The following has been provided to us based on knowledge of Peverel’s internal systems:-

After a leaseholder receives a service charge or any charge it has to be a ‘clear’ amount before they have to pay it…

What they should do…

• Check the service charge demand is clear and the amount you are paying is clear.

• Only pay the amount the which you believe to be due and explaining why you are withholding payment of the balance.

• Ask for an explanation about how the service charge amount has been calculated so that you can compare it with your own calculations and, if appropriate, take a view when you receive the information.

• If the reason you are disputing a service charge doesn’t come down to calculation of the amount but contractual non compliance by the property management company – identify and re assert the basis of your claim and notifying the property management company early to reduce the risk of enforcement proceedings being started, the management company should not chase you if your account is in genuine dispute.

If you follow this advice and the supplier doesn’t behave reasonably they will do the following;

1. send your account to a debt collector, give them copies of the dispute.
2. send your account to a solicitor, give them copies of the dispute.
3. you will receive a claim via a county court, fill in the defence pages, inform the court of all correspondence advising them of all the dates that you have tried to resolve the issues. Remember to claim for all your costs in this matter, they can be for time taken to resolve the matter, stamps, phone calls, stress caused and ask the court to waive the property managements costs for making a ‘vexatious claim’ (claim without grounds).

KEEP ALL CORRESPONDENCE

Fantastic advice if we do say so ourselves and we appreciate this information being provided to us.

In addition to this, we’ve also been doing research on our friend ‘Andy’.

‘Andy’ or ‘AM’ is apparently a clerk who works in the marketing department of Peverel and monitors the posts for Lee Middleburgh, who creates all of the replies.

We’d like to ask ‘Andy’ if this is true?

In addition to this fact, apparently TheTruthAboutSolitaire is driving them mad – something that is certainly not a surprise given the recent responses from ‘Andy’.

When will then admit that they are wrong and that TTAS will continue to reveal facts and links to their associated companies / associations, until they are finally taught the lesson that they deserve?

Was this because due to the Conservatives winning the majority in the May Elections, that his donation was no longer required or, he didn’t have sufficient funds to make this donation?

Bearing this donation in mind and we stress that we are not making any allegations here, was it a surprise that the new housing minister, Grant Shapps announced that the government would not be proceeding with Labour’s plans to regulate landlords and managing agents?

What could have influenced Mr Shapps to make this decision, bearing in mind that the No.10 Downing Street Petition that was setup for regulation of the service industry was certainly gathering support, prior to the election – calling for this, in addition to  publicity and awareness that CARLEX raised in regards to retirement homeowners being ripped off, plus TheTruthAboutSolitaire’s campaign to reveal the truth behind the inter-link companies, associations and suppliers / contractors.

We’d like to hear from anyone that is aware of similar donations to any of the parliamentary parties from any companies that may have links to the housing sector, beit – Property Management Companies, Developers.

CARL

Linking nicely with the above, we received CARL’s Summer Newsletter that also focused on Grant Shapps decision and includes further insight into the on-goings of the leasehold sector.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to read this newsletter, please click here to download a copy.

Stories of Woe

As we posted on the 4 September, we need more stories of woe from residents that have problems with property management companies.  We need the sort of ‘doom and gloom’ stories that will shock readers.

Therefore, once again – if you haven’t done so already – please e-mail research@thetruthaboutsolitaire.co.uk with your experiences.

Obviously, we know that many residents that have problems may not have access to the Internet and that is why we’ll also be putting together a poster / flyer for TTAS contributors, to print off and distribute to developments / put up on noticeboards . 

Don’t forget to ask PPMG for permission though! Why not email them first, then put the poster up and by the time they reply or respond – it’ll be Christmas and the poster won’t be needed.

Again, our address for case studies to be sent too is: research@thetruthaboutsolitaire.co.uk, where your message will be responded to by our publicist.

We have already received a number of case studies from residents, but we need more.

As we mentioned last week, if you are thinking “that it’s okay they have plenty of stories, I don’t need to send them mine” – think again.

This is probably the best opportunity that any of us have had to reveal the how Peverel Group and associated companies really treat us as their customers.

Therefore, we urge you to email research@thetruthaboutsolitaire.co.uk – with your experiences….. The more horrific the story the better, tell us everything, because it will be these type of stories that will shock the nation.

