Mould growing in flats
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If you live in one of the UK's 5 million flats, you may pay a management company an annual fee to maintain the communal areas and the exterior of the building.
But the residents of one block of flats in East London don't think they're getting value for money from their management company. That's because of the black mould growing inside nearly a third of the flats in the building.
Mould keeps growing back
Carrie Murray is one resident who's affected. She bought her flat nearly three years ago, and for the last year she's had severe mould growing on the walls and ceiling inside her bedroom, bathroom and hallway.
She's tried wiping it away and painting over it, but the mould keeps growing back. "I've actually considered moving out but you can't move out. Nobody would rent it, nobody would buy it, you can't sell it," she told us.
Carrie's not alone. Nearly all the flats on the top floor have been affected. Marilena Reina, who set up a residents' committee in the building in December 2007, said that the residents have been asking the management company to fix the problem for about a year. She said residents would be happy to pay more to the management company to have it resolved.
The building is maintained by a company called Residential Management Group Limited, who claims to be one of the biggest names in the business. The flat owners each pay Residential Management Group £1,600 a year to maintain their block.
Leaks in the roof
We sent chartered surveyor Barry Cross to look at the damp, and when inside Carrie's flat he diagnosed the cause of the problem almost immediately. He believes there are leaks coming from the roof of the building, which are making any mould in the flat much worse. And because the dampness keeps coming, it's acting against any efforts made by the owners to get rid of the mould themselves.
Barry went onto the roof to have a look and found that the roof was in disrepair. He said the management company should get the roof renewed immediately before the situation becomes really serious.
Residential Management Group have sent two surveyors in the past 12 months to look at the roof and have made attempts to fix it, but when Barry looked at the work which had been done, he said it was temporary and hadn't fixed the problem.
We sent samples of the mould in Carrie's flat to be tested at a specialist lab in Finland. They found very high levels of different moulds, one of which could exacerbate asthma.
Inhalation can lead to furball-like growths
We spoke to Professor Robert Douglas, who's appalled at the mould growing in the flats. He told us inhalation of moulds over a long period of time could lead to severe problems in the lungs, including wheezing and asthmatic symptoms. In some rare cases, inhalation can lead to the development of furball-like growths in the lung which are very difficult to treat.
The residents could, if they wanted to, take the management company to a tribunal. The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT) is a body in England which rules independently on disputes between residents and management companies. There are separate assessment panels in Scotland and Wales which perform a similar function. In Northern Ireland, the Housing Rights Service suggests flat owners should get in touch with a solicitor.
Response from Residential Management Group
When Watchdog contacted the property management company Residential Management Group Ltd and the part of the company they use to manage the Dennis House flats, Wood Management, they said: "Two reports were received from surveyors during 2008, neither of which called for the immediate replacement of the roof. Given the continued debate and concern surrounding the condition of the roof, Wood Management, acting on the instructions of the freeholder, appointed a further firm of chartered surveyors to provide current advice on the condition of the roof and on any urgent roofing works that may be required at Dennis house.
"The survey was completed on Monday 17 March 2009 with the report being available now. A key finding of the surveyors report is that; "while temporarily repaired, the roof areas appear to be in sufficient order to remain watertight". The report also accepts that while the roof surfaces are reaching the end of their useful life, significant areas remain capable of satisfactory further service which will warrant further enquiry before committing substantial funds to wholesale roof covering renewal works. The decision on the future action to be taken regarding the roof will of course have to be taken in conjunction with the residents of Dennis house who'll have to fund any renewal programme via their service charge contributions. As detailed below, there are significant reserve funds but these are very unlikely to meet the total costs involved.
"We'll of course be happy to share the latest surveyor report with residents. The remedial works recommended in the initial report that Wood Management commissioned in 2008 were carried out during the summer of 2008 by local contractors. The costs for these works were charged to the service charge fund. Further minor repairs to the roof above flat [detail removed] were also completed in November 2008.
It should also be noted that another maintenance contractor attended [the] site in February 2009 as a result of a callout to attend to a suspected roof leak. The contractor inspected the roof and the internal areas of three flats. The advice which the contractor confirmed in writing to Wood Management was that the roof, although patched, was sound. They confirmed that advice was given to tenants on issues of condensation recommending they address their individual issues with the use of dehumidifiers, extractor fans and venting.
