We’re more than happy to endorse this campaign and we understand that despite the campaign only recently being launched, it has been very well accepted.

If you’re not familiar with this campaign, we’ve published a copy of the press release that was sent to us and other media outlets.

This may be another reason why TTAS were inundated with enquiries from media productions companies yesterday that were interested in our cause.

We wonder if you are aware of the campaign being conducted by Peverel Action against the landlords / Peverel / Kingsborough companies responsible for receiving commission of over 33% on buildings insurance premiums paid by captive leaseholders. Called project Case Open, participation is free for individuals and developments to press their claim – in response to new Peverel CEO Janet Entwistle’s admission that historic commissions were excessive followed by her refusal to recalculate.

The action is designed to help retirement leaseholders especially who may not have the capacity or confidence to proceed on their own, and who have been given the run around in response to polite enquiries. Substantial private developments who have since achieved management control using RTM legislation are also involved. Participation is now in the several hundreds, the invitation to join the action is open through January.

Further information and progress reports are available on the Peverel Action website or by e-mail to editorwatch@hotmail.co.uk

Cheque Fraud Once Again

We were contacted by another resident who was enquiring about the cheque fraud TTAS reported on in 2012, who appears to have also been a victim of the cheque fraud that Peverel / OM blamed on the postal service.

Our sources have told us that this remains a very “touchy” subject within Peverel / OM and is why TTAS would like to once again bring this issue to light, as others may know more than we are aware of.

Hi TTAS

Do you happen to know how the outcome of any of the previous stolen cheques episodes. I sent OM a cheque for £558.08 last June, in respect of my property in Liverpool, which was paid from my account but they claim never to have received.

I would have thought that cheque fraud can’t be so easy that the police haven’t managed to arrest and charge someone yet?

My bank is now carrying out an investigation to find out where the money went although apparently the DPA prevents them providing this information to anyone!

Any details contributors have on the cheque fraud would be gratefully accepted and feel free to e-mail it to admin@thetruthaboutsolitaire.co.uk

Have many been watching TTAS and waiting to realise that actually TTAS isn’t a site for serial complainers, it’s a site that want’s to help people and have an audience that is in need of assistance.

Today, we spoke at length with a production company that is researching issues with OM Property Management / Peverel.

They’re looking to hear from Peverel / OM clients that they’d like to speak to in regards to your issues in the hope that they can help, run coverage on the steps taken to alleviate your problems.

We’ve published details of the e-mail they sent to us, which details what they are looking for:-

Thanks for our chat just now, it was great to talk to you and I can’t thank you enough for agreeing to give us a helping hand (and of course for your brilliant website).

As mentioned, we are keen to learn a bit more about OM PM and particularly to make contact with some recent victims.

We’re interested in people who have been left in truly bad or dangerous situations as a result of this company, whether that’s through gross overcharging, failure to return fees / deposits, refusal to make urgent improvements to properties etc. Before we kick-start an investigation in earnest we always need to make certain that there is a sustained, deliberate pattern of behaviour and a trail of unhappy victims as a consequence of their actions so this is quite an important first step for us.

We’re up against quite a tight deadline and are hoping to make quick progress with this, as we’ve already started filming the second series and there is only one episode remaining.

Also, if you, on the off chance, have a sort of ‘brief’ or document that you may have prepared in the past for the media that provides a brief introduction or overview to the company and their actions it would be fantastic if you could send that my way. Of course, no worries if not but any documents or information you do have that you think may help enlighten me as I come to this new would be invaluable.

If you feel your story / experience will be suitable for this production, please get in contact with us via admin@thetruthaboutsolitaire.co.uk with contact details and the problems you are experiencing.

As mentioned in the e-mail above, there is a tight deadline so the sooner we hear from you the sooner we can send your message on to the production company!

