Need advice on unsatisfactory management company

[Lilsimo]

Hi,

I'm new to this so please bear with me!

 

I own an apartment with my husband within a 100+ apartment building. We are managed by Rendall and Rittner and I am having nothing but problems with them.

 

First of all we are charged an obscene amount of money by them and do not see any changes in the building.

 

My first issue with them is their lack of communication, I have made several email and verbal complaints and they do not reply for weeks or just fob me off.

 

My building in total pay £7,200 a year to have the windows cleaned twice!! The window cleaners need to rent a cherry picker as we don't have suitable things attached to the building for them to use but £7,200 is a hell of a lot of money! The first window clean I had this year in March was awful so I sent pictures to R&R and I was told they would contact the window cleaner again to redo them. They have have still not been redone and R&R will not respond to me about it. I'm not happy that I'm Still paying full price for a service that wasn't done properly.

 

Second issue is that in the buildings lease contact it states no animals are allowed, yet there are many apartments with animals and unfortunately some owners allow their dogs to deficate in the communal corridors, lifts and entrance doors and do not clean up after them - this is left for the cleaners to do which they are not responsible for as the building should have animals in. I have complained about this to R&R and have been asked to give them apartment numbers for people with dogs!!! Why should I do this? We have CCTV through the buildings and they have said they don't have the time to look through the footage to find where the owners live! My thoughts are that the CCTV doesn't work!! Any advice on this will be greatly appreciated as I have had enough!

 

We have one meeting a year with R&R but nothing ever comes from it. We don't receive any letters letting us know what they are doing with our money and you see no changes around the building.

 

The building manager is meant to come out one day a week to look around and check things but he hasn't been here for months.

Thanks in advance!

[ericsbrother]

You are entitled to have a breakdown of the management charges to see where the money has been spent. Many service charges include a sinking fund to pay for works programmed to be done in the future like repainting the outside of the building. This should be kept to a minimum needed to do the programmed works. If the charges are excessive you can go to the Leasehold Tribunal to get a ruling on the fairness of the charges. It would be better to speak to other owners of the flast and try and get a majority of peopel to agree at a meeting to either take over the management of the block or at least give these people the boot and employ someone else. It will take a bit of effort as many people cant be bothered but woth it in the long run. You could even buy the freehold of the block as a commonhold.

[mariner51]

The people with power at this meeting to decide, are apartment owners'/primary Leaseholders. not T's.(sub lease holders). IMO

[ericsbrother]

you are right, tenants will have no say whatsoever, they will have to rely on absentee landlord doing the right thing and if it isnt costing them money many arent bothered.. Rule changes for leaseholder association can be forced through but it needs a couple of people top be really on the ball when it comes to making the alternatives attractive as most people cannot be bothered to do things for themselves.

[andydd]

Hi,

 

I'm new to this so please bear with me!

 

I own an apartment with my husband within a 100+ apartment building. We are managed by Rendall and Rittner and I am having nothing but problems with them.

I assume this is a leasehold property ?

 

First of all we are charged an obscene amount of money by them and do not see any changes in the building.

 

Remember that Service Charges are only to recoup what the landlord/freeholder has actually spent/incurred, no more, no less...these amounts can be disputed at an FTT (previously LVT) court.

My first issue with them is their lack of communication, I have made several email and verbal complaints and they do not reply for weeks or just fob me off.

 

There is no legal obligation to communicate, but the RICS code which LL/FHs are supposed to follow does say they should, see here > http://www.leaseholdlife.info/reports/Rics_Code.pdf

 

My building in total pay £7,200 a year to have the windows cleaned twice!! The window cleaners need to rent a cherry picker as we don't have suitable things attached to the building for them to use but £7,200 is a hell of a lot of money! The first window clean I had this year in March was awful so I sent pictures to R&R and I was told they would contact the window cleaner again to redo them. They have have still not been redone and R&R will not respond to me about it. I'm not happy that I'm Still paying full price for a service that wasn't done properly.

 

This is what the FTT is for, they can decide whether the amount you pay is reasonable or not, see here > https://www.gov.uk/housing-tribunals

 

Second issue is that in the buildings lease contact it states no animals are allowed, yet there are many apartments with animals and unfortunately some owners allow their dogs to deficate in the communal corridors, lifts and entrance doors and do not clean up after them - this is left for the cleaners to do which they are not responsible for as the building should have animals in. I have complained about this to R&R and have been asked to give them apartment numbers for people with dogs!!! Why should I do this? We have CCTV through the buildings and they have said they don't have the time to look through the footage to find where the owners live! My thoughts are that the CCTV doesn't work!! Any advice on this will be greatly appreciated as I have had enough!

 

Most leases normally oblige FH's to take action against other tenants who are breaching the lease.

 

We have one meeting a year with R&R but nothing ever comes from it. We don't receive any letters letting us know what they are doing with our money and you see no changes around the building.

 

Again, see the RICS Code, also S21 and S22 of landlord & Tenant act 1985 gives you powers to demand to see summary/breakdown of costs and even visit them to see paperwork, etc - See http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/70

The building manager is meant to come out one day a week to look around and check things but he hasn't been here for months.

Thanks in advance!