager said: “Vincent Tchenguiz is the bad guy not us. We are completely separate from him.”!!! Hmmmmm.