Though some amongst the TTAS community believe we need to reveal more about who we are and they also speculate that TTAS is actually ran by those we complain about.  Quite an outrageous claim, when you think that TTAS has been going for over four and a half years and everyone knows even Peverel don’t have that sort of dedication to a job!

Sadly, since we scheduled our TTAS Transparency reports we’ve experienced major technical problems and unfortunately this resulted in all e-mail sent to us since 2008 having been lost, due to a hardware failure (which has only just been repaired and is why I’m able to compose this report).

I’m very embarrassed by this, given that I work within the IT industry and really should have followed my own advice and backed up the TTAS!

Fortunately we have a backup of e-mails going back to April of this year that we are currently downloading again – so please bear with us and we’ll endeavour to respond to e-mails as soon as possible.

This aside, lets turn our thoughts towards what TTAS, Peverel Action and Carlex can strive to achieve in 2013.

2012 was a strange year… Peverel came out of Administration… Janet Entwhistle was appointed CEO and promised change which is yet to happen…. yet the usual Peverel performance and charges were being experienced by residents up and down the country.

Now that TTAS has dropped our anonymity, we’re looking to work closer with Carlex and Peverel Action, as I believe all three sites have a good foundation from which to build on.

Therefore, I’d like to ask our community for your input into the areas you’d like for us to attempt highlight or address so that we can be constructive and no longer seen as purely a “bunch of keyboard warriors”.

And Finally…

In the final part of our TTAS transparency “Big Reveal” series, we thought it would be nice for us to give you a face to put to the name  of TTAS’ Admin….. Adam.

If you missed our “big reveal” report click here, but we hope that finally our new formal and friendly approach to things will help with publicity of our cause and interact with contributors a lot easier.

We finished 2012, running our TTAS Transparency reports that gave visitors an insight into what Peverel / Solitaire did to provoke “Admin” into creating TheTruthAboutSolitaire.

By now, you would all have read the problems faced, how Solitaire failed to deal with them and the determination of “Admin” to succeed in removing Peverel from their former leasehold property.

As with all good things, they must come to an end and that end today is the revelation of who “Admin” is as we change the approach of TTAS for 2013 and promise to be more open and transparent.

TTAS being TTAS and always telling the truth, we have great pleasure in finally revealing who “Admin” is. Therefore, allow us to finally introduce you to Admin……

I’d like to say a massive thank you to all those of you that have supported TTAS and contributed essential advice, that has not only helped me, but has helped thousands of residents nationwide come to terms with their property management nightmare and realise that they were not alone.

My name is Adam and I owned a leasehold property at a David Wilson development in Bristol called “Beaufort Vale” from June 2006 until June 2010.

When I setup TTAS in 2008, I was 27 years old and determined to not allow Solitaire to rip me off any longer. Despite my years, I was not prepared to stand back and be ripped off.

I’d only encountered just under two years of frustrations from Solitaire, but was also disappointed with David Wilson Homes as I felt that as a first time buyer I had been exploited and mis-sold my property, having not been told the truth.

I wanted to ensure that others in my position realised that they were not alone and make it easier for first time buyers to discover the consequences of owning a leasehold property.

Prior to purchasing my property, I sought advice from family and friends, but as none of them had any experience of leasehold were unable to warn me about the potential pitfalls.

Whilst running my own technology business, I have gained an overwhelming amount of knowledge of the leasehold sector, modern building “tactics” and have become very wary of the practices within the building industry.

As mentioned in Part Two of our TTAS Transparency reports, I used to post via an alter-ego… namely “sheps”. It was my way of telling the truth, whilst Solitaire were unable to identify who I was and I feel that to this day, my presence of posting on TTAS pressured Lee Middleburgh (Solitaire) and Hilary Quinn (Estates & Management) to appoint the managing agent of my choice, without costs being involved.

I initially thought that it was only leaseholders in flats and apartments who were affected by mis-management, but when CARLEX highlighted the exploitation of retirement home owners – it made me even more determined to expose the malpractice of managing agents – by telling the truth.