Once again, email research@thetruthaboutsolitaire.co.uk.

This post will remain as the main story on TTAS for the next 3 days to promote our request.

Last week was quite frankly ‘manic’ and all of the updates that we had to post, certainly kept us busy and the reaction that we have had from many of you has been astounding, so thank you to everyone that has sent us information we requested.

This week we have seen lots of activity on TTAS in regards to the revelation of who / what the ‘IRPM’ (Institute of Residential Property Management) is and yesterday’s post by ‘Nirmal’ – which listed the names of each of the PPMG Employees, who hold a qualification with them, was very much of interest.

If you haven’t seen the list – click here to see Nirmal’s post.

There are many names that are familiar and it’s also good to see that management within PPMG also hold these qualifications. 

However, it’s a shame that despite these qualifications – that as Charles Roberts also commented- are there to “help provide better knowledge and experience” – none of the PPMG / CBG Property Managers (PM’s) seem to bother to use the information that they have learned.

Maybe so many PPMG employees hold the qualification, because it covers things such as ”how to avoid contact with serial complainers”, “how to source contractors, that give the PM’s benefits” – things that PPMG excel at. (we jest)

Clearly, there is a lot of sceptism about this qualification, with some contributors mentioning that this organisation was setup by ARMA – which if true, demonstrates that they at least ‘tried’ to regulate the industry at least.

It’s a shame that because these organisations are setup by members of PMC’s – that they all preach the gospel, but actually never put the words into action.  Therefore, when things go wrong, there isn’t anyone there to punish the company in question.

In fact, the way some PMC’s are running, in our eyes is very similar to the banks and some higher profile football clubs.  They can do what they want, beit – getting into massive debts, to try and achieve glory / profits and when it all goes wrong and they end up owing money to HMRC (football clubs) or needing loans from the Government (the banks).

That they get away with it and the only losers are us – the general public, because when we’ve bailed them out, their back to their old tactics again, but with a little more caution shall we say.

What needs to happen is for the Government to clamp down on this type of trading, discipline / fine / punish the traders of the larger companies – even if it puts them on the brink of going out of business or in fact, as most of us would like – put them out of business, so that the small – caring and trustworthy PMC’s can step in and reap the real benefits.

If all the PMC’s provided a good service, your homes were looking neat / tidy – we’d all happily pay reasonable service charges….

When will PPMG realise that to stop the complaints, residents money needs to be spent on maintaining the development in question and not lining the pockets of the group, to make the portfolio look attractive to backers of Mr Tchenquiz, so that he can buy up more property / land and charge more of us extionate rates, so that the whole process starts again.

[ADMIN EDIT - 10.41]
We’ve just received message from ‘Andy’ – who surprisingly e-mailed us from his corporate e-mail account which was related to Marlborough House Management (m-h-m.co.uk) and confirmed his identity to us (don’t worry Andy – we wont publish it).

He asked for the post by Nirmal to be amended and not list the names of Peverel Group employees who hold the IRPM qualifications, because it was not appropriate to the ‘context of the thread’

We’ve replied to Andy to say that this information is already in the public domain via the IRPM website and that if the PPMG employees didn’t want their names listed on the IRPM website for others to find, they should have requested them to be removed / not published.

In addition to the fact that PPMG should be proud for us to publish this information, because at least it demonstrates that PPMG employ qualified PMs and not just any random person who applied for the job off the street! 

Therefore, until IRPM remove reference to these employees – Nirmal’s post will remain unedited.  However, in the event that we do have to remove the names, we’ll publish a link for everyone to visit and look up the employees for yourselves.

We haven’t posted this message to provoke a reaction from PPMG, but we feel that TTAS visitors should know that PPMG are trying to moderate information that is published on TTAS and unless it is deemed as litigation or is libellous, we try not to edit visitors posts.

We do not see how posting this information, is any different to posting information that is available on websites such as Companies House about PPMG companies.

When TTAS was first setup, we found that when residents referred to the website, their concerns were acted upon and is it possible that now the site is so popular, PPMG have given up trying to ‘protect’ and ‘surpress’ these complaints and are more than happy for them to be in the public domain.

