In this post we outline the progress we’ve made since the mid-July update – unfortunately there’s still been almost no movement on the practical side of getting Little Meadow up to the standard we would all like. On the organisational side though, there has been some progress which we detail. At the end of the post we also comment on the situation regarding owners’ service charges which you should note carefully.
Let’s get the less welcome news out of the way first.
Practical Matters
Bellway never responded to our request for more detail about the work that was to be done in the first week of August. They had promised to supervise the work as it was being done, but this is an extract (it’s a bit garbled) from the message we received from them on 25th July:
“We have nobody there due to prior commitments, however that doesn’t mean the work will not be checked or redone if not to your satisfaction, it’s our busiest week in the year and that then follows a lot of annual leave being the summer holidays, however I will get the new manager who comes available from the 31st to liaise with yourselves and arrange for a sign off plus any programming of outstanding works or issues”
We are sure you are as frustrated as we are because:
- Nothing has been done by Bellway to deal with the matters listed in our last post on this website;
- We have had no further update from Bellway despite chasing them by way of numerous emails and phone messages;
- We have now been assigned a different Bellway manager (again) who, to date, has not communicated with us.
Actually to say “nothing” has been done is not strictly true because some contractors came to clear the area in Betony Close adjacent to Amber Parkside; however, in our view it now looks worse than it did before, with trees and bushes untidily hacked and the ground still overgrown with weeds.
Please rest assured that we are doing our very best to get the outstanding Bellway matters finally sorted and if you have any ideas about how we might achieve that we’re more than ready to listen.
To conclude the bad news on this side of things, DJC/FirstPort have continued to be completely unresponsive to our many emails and phone calls and in fact to date the LMC directors have never had a single communication from the Property Manager who is supposed to be responsible for Little Meadow.
Organisational Matters
Let’s now turn to some more positive news as we are moving forward on the organisational side. Firstly, we should inform you that DJC Management Ltd has changed its company name to FirstPort Property Services No.10 Ltd, but to avoid confusion we will continue to refer to them as DJC/FirstPort:
- For a number of reasons, including to no small extent the lack of any communication from our assigned Property Manager, LMC has sent a Termination Notice to the managing agents, DJC/FirstPort, informing them that the five year fixed-term contract which runs from 8th January 2019 until 7th January 2024 will not at that point be rolled over for another year (which is how it would otherwise be extended). The Termination Notice was sent by signed-for mail on 24th July and delivered the following day but to date, and true to form, we have heard nothing in response. The Notice stipulates a list of requirements which DJC/FirstPort must keep to in the meantime and these are the main ones:
- Any future outgoings, individually in excess of £250 plus VAT, must be approved by the LMC directors before being paid away;
- The LMC directors must be provided with details of LMC’s current financial position;
- That prior to sending out any bills, the LMC directors must approve a maintenance budget for the next financial year (which starts on 1st October 2023).
- The LMC directors have received detailed proposals from three prospective new managing agents and one has been selected to take over from DJC/FirstPort when we part company with them. More details will be provided in due course.
- The three remaining Bellway-appointed directors have now effectively resigned after we sent them a formal ultimatum. So LMC now only has the six owner/directors who were appointed at the members’ meeting on 26th April.
- We have a new Company Secretary (who is an owner at Little Meadow) and LMC’s official Registered Office is now located at his business address.
Legal Matters
We haven’t yet mentioned the outstanding land transfer of the common areas from Bellway to LMC, but you’ll probably not be surprised to hear that there has been no real progress there either. One of the issues we had previously raised was related to the ownership of, and responsibility for, the strip of land and the swale at the front of the Little Meadow estate and it has now been confirmed that nobody owns it!
Bellway got around this issue by taking out a third-party insurance indemnity, which all buyers benefit from, and which in the very simplest terms safeguards access to Little Meadow across the orphaned strip of land in perpetuity. The LMC directors believe that it is in every Little Meadow owner’s interest for LMC to try and keep this prominent area in a tidy state on a “good neighbour” basis, although we shall not be formally accepting responsibility for what does not belong to us.
Needless to say, we continue to pursue the land transfer.
Service charges
We think that most owners have now settled the outstanding charges that have been invoiced, although we have no definitive up-to-date information since we are also waiting for this data from DJC/FirstPort.
It was mentioned at the 26th April meeting that it was felt that because of the poor standard of maintenance at that point and the many uncertainties there were, it should be a personal choice whether to settle at that time what was owed; however, the legal issue relating to whether LMC is entitled to charge owners (since it does not yet own the land it is maintaining) are now clear and it is indeed the case that any outstanding charges remain due.
Owners should already know that service charges are owed to LMC (which is effectively your company) and that our managing agents have only been delegated the responsibility for collecting them, so they get no benefit. See the article “DJC/FirstPort’s role” on this website for a more detailed explanation.
So please bear in mind that one way or another all outstanding monies remain due to LMC and will eventually have to be paid in full.
Summary
We really want to get to a point where we can all be happy with the standard of maintenance of Little Meadow, but we still remain quite a long way from that position and we are being hampered rather than helped by our current managing agents. Also some of the other matters mentioned above continue to be ongoing issues. Needless to say we are doing everything in our power to get there.
So you are asked to continue to bear with us while we try to get everything finally sorted and as always please contact the LMC directors via the website with any comments or suggestions, or if something needs to be added to our long list of things to do.