I felt disgusted that a company was prepared to exploit those senior citizens that had done so much for this country in the past for profit. From a personal perspective, I was also briefly exposed to the retirement exploitation and saw first hand how naive / grieving families happily agreed to pay exit charges when a loved one passes – simply because it’s easier to agree to them, rather than contest them at a time when emotions are high.

Unlike the many guises of Peverel and their employees – I have a great respect for people that have done good things and have been prepared to fight the cause. In four and a half years of TTAS, determined individuals who contributed to TTAS, CARLEX and Peverel Action have sadly passed away and it is these type of people that we must not forget.

This is once of the main reason for why I am determined for TTAS to kick-on to the next level and attempt to force change, whilst also promoting awareness. At present, I shall be honest – I haven’t a clue what that level is.

I feel that transparency and openness is important for our cause and despite no longer living in a leasehold property, I still value the suffering that others are exposed too and is why I have decided to reveal who I am.

Other members of the TTAS Admin Team, have asked to not be revealed at present – but as the creator of TTAS, I wanted to be honest with everyone.

For those of you reading this from Peverel. You now know who I am and I trust that you will join me in being open and honest with your clients.

Here’s to 2013 and who knows what the future may hold. One thing’s for certain, it’ll be a pleasure to finally be able to interact with TTAS contributors in a much more formal and personal way from now on.

Today we bring you details of Peverel’s endeavours to establish who was behind TTAS.

It wouldn’t surprise us if they have finally been able to identify “Admin” following publication of events that they have been through.

Needless to say, we feel it’s in the interest of TTAS visitors to understand just how determined Peverel were to find out who we were.  It’s a real shame that Peverel didn’t put as much effort into managing our property as they did in trying to identify who we were.

Compared to recent posts, today’s is a relatively short and sweet one – but we think you’ll find it of interest.

When we decided to set TTAS up, we knew that the potential repercussions were huge.  We had to ensure that we had an element of anonymity and the easiest way of discovering who we were would be by looking up who owned the domain www.thetruthaboutsolitaire.co.uk.

Using online web tools, anyone can discover who own’s the domain, who the hosts are and much more.

Fortunately for TTAS we foresaw this and ensured that when we registered the domain name that our details were withheld and that alternative contact details were used.

It didn’t take Peverel too long to start trying to find out who owned the site, as TTAS runs tools in the background that monitor how visitors find TTAS, where they come from and much more.  We started to find that they’d been trying to find out who owned the domain name and they’d hit a blank wall!

Then Solitaire appointed “Andy – Online Feedback Manager” to appease the TTAS contributors, whilst he also subtly tried to suss out the “Admin” team.  Clearly Peverel / Solitaire thought we were naive and stupid, if they thought we would so easily give up / reveal information that would allow them to identify us.

Such was Peverel’s fear of another “The Truth About” that they registered alternative versions of the name to protect their guises e.g. thetruthaboutpeverel.co.uk, thetruthaboutconsort.co.uk and more.

It wasn’t just Peverel that had this fear….. other managing agents also started to register “thetruthabout” domain names and one such company was “Mainstay Property Management”, who’d registered thetruthaboutmainstay.co.uk.

Clearly TTAS was sending shock waves through the leasehold sector and managing agents were petrified of being exposed like Solitaire / Peverel were.

It wasn’t just TTAS that Peverel were “sussing out”.  They’d even clicked through to my companies website on numerous occasions.  Although, this may have just purely been co-incidence at that time, as I’d worked from home and as I was constantly moaning at them – they may have just clicked through to see why I was always at home!

Needless to say, these “visits” continued and you’d think they’d have given up by now – but they still check out the site even to this day!

Then we had the biggest shock, when one of our “sources” who worked for Peverel contacted us and mentioned my name and the address of my development.  However, our source told us that although they suspected me – they had no concrete evidence that it was me!

