Hi king12345

I note you say you sent the letter to the only address you have and also only email address.

Whats the name of the Management Company? (are you sure the above address is their Registered Office Address?)

might be an idea to send an official SAR first?

Yes, the address i sent it to is the only address for that company.

I have physically been there and they have a gigantic sign outside.

Same address is recorded at companies house, so no mistakes there.

I would like to keep their name confidential until they're exposed, then my plan is to get all the other residents to sue them.

Why would i sar them?

Account receipts are not my personal data, so they won't be included.

Any other reason?

If they want to correspond by email them it is not your problem if it is CC'd to all and sundry. A letter to the registered address cannot be rebutted by saying they didnt get it. Tough luck if they have used an accommodation addy that no-one monitors.

They never asked me to correspond via email, i just thought that by sending recorded delivery letters and emails it would be very difficult for them to say that they didn't receive anything.

But at the same time i wanna see this in court, so if the receptionist bins the lba, that won't be my problem.

What do you think, letter and email or just letter?

Hi king12345

Can fully appreciate you want to keep there name private at the moment, you can PM the Site Team the name you never know what we may find.

Hi stu007, i can't find how to PM the site team on my phone.

Got to try on a pc when i get a chance.

Sent lba yesterday, waiting game now.

On my phone, I can find messages by clicking on User CP at the top of the screen. Then there's a heading under Settings that says Private Messages. If I scroll to the bottom of the page of messages, it says Send new message on one of the buttons. I know not all phones are the same...

HB

I got to that point but then it won't send the message.

I tried SiteTeam and BazzaS to no avail

pm done to stu007 with details

Thanks

I got to that point but then it won't send the message.

I tried SiteTeam and BazzaS to no avail

I’ve not had anything through.

Sent it to dx.

In the end i sent the lba via recorded delivery and email, so there's no chance they'll say they never received it.

I got an acknowledgement email confirming they received it.

Hi guys, they capitulated!

A stroppy woman called me from a private number asking for my bank details to make a refund.

I said to her that i repeatedly asked for all communication to be in writing.

She lost the plot when i said that i was aware of frauds in which people calling from private numbers would obtain bank details.

I put the phone down on her as she was screaming by this point.

Next day i received a letter with a cheque for the entire sum i asked (all undocumented charges and duplicate invoices)

This cheque is for a penny more than i asked,

i was tempted to send them a cheque for a penny just to wind them up.

In the letter,

strangely they don't talk about gesture of goodwill,

but the fact that they want to close the matter as they failed to do what they had promised.

A couple of days later i also received a "revised" service charge estimate notice for 2018/2019 which is half of the original one they sent at the beginning of April.

Have they learnt from their mistake?

I doubt it, most likely they realised that if this had gone to court the judge would have whipped them.

Thanks for all who contributed, i will make a donation to the site.

Now,

my next move is to ask again for the last 5 years accounts which they refused to disclose as the regulations only allow leaseholders to ask for previous year accounts documents.

Any idea on how i can force their hand?

Maybe reporting my findings to the trustees (yes, this company is a registered charity!),

report them to HMRC,

report them to the council who owns half of the properties in the block,

report the accountants who signed the accounts as accurate or all of the above?

I asked to organise a leaseholder meeting and they said they won't do it as it's never been done before.

Any idea is very welcome.

Cheers!

Well done and let the battle be finalised with a winning for all tenants.

It's another battle.

Half of the properties are owned by the council and the other half are rented out or inhabited by oap and disabled people.

Would be good if the council got involved actively.

you can organise a leaseholder meeting and invite the council neighbourhood housing officer along as well.

then, if enough people attend you can set up an association or at least a residents association to act as a point of contact for all of these matters and let the council know that you would like to work with them in ensuring the proper up keep of the estate is maintained and so on.

Not the same powers but you will at least gather a few friends and others will be more likely to keep their eyes open and keep the agents on their toes.

Look up the Knightsbridge Association and you will see that a rich busybody can hold a lot of sway.

They have some claims that dont actually stand up to scrutiny but the council listens to Mrs Wills because her hubby owns a big slice of BAT

Hi Caggers,

it,s been over 30 days since I received and cashed their cheque, but they are still ignoring me for the previous years accounts.

I initially requested account records for all financial years from 2013 (when I bought the property), but they never sent anything apart the few bits of last year.

The guy from finance I met in September last year, verbally announced that under the Landlord and Tenants Act 1985 they are not obliged to let me inspect any accounts apart from the last one.

This is true, but having found gross inconsistencies with last year accounts, how could I convince/force them to disclose those records?

I'm sure there will be some irregularities as the service charge has been a steady £1200/1300 from 2013 and this year 2018/2019 we got the same estimate,

however, after my lba (and the cheque) they sent an amended estimate of £620 saying that there had been a mistake.

So, I think they realised that they can't keep charging me any unjustifiable expense and that's a good thing,

But how do I get them on the previous years?

One line of thoughts (which is a wild one and possibly a failure from the start) is that if I calculate the percentage they refunded me (roughly 50%) and apply it to previous years, so to have a figure and start a claim.

Would that have any basis?

Would it force them to disclose the account details or would they simply need to mention the Landlord and Tenants act to get off the hook?

Your input is very much appreciated.

Thanks

if the council own half the properties how about trying a FOI to see what the maintenance bills are for them. That will give you a good idea as to the cost per residence of what it costs to upkeep the place

Forgot to mention this whiplash:

Last November the council sold all of their flats in the block to the management company.

They can't /won't do anything.

but they will have figures for previous years and that is what you want.

Hvae you tired looking at the list of shareholders in the company and see if anyone with a share has interests elsewhere that could be compromised?

look for maiden names of married women and multiples of name variations such as with and without middle names.

There used ot be a giant book published that held all the details of the top dogs in local government,

mainly so they could look each other up and offer them jobs without having to apply for them.

i dont know if it still exists but worth a trawl if such a thing still exists in some form or other

Look for anyone joining or leaving from/to a related business.

You know the type of thing,

Fred works for council and his wife is secretary at local builders who get lots of contracts

Sometimes the people involved sit on the same board of trustees for a charity that is involved.

It is a small world at that level.

Hi caggers,

not much to update apart from complete silence from the management company despite my weekly emails which are definitely delivered as I get the automated response (we'll come back to you in 5 working days at the latest).

Question that I can't find an answer to:

Can I take them to court to force them to disclose the previous years accounts?

In an email last year they mentioned that they didn't have to disclose them because of the landlord and tenants act which is correct,

but after finding gross irregularities in last year accounts?

Can a judge force them to disclose the documentation?

If so, what court would deal with this?

County court?

Thanks

have you sent hem a new GDPR SAR?

have you sent hem a new GDPR SAR?

No, not yet.

But I don't think that accounts would be part of it.

They're right when they say that under the landlord and tenants act they have to provide just a summary, so they won't send me the invoices and other proof of expenditures.

I'm holding on with the sar to see what they reply, eventually they will have to.

Their CEO got an obe for customer care recently and I was tempted to write on his Twitter account my appreciation for ignoring my numerous emails in which he was copied in.

Do you think I can take them to court to force a disclosure?

well, you can if the claim you intend to make is enough to get the matter into the higher level than a small claims track.