DODGY BILLS AGAIN

The dodgy spivs at Peverel have again not paid attention to the law and sent out bills wrongly.  Again.  There's no word on any progress re legal action against Peverel for its dodgy dealing from the main resident's association but here's something they are suggesting we do:

Dear St George Wharf Residents,

It would appear that Consort, the managing agent of St. George Wharf, has failed to send a summary of tenant's rights and obligations with their latest service charge demands of January 2010, as required by section 21B Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the Service Charges (Summary of Rights and Obligations) (England) Regulations, Statutory Instrument 2007/1257 (a copy of the Statutory Instrument is hereby attached for your information).
 
You do not have to pay your service charges if your January 2010 service charge demands arrived without the said summary of tenant's rights and obligations!

The Residents’ Association has been trying to make Consort (formerly Peverel OM) to comply with all statutory notices and consultations. It has been a exhausting and tedious process. Consort frequently ignores statutory requirements and pushes ahead with decisions without adequate consultation or disclosure. We are trying to make Consort does things correctly. We urge you to withhold payment of the January 2010 service charge demands thereby forcing Consort to re-issue the correct paperwork. We believe this is the only way that Consort will learn.

Best wishes.

The SGWRA Team

Comments

[Tom]

I have not managed to get hold of Kitty who is the contact name on the bill. Jackie did you get through to anyone? Any response at all?

Note that Alex has set up a separate post about this and recommended suspending our direct debits to avoid the payment being take in full next month.... May need to get some advice from those at SGWRA as they have been through these issues before on all our behalf's.

[charlotte]

It's at least reassuring to see we're all in the same boat - I can't believe this effectively takes our service charge to well over £2k a year! I emailed Consort and Notting Hill yesterday to say that affordable housing is making it pretty much impossible for me to keep on top of my bills and afford to stay in Hanover House. I'm glad others are doing the same thing.

[Nige]

Agreed, I think we need to get something in writing to Consort and also get Notting Hill to take some responsibility in challenging these kind of occurrences. We're meant to be living in affordable housing.

[Tom]

Yes very dodgy. They are asking us for £400 odd, how badly can they underestimate these charges? Will try and call them too.

[jackie]

has anyone else noticed that the increased demand for service charge is heavily weighted to hanover and hobart house. It appears that our communal electricity bill has come in at £77k, against an estimate of £10k. This means that our additional bill equates to over 25% of what we have paid already!!

To put this into perspective, no other block is being asked to pay this type of difference. An average of 8% over the whole estate is what is being requested.

I will call to query this in the morning, but if anyone else can do the same, it should add weight to the matter.