It was nice to discover this because it showed that our anonymity was irritating them.

We’ve also been told by a number of TTAS contributors that they’ve been accused of being “Admin” by contractors and these include “Matt Hobby”, “Michael Epstein” and even some TTAS contributors have suspected that “Muddy” was “Admin”.

Accusers have included contractors, Peverel employees and other TTAS contributors.

I’d like to apologise to those contributors who have been accused of being “Admin” and you only have to wait until 1 January 2013 to discover who “Admin” really is.

So, as today’s post is our last for 2012…

We’d like to wish all of our visitors, contributors, supporters a very Happy New Year and here’s to the future.  Who knows what the future may hold.

We hope you’re starting to get an idea of the type of person “Admin” is and how their determination has not only helped their cause, but also provided others on TTAS with the drive and encouragement to also take action against Solitaire / Peverel.

Today, our TTAS Transparency report covers one of the major driving forces behind why “Admin” took Solitaire’s failures so personally and how they could see one of the major impacts of Solitaire’s performance and charges on their future.

Ready for today’s instalment? Well, sit back, relax and be prepared to be shocked by today’s revelation!

The benefits of removing Peverel / Solitaire

Following the removal of Solitaire from our development, it gave me the opportunity to sit back and reflect on what I’d achieved almost single handedly.

I’d taken on a nationwide corporation and won!  Little old me, who’d never once fought a battle had beaten a company that had ripped me off for many years.

This determination came from being fed up with being ripped off, but also from reading other stories of TTAS contributors that proved things would get worse if I didn’t act.

TTAS was starting to get a good reputation within the Leasehold sector and I was being interviewed pretty much on a monthly basis by major television production companies.  Although Peverel were getting closer to identifying who I was, sources within Peverel were telling us that they just couldn’t prove whether I was “Admin” or not as I’d covered my tracks so well.

Having married in December 2009, my life took a different path and my wife and I decided it was time to move.  I quickly realised that by removing Solitaire from our development, my property had a major selling point when compared to others….. it didn’t have a Peverel or Solitaire guise managing it!

When people came to view the property, the first question I would ask (as I was the person showing them round) was whether they’d seen other leasehold properties and if they’d been made aware of service charges.

Almost every single one of them said yes and when I had the pleasure of telling them that my service charges had reduced from £1400+ with Solitaire to just over £700 per year with our new local agent – it came as a pleasant surprise!  Especially when one viewer even quoted TTAS and was very relieved to discover they weren’t associated with my property.

In June 2010, I said goodbye to my leasehold property and moved onto pastures new.  Although, the solicitor I used to purchase my new property grew ever tired of my demands to ensure that there was categorically no management or commonhold charges associated with it!

Having had my fingers burnt once, I was never going to let myself get into a similar situation again and was the reason for being so anal!

My wife on a number of occasions told me to “pack in doing TTAS”, because what was the point now that I was no longer being exploited at the hands of them.

To which my reply was… “We’ve been lucky to escape and I need to ensure that the last four years have not only been used for personal gain”.

I have never at any time used TTAS for my own gain or to help with the problems I faced.  If anything, I kept a distance and remained in the shadows whilst others shared their stories and advice.

The major positive for me now was that as I wasn’t associated with Leasehold, I could help others.  This is why we created the FAQ’s page and started to make TTAS more of an information portal / reference site that just merely a complaints website.

However, there was still the issue of anonymity.  TTAS was being looked as as a party to represent many thousands of residents up and down the country, but it was difficult for us to meet with Peverel / Solitaire as we’d reveal who we were.

Our opinion is that this type of dedication is paramount for everyone, because even though we’ve escaped our Leasehold Nightmare – we’re determined to continue exposing malpractice by Peverel / Solitaire.

In Part Five, we bring you details of just how close Peverel / Solitaire have come to identifying us and we’re nearly there when it comes to revealing “Admin”…

It’s getting exciting!