Posting on TTAS is at the discretion of the contributor and if you wish to use your full name as a username – you can do, but most people prefer to have an alias that is difficult to identify by PPMG.

When complaints started to grow via the website, ‘Andy’ asked visitors to contact him direct so that he could handle your enquiry, to which we then started asking contributors to use their client reference number on their postings to help ‘Andy’ identify them – thus revealing the identity of the contributor to PPMG / SPM.

If you feel you haven’t been treated in the way that you deserve to be treated by PPMG, all because you contacted TTAS to help fight your cause – let us know, because if this type of ill-treatment has occured – it should not be allowed and PPMG should be a lot more professional than resenting a resident for publicly highlighting their failings.

Hi there.

I was wondering if you might be able to get ‘Andy’ to respond about this.

Since an LVT decision was handed down on the 7th of May http://www.rpts.gov.uk/Files/2010/May/11002QYB.pdf) we had been chasing Estates and Management (E&M) who were chasing Solitaire to provide a completion statement for cessation of services. After several missed completion dates the final date was the 27th of August for completion and the transfer of the freehold from E&M to us.

The transfer of the freehold occurred however Solitaire have refused to provide a completion statement as requested by the leaseholders and the freeholder.

They are still intending to charge us for their services despite being advised it is to be terminated.

They have been advised by the previous freeholder E&M, they had been advised by our solicitor, and also by myself in chasing with them all of us had advised the 27th of August is the date that their services are to completed (the transfer from Peverel E&M of the freehold to us the leaseholders).

Solitaire called our Solicitor on the 26th of August and advised that this was the first that they had heard of this request and that they will not be providing a completion report and will continue to act as our property management company.

Rather absurd as the LVT decision (Link provided above) clearly shows that Solitaire Property Management Group was at the tribunal and that they have known all about out intent to complete and be absolved of them.

We the freeholders (and the leaseholders) do not want Solitiare to provide any service. We had advised several completion dates to which they should provide a completion report, all of which were missed and as such they are now going to continue to charge us for unwanted, unrequested ‘services’ beyond the 27th of August.

It is ridiculous that a property management company can refuse the request of the freeholder, leaseholders and solicitors for a completion statement, let alone claim to not be aware of this.

Our contact at Solitaire is our Property Manager: HD (*Admin edit – PMC name abbreviated).

Is this something that the you can help push Solitiare so that we can finally be free of Peverel? They are intent on remaining our property management company and charging us for the priveldge.

Regards,
RK

Having exchanged correspondence with RK, we were then advised this morning (Tuesday 31 August) that Peverel have written into RK’s development leases that Solitaire as the management company is a party to the lease, (which eliminates RK’s ability to have freedom of choice and choose a capable company, so that to have someone else would be a violation of the lease arrangements, talk about a monoply amongst their group).

Apparently, Peverel are holding firm that they cannot be removed and will do all they can to keep making money from them.

Are there any other TTAS contributors / visitors that have reviewed their leases to find that it is a tri-party lease and have SPM listed as a party and therefore, makes the removal of these companies even more difficult?  If so, do let us know.

In the meantime, we anticipate that RK will finally receive the reply that they have been waiting for from ‘Andy’, from us publicly posting this complaint / case. 

Although – prior to ‘Andy’ asking for help identifying RK’s development, the RPTS link above provides you with all the information you require.

One of the things that we picked up on, which many visitors to TTAS had also noticed was the tone of the reply.

Not for the first time, Andy used the phrase ‘allegations’ in reference to our post about Amalgamated Lifts securing the lift maintenance contract on 300 Peverel properties in the South East.

We merely referred to a public document, which suggested that PPMG were addressing it’s supply chain. The fact the report mentioned that it would reduce costs for residents, was contradicted by emails TTAS received from residents at developments that Amalgamated now maintained, who reported their service charges had increased, in particular the ‘lift maintenance’ was one of these.

Therefore, how can Peverel so openly try to publicise cost savings for residents, when that apparently doesn’t appear to be the case.

The tone of the response didn’t come over as though it had been thought about, reviewed and appeared to be quite a ‘frustrated’ and ‘annoyed’ reply.

We may be misinterpreting the message, but after last weeks developments, did TTAS actually provoke PPMG to get even more annoyed at us and that was why ‘Andy’ was short and sharp.