"There remains no evidence of current water ingress from the roof. In the majority of reported cases, the issue has proven to be that of condensation within the apartments due to lack of ventilation being provided by the residents within their own demise. In some cases original air vents have been removed and replacement windows without ventilation grills have being installed.
"In each case of reported water ingress from the roof, including the contractor who attended site last month, contractors could not locate any serious issue with the roof, and reported the event as condensation arising from within the apartment. Where roof defects were identified they've been repaired.
"There are sufficient monies set aside to pay for day to day repairs and of course issues which pose a Health and Safety risk. This is evidenced by the attendance of contractors to site in summer 2008, September, December and February 2009 in response to reported repairs. The service charge has funds for expenditure for routine repairs, but could not fund and isn't budgeted to fund the costs of wholesale replacement of the roof. Indeed any such scheme would require formal consultation with all leaseholders as required under s20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act.
"There's currently some £16,000 in the Reserve account, set aside for major works, that has been collected in this and prior years. We're happy to discuss with Residents their priorities for using this fund.
"There has been no expenditure in recent years from the Reserve account. The last works utilising this fund were in 2005 and 2006.
"The full roof repair that some of the lessees are requesting would we believe be in the order of £50-60k and the current reserve could only meet part of this cost. As described above, progressing a roof replacement will require full consultation and then upfront payment by all of the lessees of the sums due before the scheme could proceed.
"[Wood Management] fully accept that it's very distressing for residents when they face problems of mould growth in their homes. However, [Wood Management] believe it's acted on all reports from residents regarding these matters and have advised them on the relatively low cost remedial action that should be taken by them to assist with the problem. The replacement of the roof would not on its own, or in the professional opinion of the surveyors that have been engaged, solve the problems that some lessees are experiencing. Any dwelling without adequate ventilation will potentially suffer from condensation and mould growth problems.
"As managing agents, and on behalf of the freeholder, we're keen to work with all of the residents to address their priorities for expenditure on the fabric of the building and our property manager will shortly be writing to Ms Reina and other residents to arrange a further meeting to discuss the latest surveyors report and how they believe we should proceed. Our property Management Director will accompany the property manager to discuss the options with residents. [Wood Management] can assure you that both the freeholder and Wood management are treating this matter seriously and are keen to find a cost effective and speedy solution to the current problems that's agreed by all of the residents of Dennis House."
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We have the same problem in our shared ownership flats with our housing association, [Company details removed by Moderator]. Our communal underground car park was vandalised 18 months ago and still has not been fixed. There are exposed electrical wires, wood and metal hanging off the walls from where someone ripped the boxing down. In the communal hallway, there is pigeon feaces on the wall from a faulty skylight. The company [Company details removed by Moderator] say they are involved in a court case with the builders but this has been ongoing since we moved in to our flat in June 2007 and it doesn't make things any better. We want to move next year but there is no way anyone buy our flat with the state of the communal areas. As a shared owner, we seem to have no tenant rights or owner rights. Our residents commitee pressures the company [Company details removed by Moderator] but we never get anywhere and no one seems interested.
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We have also had loads of problems with our property management company[Company details removed by Moderator] for several years. They continue to provide inadequate services to their paying customers and as such we are also looking to leave them
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I would like to name and shame a company [Company details removed by Moderator] for poor customer service. I lived in my flat for ten years for six of which I had water leaking above my front door. It eventually got fixed, but I had to keep on complaining. Although DO keep complaining as I eventually got compensation which at least covered the cost of redecoration.
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I rent a housing association flat which has extensive mould problems and I when I called them round too help I was told that despite my use of anti-mould paint, washing down with bleach, white vinegar and any product on the market that claims to help with the problem, that the problem is caused by us not keeping our windows open all the time and by breathing too much!!!. As if you would keep your windows open constantly in the winter or in a ground floor flat. Any ideas how to breath less?
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hi, my sister lives in a flat in maidstone, it is privately rented and she has been there since december.
you can smell the mould in the air when you walk through the door. she has mould growing on all of her belongings, and the walls, windows ect....
she has contacted health and safety and they said it is condensation. she spoke to someone from maidstone council and they said it isn't.
she suffers from asthma and her living conditions are making her health worse. is there anything else she can do, to get this sorted out?
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The residents of Dennis House need to contact the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT) in London which has a scheme where solicitors will provide their services free-of-charge to prepare the appropriate Application to the LVT in respect of the services provided by the managing agents. I have been an Applicant to the LVT in respect of unreasonable service charges on a flat I owned until two years ago.