Are we tempting you to keep coming back to see whether we’ve revealed who we are yet?

By now, TTAS contributors should know that we like to build up to momentous occasions and we believe that for those of you reading this, it’s so worthwhile for you to understand the background experiences of ‘Admin’ before we reveal all.

We promise, that on the 1 January 2013 – “Admin” will be revealed…. although we think it’ll be a little too late to be included in the Queens New Years honours list for 2013!

Today, we bring you Part Three of “Admins” battle with Solitaire (or Peverel) and how they took on Solitaire, Estates & Management and even Lee Middleburgh – to be victorious!

Let Battle Commence

Having canvassed neighbours and discovered that everyone shared my opinion of Solitaire Property Management, it was time to take on board some of the advice that had been shared on TTAS.

I’d already taken Solitaire to an ARMA Tribunal and they’d called it a “draw” – whereby neither Solitaire or myself were wrong.  This gave me the foundation to take the next step and used this tribunal to my advantage when I considered the next steps, based on the advice of TTAS contributors.

A number had already mentioned the possibility of demanding the freeholder (Estates & Management) to  replace the managing agent, providing there was sufficient support from residents.

Another option was to approach other managing agents and obtain alternative prices, whilst asking whether they’d be able to help.

The final option was to go Right to Manage.  This would prove difficult for our development as it was a mix of commonhold and leasehold properties, therefore to RTM on individual blocks would still not see the removal of Solitaire from our development, as Solitaire would still be associated to the Freehold (commonhold) properties.

I opted to approach a local managing agent, who were incredibly helpful and gave advice that may help my cause when trying to rid our development of Solitaire.  They also demonstrated that they could reduce our service charges by almost £11,000 per year – whilst providing more services!

I needed to take a tactical approach to getting Solitaire removed from our development, because I didn’t want other residents to go to a great expense to fight Solitaire, whilst we had the difficulty of wanting to help our freehold / commonhold property owners.

Therefore, I contacted E&M directly and opened dialogue with Lee Middleburgh, demanding that pretty much all of our development was against Solitaire and therefore we wanted them to be replaced.

At first, E&M were very unresponsive towards this matter, whilst Lee Middleburgh wanted to “bend over backwards” to help my complaint.  However, when it came to the crunch he bottled a meeting with myself and fellow residents – but was very happy to meet me alone.  This was something I wasn’t prepared to do, because our developments plight was a collective decision and if Mr Middleburgh wasn’t prepared to meet with all disgruntled residents – then I wasn’t prepared to meet with him.

In hindsight, it was a very “ballsy” attitude – but I’d grown so frustrated with Solitaire that I was determined to be rid of them and knowing I had the support of my fellow residents – I knew I was in the right.

Clearly a discussion had taken place behind the scenes between Lee Middleburgh and E&M, because suddenly E&M were prepared to replace Solitaire but only via a “fair” tendering process, which resulted in them sourcing three quotations from alternative companies.

This was something I wasn’t prepared to accept, because I had undertaken due diligence of my local property management company and based on their support and advice, they were the perfect partner to work with.  Therefore, the next battle was forcing E&M to appoint our managing agent.

Again, a tactical approach was needed and this time I contacted E&M to advise them that if they didn’t appoint our chosen managing agent, we would look to go RTM as we had over 90% of residents in favour of replacing Solitaire.

This was a gamble, because RTM of the development wasn’t going to be possible for the whole development, whilst also having to fight to rescue “blocks” from Solitaire.

E&M’s response to this was, if you can provide evidence that me and my fellow neighbours wanted to replace Solitaire with our chosen managing agent, they would consider it.

This was the answer I wanted and produced a template letter and canvassed neighbours asking for each to sign it there and then, so that all I had to do was put the property number on the letter.

The response from this was overwhelming and out of the 35 properties on our development, 34 people signed the letter whilst the 35th was on holiday!