Who knows, but we’d like to hear from anyone who has contacted ‘Andy’ direct and had a satisfactory reply / resolution to their problem or are still waiting for assistance from him?

One of the points that we found of particular interest was the quote:-

As part of Peverel’s drive to reconcile the number of suppliers they use and deliver best value for money for their clients and residential customers, the company has conducted a nationwide tender to create a Framework Agreement with their suppliers

Pardon us for almost spilling our tea over the keyboard….. we were shocked to read that they are trying to reconcile the number of suppliers to deliver best value for money to their clients and residential customers!

Does this mean that finally, they are trying to appear as independent and are opening up the tender process to all channels now, rather than to those that ‘reward’ them?  No comment!

Will this mean a reduction in charges to customers?  Probably not, it’s likely that they will probably have secured a low price for this service from Amalgamated Lifts to then add a premium on top!

AllAgents.co.uk Reviews

When TTAS was first setup, there were very few reviews of Solitaire Property Management on this website, but over the last few years, well in fact months – a lot more people have reviewed SPM and not surprisingly have rated them 1 out of 5!

This was the rating from 120 reviews, but does say it all really!

If you haven’t added your review to the AllAgents website, click here to do so.

Hello to Peverel

We mentioned earlier today that it had been very quiet on the Peverel front with ‘Andy’ not having contributed to the website that much.

Well, we’d like to re-assure everyone that Peverel are still very much monitoring the website on a regular basis, because our website statistics tell us, that since the 13 January – they have visited the site over 7800 times! (These figures are returning visits and not unique hits from them)

Now, let us cast our minds back to July 2008 when the website was first setup and they didn’t pay much attention to us for over six months!  Oh, how times have changed, eh!

Finally – Thank You

Recent posts have provoked a great reaction from visitors to TTAS and we have received many messages of support to thank us for setting up TTAS and for taking the decision to ‘out’ our friends.

We’d like to say a big thank you to all of the contributors and visitors to TTAS, because without you and the information that has been shared by ourselves and others – none of us would be in the position where we are now.

Our aim has always been to promote awareness of SPM, it just so happened that on this journey we discovered the tangled web that was Peverel and the even greater web of Consensus Business Group and how both of these companies have managed to monoplies an industry that had no regulation, to take full advantage of residents who unknowingly stepped into this predicament.

If anything, what encourages us is the fact that now – once and for all, people can purchase properties and find out the real facts of the management company – if it is a PPMG / CBG company. 

This is something that none of us had the opportunity of doing and people can purchase a property in the knowledge of what they can expect and what they are getting themselves into, without the feeling that many of us have of “being conned / not told the full story”

We also appreciate the fact that we have probably made it harder for residents to sell properties with PPMG/CBG associated to them, but without this medium – none of us would be any wiser and we’d all still be complaining as individuals without knowing that there are others out there with the same complaint and to know now, what can be done to remove these awful companies.

We hope that this will make visiting TTAS from mobiles a lot easier to use and to contribute too.

Should anyone experience technical difficulties with this mobile friendly theme, please let us know and if necessary we’ll disable the feature, however from testing that has been undertaken, we have had positive comments about it.

The stories so far are a perfect example of what the publicist has been looking for and demonstrates a common theme that we are all too aware off!

However, those of you that may be reading this and thinking “that’s okay, they’ve got enough stories, so I don’t need to send mine” – think again!

This is possibly the best opportunity that we have had in the last two years to try and expose Peverel (& associated companies) for ripping off not only retirement property owners, but also ourselves as leaseholders / freeholders! So now is the time to have your say and make it count!

Therefore, send us your stories to research@thetruthaboutsolitaire.co.uk to help build a comprehensive list of Peverels failings to prove that the issues are nationwide and that they are to blame.

Let’s also prove that it’s not simply a case of “serial complainers” as Mr Rapley of Consensus Business Group once quoted.

It’s time to crank up the pressure on Peverel Property Management, just like when they threaten us with debt collection and give them something to worry about, because they must be concerned as ‘Andy’ has been rather quiet of late!

Has he been told to stop posting by the powers that be??

Ohhh to be a fly on the wall in Peverel towers right now!