An experience of community harassment

[Thog]

This note is a personal one by a former elected director of a residents’ association. I wonder if anyone else has similar experiences. I resigned because xxxxxx Management was harassing residents and incited one resident in particular to conduct a campaign against elected residents. If they wish to claim I am lying about their atrocious behaviour, they are welcome to sue. I have no vested interest other than as a consumer to warn others about the behaviour of this company, based on my own experience.

 

 

xxxxxx Management was set up by a former member of staff of xxxxxxxx Management, a large property management company. xxxx property manager on the estate persuaded the residents’ association to appoint xxxxxx Management and moved to work for them. Residents, disappointed by the performance of xxx, agreed.

 

 

For four years all went reasonably well. The estate was better looked after and there was a positive relationship with residents. Residents had generally positive things to say about the company. There were the usual issues as with any property managers about residents trying to make sure they understood what was being done in their name, but the relationship was generally positive.

 

 

That changed dramatically as the end of the fifth year approached, as elected residents started a routine review of xxxxxx Management’s contract to manage the estate. xxxxxx Management started having secret meetings with a group of residents who were not elected to the residents’ association. The company maligned elected residents and briefed the unelected group that the residents’ association had wasted money and the company demanded that elected residents stand down in favour of the other group.

 

 

xxxxxx Management selectively leaked documents they held on behalf of the residents’ association. They said they were suddenly appalled by decisions taken by the residents’ association, even though those decisions had been made three or four years ago. They briefed these unelected residents on issues they had not even briefed elected residents about. They said nothing of their own failings, such as spending around £50,000 of reserves to chase residents for debt, without the approval of the board of elected residents (no reserve expenditure was allowed without a minuted decision of the board) and paying themselves fees of over £4,000 a month from the residents’ association funds without the board’s authority (expenditure over £1,000 required the approval of elected residents).

 

 

xxxxxx Management used unelected residents, one in particular, to try and hound elected residents out of office. The company sent harassing emails to female elected residents and phoned them to see if they would resign. They used a “personal” website, operated by their property manager, to broadcast their case. A resident suddenly joined the residents’ association as a member and gained the ability to print thousands of leaflets, posted repeatedly through every door on the estate, containing information from xxxxxxx Management. . xxxxxxx Management told people on the estate that elected residents had been saying terrible things about individual staff and had publicly questioned their integrity. That was completely untrue and in fact it was xxxxxx Management which was defaming elected residents.

 

Elected residents were put under intolerable pressure. Some felt harassed, unable to sleep properly, and their work and family lives suffered. They worried every time the doorbell rang and talked about leaving the estate. xxxxxx harassing emails had to be passed on to the police. Some elected residents resigned because of the pressure and those remaining decided that xxxxxx Management had acted unprofessionally and terminated their contract, following which xxxxxx immediately briefed their favoured resident and within a day yet another leaflet had been printed and went round the estate.

 

 

The timing of the dirty tricks campaign by xxxxxx Management was clearly designed to prevent a review of their contract. They directly harassed elected female residents, dragged the good name of elected residents through the mud and incited confrontation in a previously peaceful community. The closer elected residents came to the contract review and possible decision, the more frantic xxxxxxx Management’s activity became and the more they briefed their favoured residents against those elected by members.

 

 

Like any group of people, those residents elected to oversee the residents’ association will have made some good decisions over the years and some bad ones. This is not the first time a property management company such as xxxxxx Management has tried to overturn an elected board in order to get business or to keep it. However, by conducting their dirty tricks campaign, they showed a complete disregard for the harmony of the community they were supposed to serve.

 

 

“… you’re safe in their hands” is their motto. I don’t think so.