After a few weeks, my local property management company got in touch to say that E&M were appointing them, however E&M had insisted on being responsible for sourcing insurance for the development.  This was a sore point, given that insurance costs were one of the major complaints we had.

In the scheme of things I was prepared to bite the bullet with this “demand” from E&M, as the decision to appoint our chosen agent would still see us reduce charges by £10,000 per year when compared to Solitaire / Peverel’s fees!

In October 2009 (six months after commencing battle with E&M / Solitaire) – our chosen managing agent was appointed.  Though it didn’t go quite as smoothly as was hoped, but this was due to Solitaire / Peverel making things difficult for the new agent.

One of these ‘difficulties’ was the fact that apparently our service charge bank account was in deficit.  Although, when myself and our new managing agent went through individual property accounts we discovered that Solitaire had allowed a number of properties to build up debts on their accounts!

This made a mockery of Solitaire’s threat of debt collection when I’d failed to pay for a legitimate reason.  When I say individual properties had debts, we’re not talking a few hundred pounds here.  A number of properties had debts in excess of £2000!

It proved that Solitaire were incompetent in chasing outstanding accounts, but happily let properties build up debt knowing that when they came to sell the property – they’d have to clear the debt.  Not the best accounting practice and one that may have contributed to why our services charges were increasing each year.  Were we making up the shortfall of those who weren’t paying their debts?

Our accounts were not the only questionable thing about the transfer of our development from Solitaire to our new agent.  The next task we faced was the fact that believe it or not, some properties were not paying a service charge, whilst others were paying a fee for a parking space, etc that they didn’t even have!

It made it incredibly difficult for the new agent to produce accurate records, because Land Registry showed that these properties should have been paying a charge, but their deeds owners had were different to those on Land Registry!

At this point, some people may be getting a sniff of who “Admin” is and if you are… keep it to yourself for the time being and don’t ruin the surprise for others just yet!

Especially when Part Four, details the additional benefits of removing Solitaire / Peverel from my development.

As other TTAS contributors mentioned yesterday, that initial complaint was something that wasn’t too trivial and you’d expect it to be addressed relatively quickly.

However, sadly for Solitaire Property Management (or Peverel now), their ineptitude and preference to ignore their clients, whilst failing to address minor issues resulted in a torrent of unhappy residents nationwide being provided with a platform to air grievances about the services they receive, in the guise of TTAS.

Today, we publish details of my second ongoing battle with Solitaire and how TTAS started to provide me with the courage to take the fight to Peverel.

Failure to provide a service

Having created TTAS in June 2008, it took the best part of a month for visitors to start finding the site and initially it was mainly just a platform for me to publish my grievances.

At the end of August 2008, I started to realise that I was not alone in feeling ripped off by Solitaire Property Management and that the issue affected many more people nationwide.

It was not until September 2008 when my next service charge invoice arrived in the post that I started to grow even more frustrated with Solitaire.  Not only had I had to wait nearly six months for a nail to be put in a fence to fix it – but my service charges were increasing at an alarming rate.

I’d started to pay a lot more attention to the services provided and what the glossy “Welcome Pack” that I’d received in 2007 said about what to expect.

The primary reason for this was because it had dawned on me that for nearly two years the communal stairwell (used by only one other property and myself), had not been cleaned!  The Welcome Pack assured me that this was a service provided and should be undertaken weekly, if not fortnightly.

I started to monitor this situation, to the point that as dust collected on the window sills – I would write the date of when I’d noticed it in the dirt.  If the cleaner was visiting, then surely my scribbles would disappear….. how wrong could I be!

Months went past and I started to complain to my property manager.  It was a complaint that continued to be ignored and I then decided to use an alter-ego on TTAS so that I could post my complaint online and refer to it in correspondence to Solitaire.

