Leaseholders might find the Council’s own statement of its promises to leaseholders useful when in negotiation over service charges or major works !!!
Category: LBI
‘£30k maintenance charge drained my life savings’ says 88-year-old leaseholder
Published: 13 September, 2013 by PETER GRUNER and SERINA SANDHU from Islington Tribune
HOUSING activists are launching a campaign to force Islington Council to pay back most of the £30,000 in maintenance fees which drained the life savings of an 88-year-old leaseholder.
They will claim that widowed pensioner Joan Leonard was not properly consulted some eight years ago, nor did she give her approval of work done on the tower block Emberton Court, on the Brunswick estate, Clerkenwell.
The move follows plans for more work on the estate for which Mrs Leonard will be asked to contribute another £8,000.
Retired tailor Mrs Leonard, who has lived on the fifth floor of the estate for more than 60 years, said: “I paid the money for four new windows and two doors. They also replaced a perfectly good boiler.
“But I got a shock when I got the bill. Now they want more money for things like CCTV and repairs. Well, I don’t have it.”
Two of the borough’s most formidable campaigners, Dr Brian Potter, chairman of Islington Leaseholders Association, and student barrister Patricia Napier will take on the case.
The work on the estate was carried out by the now-defunct housing management organisation Homes for Islington in 2008-09.
Dr Potter said: “This is a woman who was forced to spend her entire life-savings on work which probably wasn’t needed. She came to us because she’s being asked to spend more money.”
He added: “We hope of course that rather than a long, protracted tribunal or court case the council will agree to a refund.”
Ms Napier said: “£30,000 is a huge amount of money. I hope to get a great proportion of it back. Mrs Leonard is obviously not a wealthy woman and it appears she was not aware of her rights at the time the work was done.
“The council will have to prove that the work was necessary.”
Councillor James Murray, executive member for housing, said that if any leaseholders have difficulty making the payment a member of the housing team can help them by discussing options.
http://www.islingtontribune.com/news/2013/sep/‘£30k-maintenance-charge-drained-my-life-savings’-says-88-year-old-leaseholder
Islington Leaseholders Association Meeting
on
Wednesday 14th August 2013
in
Islington Town Hall
at
7pm – 9pm
Hosting the meeting: Dr Brian Potter ILA
Guest Speakers: “As our guests, we have invited two very eminent Leaseholders from the boroughs of Westminster and Camden, who will talk, and answer questions, on the differences observed in the treatment of leaseholders by their council’s and Islington’s”…
Twitter @ilaorguk
Face Book http://on.fb.me/mWzios
If you wish to join or renew your membership please contact our websitewww.ila.org.uk where you can obtain the appropriate membership forms.
NOW is your opportunity until 26 July to inspect key important documents such as contracts, bills, invoices or receipts etc, which may answer some questions you have about what you’ve been asked to pay for by Islington Council. Below is the official Council invitation with all the details. Many leaseholders have been pleased they’ve done so in the past and saved money from the knowledge gained. Remember the questions is not ‘why’ (that’s for Councillors) but relating to 2012-13, how much, when or request to see the relevant contract.
Inspection of Accounts
Audit of Accounts 2012-13
- Audit Commission Act 1998, sections 15 – 16
- The Accounts and Audit (England) Regulations 2011 Regulations 9, 10, 21 and 22
Each year the council’s accounts are audited. In line with the above Acts and Regulations any person interested has the right to:
- inspect the accounts and all books, deeds, contracts, bills, vouchers and receipts relating to them and
- make copies of the above (A charge may be made for copies).
The accounts for the year ending 31 March 2013 and documents will be available at the Council Offices, 7 Newington Barrow Way, London N7 7EP between 9.30am and 4.30pm on Mondays to Fridays from Monday 1 July 2013 until Friday 26 July 2013.
If you wish to inspect any particular documents please apply first to Mohammed Sajid, Chief Accountant, at the above address, call 0207 527 2574 or email Mohammed.Sajid@islington.gov.uk so that arrangements can be made. Please note: you may need to visit other offices to view some documents.
From 10.00am on 29 July 2013 until the end of the audit process, a local government elector for the area of the Council, or his/her representative, may:
If you wish to inspect any particular documents please apply first to Mohammed Sajid, Chief Accountant, at the above address, call 0207 527 2574 or email Mohammed.Sajid@islington.gov.uk so that arrangements can be made. Please note: you may need to visit other offices to view some documents.