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i live in a flat too with a bad management company [Company details removed by Moderator] in Newtownabbey, NI. We each pay £250 a year with no work at all carried out on the property. we have asked numerous times to carry out work as simple as changing lights for health and safety but we keep getting told there is no money in the pot to carry out any work. we were recently told that they had also "overspent" without noticing for 4 years and had to pay £160 each just before christmas to cover this debt. it is so frustrating to pay this money into a black hole with nothing ever done. it is disgraceful that a company can get away with this and nothing is ever said
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it is not just private rented flats that suffer this problem. My girlfriend lives in a housing association flat with her 9 year old boy. The mould was frankly disgusting in ever room in the flat other than the kitchen. She was given the same excuses as your show gave, condensation, poor ventilation etc and made to feel it was her fault. Firstly the association's [Company details removed by Moderator] "expert" said it was because the flat was to cold and she should have the heating on 24 hours a day 7 days a week at maximum. Then the council housing departments "expert" said she should open the windows at night, all year round, to "air" the rooms.
They did very little to solve the problem for many months and when they have done something about it recently they simply cleaned the walls off and painted them with a "special" paint leaving her to pick up the costs for redecorating. We fully expect the mould to grow back though.
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Bought leasehold of current flat 4 years ago. Paying £800 management fees annually. 10 flats in the block, many residents have not paid their fees because within the first 3 years, only hoovering of staircase was done approx every 3-4 weeks. In the past year all that has been done is hoovering of staircase on 2 occasions. I'm tempted to withold my payment this year, the stairs is filthy.
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I am now going through a grievence with our ex landlord and we had the same problem with a bungalow which was allicated to our vulnerable famliy and the mould was reported as soon as it occured and all we were told was it is condensation and we have pictures of rising damp wet floors all pointing at a more serious matter than condensation now my 2 sons and i have had breathing problems and they are on inhalers this is discuting that a housing asscosiation can do this to people and we have had to throw all our furnitre,toys,pictures out because they were all mould ridden we just dont know what to do we need help as this is causing so much stress to get the answers why they did not deal with the problem when we reported it not a year later
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Hi, after watching the program today i was shocked at the people who live at the appartment, and i know exactly how they feel as i am going through the same situation at the moment, and the block management isnt doing anything about it, we have some serious leaks in out bed room and living room during rain fall. and mould has been growning around the ceilings and walls, plaster has been damaged but the managent company keep making excuses, its been a year since the first time i reported it, and chase them up on a weekly bases. I'm not sure what to do at this stage as we are living in damp conditions.
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After spendin 4 years in a sub-standard mouldy 'armed forces families quarter' my husband finally left the army.
The families there have even gone as far to write to the prime minister to get our accomodation in a 'habitable' condition.
After my asthmatic son was hospitalised, we made numerous complaints but to no avail.
The tiles from our bathroom wall came down and it made the bedroom on the other side of the wall damp and mouldy. We were advised not to use either room until it was sorted...
It took 9 months for the bathroom to get done and 11 months for the bedroom. The job wasn't carried out properly and it was only a matter of time before it happened again.
The flat had black 'fur' and spotty patches all over and they told us to wash it off with bleach! No-one in the army is willing to speak up as the soldier is accused of 'bringing the army into disripute'. How about the army risking the health of the soldiers and their families?!
Facebook group 'Armed Forces Accomodation' has some lovely photos on there!!
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I have lived with my fiencee in a council flat (Bedsit) since february last year. We have had sevral issues with the property one being mould and dampness in the window seals and the bathroom. We have a 8 month old baby boy and we have writen to the council serval times about are issues with the flat. We have also been told by the housing association to leave the windows open during the middle of winter, told by them that fresh air is good for the baby. Ye, but not freeze to death. We're on a bidding scheme and are property has been assested for the damp but the company had recieved bad work from other people and we have been waiting months for a re assesment of are property. It feels like are child hasn't got the space he needs to develop. Its not good for are health ever we are unsure what to do next. It can't be healthy for us as parents and a 8 month baby.
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They said on your programme that they did not have enough money to repair the roof - perhaps you should have looked at how much they are charging in management fees!