February 2009 was a turning point for me and TTAS, as Solitaire had gone too far and ignored my complaint about cleaning. My property manager had become very belittling to the point that they’d visited with the cleaner and unsurprisingly couldn’t find an issue with the level of cleaning!  This was despite an e-mail from me the day before saying that the cleaner had finally arrived for the first time in years.

Quite frankly, this was the end of being “Mr Nice Guy” when it came to Solitaire and I took it upon myself to monitor (in a rather OCD way) everything that their contractors did at our development.

The Welcome Pack stated that bin stores would be cleaned and bleached, litter would be picked up by landscapers, communal windows would be cleaned, etc.

I managed to get one landscape gardeners removed from my development, having filmed the contractors running the mower over rubbish and also kicking rubbish onto Council owned land, so that the wind would blow it back onto our lawns.

I’d previously complained about the level of service provided by these contractors and only when video evidence was provided did Solitaire finally do something about it.  My question then was “why” did I have to go to such lengths to prove the performance of their contractors?

In March 2009, our 2009/10 service charge invoices arrived and again even more money was being demanded from residents!  Having analysed our accounts I discovered numerous entries on our budget that we were paying for that didn’t exist such as “communal water”, “Gate Maintenance” to name just a few.

Add to this the fact that my service charge had increased from around £800 in 2006, to £1000 in 2007, £1100 in 2008 and now suddenly almost £1400 in 2009!

I was furious and it was only due to a chance encounter with a fellow resident who owned a ground floor flat that had spoken with the owner of a similar property and discovered they were paying less fees than he was.  They’d heard I was frustrated with Solitaire and recommended he paid me a visit.

It transpired that ground floor apartments paid a lower service charge, yet he was paying more than I was and I owned a second floor apartment and over £300 more than his neighbour who had an identical property!  We got talking and both of us came to the conclusion that something had to be done about this, so we canvassed neighbours to ascertain whether they shared the same feelings of Solitaire as we did.

Unsurprisingly almost all the residents agreed with us, yet no-one knew what could be done.  This was the motivation I needed and thanks to others on TTAS set about discovering options available for me to try and remove Solitaire from my development.

Following the creation of TTAS, it soon became apparent that we were dealing with an organisation, who had a monopoly within the leasehold sector and appeared to be untouchable.

As more investigations took place, we realised that most of the different under-performing managing agents that were being reported to TTAS such as County Estate Management, Consort, Solitaire etc were all part of a larger organisation called Peverel Property Management.

It suddenly became clear to us, that Peverel were trading as different aliases so that residents didn’t realise it was them.  When residents would complain about their managing agent, then another of Peverel’s guises would be appointed.  This happened at my development when we were told that OM Property Management were taking over from Solitaire Property Management.

The way that this statement was worded made it appear as though they were doing their job and replacing a rubbish company.  However, little did Peverel / Solitaire know that I was already onto them and that my development would soon be informed that things wouldn’t change.

Straight away I realised that TTAS was starting to play a pivotal role in helping others nationwide, because without the information I was discovering and fellow contributors sending to us – we’d all be none the wiser.  Therefore, Solitaire / Peverel could continue to palm us off knowing that we’d think it was just “us” that were having a problem.

Once again, it was Solitaire’s failure to respond to me as a client that has resulted in their own downfall.  Had they done the job that was asked of them or responded in a timely manner then, it’s very unlikely that TTAS would even have been created.  Fortunately for us and unfortunately for them that they did act this way as thousands of other leaseholders would be even more naive to Peverel’s tactics.

In part three of our TTAS transparency report, we will publish details of how I took the fight to Peverel and more importantly Lee Middleburgh and won, without the need of incurring large costs.

Sadly for Peverel and Janet Entwistle, this has not been the case and even those that gave them both the benefit of the doubt and believed that they may change are finally realising that they never will.

In light of this and as promised on Christmas Day, TTAS are taking a different approach to matters and are now determined to demonstrate transparency to our visitors.