From 10.00am on 29 July 2013 until the end of the audit process, a local government elector for the area of the Council, or his/her representative, may:
- ask the auditor questions about the accounts. Please contact Mr Philip Johnstone, Director, KPMG LLP (UK) at 15 Canada Square, London, E14 5GL to make arrangements to ask any questions.
- object to the council’s accounts asking that the auditor issue a report in the public interest (under section 8 of the Audit Commission Act 1998) and/or apply to the court for a declaration that an item in.
New research suggests some social landlords are perceived to be silencing tenants’ groups they disagree with, leaving residents feeling marginalised and disempowered. Martin Hilditch of Inside Housing investigates more
Decent Homes works carried out by Mulalley [Area 3 Phase C]
Leaseholders who received a letter from the Council in July, asking them to notify the Council of any defects with the works by the 23rd of August, should be aware that the deadline given in the letter for rectifying any defective work is incorrect. more
For the convenience of its members the ILA has persuaded the council to provide a simple schematic outline (see below) of their current managment structure…
…It should be noted however that council employees occupying these positionsfrequently change without prior warning…Therefore since only the titles can be relied upon at any given point in time, identification of officers currently in posthas been deliberately ommitted… Islington Council Housing Staff Structure
For a flat fee of £380 it is now possible to own every part of your windows through a deed of variation. Under our leases the window frames remain part of the structure of the building and therefore are subject to the vagaries of whatever Islington Council fancies doing to them. However with a deed of variation, you stay in charge. Even if the windows have to be replaced, you can choose who does the work and you therefore control the cost.
If you’re interested, write to your leasehold officer – their name appears on letters regarding service charges. Tell them you would like to own your windows through a deed of variation, enclose a cheque for £380 and within a couple of weeks it could be sorted.
Vicki Leonard (ILA)
Gazette reports more than £20million could be raised for new homes if Islington Council take up Dr Brian Potter ( ILA chair) suggestion and offers leaseholders a one-off chance to extend their leases by 99 years at a knock-down price. more
Islington Gazette reported that Homeowners have declared victory after Islington council announced it will not contest a ruling that it blew £1million overpaying on repair work more
From: Dr Brian Potter ILA
To: Catherine West (catherine.west@islington.gov.uk), james.murray@islington.gov.uk, paul.convery@islingtonlabour.org.uk, richard.greening@islington.gov.uk, richard.watts@islington.gov.uk
Dear Catherine.
Since the ILA’s last proposal to raise cash for Islington (99 year Lease Extensions) appears to have drawn so much attention (including from other borough’s!) we hope that you will also consider another of our schemes, which although not as lucrative as the first, will potentially raise a great deal of much needed cash, very quickly.
Very briefly…
A/ In Islington’s leases, Leaseholders only own the glass, not the window frames!
B/ A major source of problems has been due to window repairs/replacement for which contractorsgrossly over charge. (Most windows have under gone extensive work through the Decent Homes Project already)
C/ So..When contacting leaseholders re a 99 year lease Extension…also offer to sell them their windows…at a discount…as a one off offer…in the same time frame as the lease extension?
Back ground…
Formally, to buy your windows through HFI you were required to seek planning permission and alicense…all of which cost money and involved administrative costs to the order of approximately £1000-2000 per property.
The ILA has finally convinced HFI that both the planning permission and license were an unnecessary cash burden, which prevented leaseholders from buying their windows via a “Deed of Variation”. However, as a result of years of negotiations with HFI, leaseholders can now purchase the DOV within a couple of weeks, at a total cost of £380. (I purchased mine last month).
If this sum was reduced to £180 in a one off promotion, I am sure that the majority of Islington’s leaseholders would be happy to take part.
Peripheral advantages to this scheme…
1/ Many more leaseholders would be inclined to use the small local builders…thereby generating bothcash and employment in the borough, and reduce both the council’s responsibility and contractual work load!
2/ The large contracts currently being allocated cost the borough a fortune, and are totally un-manageable and impossible to monitor…and, invariably uses sub-contracted labour from…who knows where?
3/ If the leaseholders are satisfied with this arrangement they will have no need to challenge the billing at law (LVT), so saving the borough a great deal of cash during the course of the year in defending issues related to cost and quality of works by employing very expensive external firms of solicitors. See Tremlett Grove…!!!
Legal safe guards…
In order to ensure that the leaseholders comply with council requirements in regard to conservation areas etc…Caveats can be included, if and when required…
Possible income of…non-ring fenced cash…
Math…11,000 x £180 = £??????????
Brian.