As many know, we’ve always opted to conceal the identity of the team behind TTAS for fear of recrimination in those early years, but as TTAS matured from being really a platform for “me” to vent my frustration of the service I received from Peverel – it’s now the perfect time for me to give you the low down on my experiences.

The story of TTAS is a lengthy one and we’ve decided to break it up into a number of Parts so that readers are not overwhelmed by what we have to say.

Therefore, today’s instalment is…..

My Story and where the idea for TTAS came from

In June 2006, I purchased a two bedroom David Wilson apartment at a new build development.  This was my first property I’d purchased and had finally been able to get on the property ladder and rewarded for many years of saving for a deposit.

As a first time buyer I was obviously naive to the whole leasehold sector and dealing with a solicitor to purchase the property. I assumed that if there was anything to worry about that I’d be made aware of them.  As nothing had been brought to my attention I was over the moon and looking forward to living in my new home.

That was until April 2007, when Solitaire kindly introduced themselves to me and advised that they were the managing agent.  They had sent me a lovely “Welcome Pack” which led me to believe the service I would receive via my management service charge.

Accompanying this Welcome Pack was my 2007-08 service charge bill that had increased by £200 since I paid my original management fees for 2006-07.  I didn’t initially mind this given that I assumed that now the development was finished, there was more to do rather than it looking like a building site… therefore I went along with what I was being told.

In late 2007, early 2008 I then faced my first battle with Solitaire.  The way that my property was positioned, meant that the entrances to our two blocks (bearing in mind they were three story and only the two properties on the 2nd and 3rd floor had a communal entrance) – was separated by a wooden fence.

Due to a lazy postman, who felt it was quicker to jump the fence rather than walk around the block – resulted in the fence becoming damaged.  As this fence was directly outside the entrance to my stairwell, I reported it to my property manager.

When I say the fence was damaged, it needed a nail put in the piece of wood that was at the top of the fence.  That’s how simple the task was and therefore assumed that Solitaire would happily act upon this.

It took me the best part of six months to get this repaired and I grew so frustrated with the service I was being provided.

Having worked for a door manufacturing company many years ago, my MD at the time once came to me to ask how they could get rid of a negative online report about the service a resident had received.  I unfortunately had to tell him that because the owner of the website had told the truth and supported his claims with facts – that there was nothing we could do to get the website removed or the page taken down.

That’s when it hit me.  If I told the truth about the service I was receiving from Solitaire Property Management online then they did not have any form of comeback on me.  Therefore TheTruthAboutSolitaire was created in June 2008 and it was initially aimed at airing my frustrations online in a form of self counselling as it were.

Much to my surprise, within a few weeks the site started getting visitors and comments from residents nationwide who felt the same as I did about the service Solitaire Property Management were receiving.

It was a great feeling to discover that I wasn’t alone, although the next problem was how TTAS could work as a platform and help our cause.

It goes to show that no matter the size of your organisation, you must respect your customers and no job is too small.  Organisations have a responsibility to provide a service and Solitaire disrespected me as a client and didn’t think of the consequences of their actions.

In fact, having written the above it’s comical to think that had Solitaire acted upon my initial complaint about the fence being broken and put a nail in it – TTAS would never had been created.

I opted to take complaining about an under performing company to a whole new level and used the Internet to empower my complaint.  It was a medium that Solitaire / Peverel clearly hadn’t anticipated and have always tried to play catchup in terms of trying to suppress the truth about their service.

In Part Two of our TTAS transparency, we’ll go into more detail about the path we opted to follow and how our growing band of contributors began to piece the complicated web of Peverel together and how I became even more determined to fight Solitaire.

As time passes, the initial threats we were wary of have waned and we feel that as we approach 2013 – it’s time for a spot of TTAS transparency.

This transparency is something that Janet Entwistle and her Peverel colleagues should take note of.

Therefore, as a gift to our visitors, contributors, supporters and even Peverel – on the 1 January 2013 we will exclusively reveal details of who is behind TTAS.