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I'm having a similar problem. For the past two years I've had damp in my apartment cause by an ill-fitted gutter. I have reported it to the management company numerous times and have had maintenance men come out to view it but i keep getting fobbed off with excuses like "its just been a bit rainy, it'll get better when the weather gets better" or " it's just the gutters are blocked, we'll clear them and you'll be fine" but the damp just keeps spreading. I've reported it again and asked for someone to call me to discuss it but still no sign of any phone call weeks on. I've also reported a broken lock on the main communal door which is permanently open and they've yet to rectify what I believe is an important security issue. What do i pay them £500 a year for? I feel I'm the one who has to do all the work if I want to see anything done!
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We have a freeholder property built on land that is managed by the company in the main story. We are being billed regularly for work that has not been carried out, or even worse is in fact carried out by the borough council!!!
What is worse though, is that on the same estate are flats and a 'director' who states that the work the company do, is good and to a statisfactory standard! I will be writing a carefully worded letter to the necessary parties tomorrow...
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I purchased a flat to rent as a buy to let property a few years ago.
Since then it has been a constant headache with the management company (Believe it or not Basildon District Council).
The security entrance door was constantly being vandalised and whenever the councils repairs department were contacted somebody came out and did what can only be described as a temporary bodge, which got re-vandelised within 24 hours. Each time they called on someone it added more to my service charge bill.
I would have rathered pay an extra thousand pound to have a steel door fitted, than have to keep paying for this. I even had people coming in to our stair case to smoke their drugs out of the way of the law.
Their is an outdoor electricity cupboard on this flat which also had a security issue and had all our card meters for the block, as well as off switches for the stair lights in them and all the council repair man did was tighten the one screw up, which could be broken by turning the plate on the outside. I was able to repair this myself, and has not been broken into since (As if it was my responsibility to do it in the first place, but it was either that or it wouldnt get done).
The main security door though was so badly damaged that a bit of carpentry wasnt going to solve the issue.
Eventually we managed to persuade the purpetrators to go elsewhere by constantly reporting this to the police, and when they realised they were going to have to be on constant watch for the law, they moved somewhere else.
With regards to mould growth, My tenants reported something like this growing on the ceiling of my flat, and as it was a top floor flat I got into the loft and checked to see if it looked like a roof leak. What I found was inadequate loft insulation was causing condensation to form on the plaster board ceiling, and the house was always cold. I immediately contacted a firm to put some more insulating material in the loft, and this problem appears to be solved. I realise this might not be the case for everyone, but it is worth investigating. Cost me £400 at the time, but it saved me having to replace the ceiling as it would certainly have come down if I just left it to continue.
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To cure mould, spray with a
5% solution of benzalkonium chloride using a common refillable spray bottle. After 2 or 3 days the mould will cease to grow. Do not use in the vicinity of Gold fish in a bowl.
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Well after reading all these posts i am not surprised at all, there is a parlimentary group set up investigating these companies headed by Gordon Banks if you write to your mp and Gordon Banks soon then hopefully we can change this industry .I have been fighting with these companies for 8 years to the point that i have done a course in block management so i really know what i am talking about when i talk to them also i have taken it one step further but i can not discuss that at the moment. People should also look at their fees as some fees are made up like asbestos testing,(every year ,someone comes along and adds asbestos to your property i do not think so)i could write for ever on this subject but i think that the moderators would not allow some of my statements, my advice is to find a company that is not part of a large chain of Residential Management Companies and to make sure the insurance is in place and a reserve fund is set up for unforseen circumstances.
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This is what happened to us. We are a young couple of 18 and we trusted a letting agency when we moved into our first home. Mould starting to appear everywhere within the first few weeks and we complained constantly to our letting agency but nothing was done. Eventually we called environmental services in and the actually classed our house as unfit to live in but whats worse..... Our letting agency knew the whole time and had just covered it up with paint before we moved in. We are now seeking legal advice as we are spending a stupid amount of money every month for a house that we should not be living in. As we are young though we have no idea what we should do so we feel like we've wasted that money.
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adding to the comment of junipurr ,becareful on witholding payment, as under your lease conditions it states you must pay your management fee if not you are liable to fines and court proceedings ,the advice is to get another management companie if you read their terms and conditions this will give all the information you need if it is ths freeholder who is managing then you can apply to right to manage.
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I own a flat in a block of 60 owned by Wandsworth Council. There are two other blocks which have about 100 flats too. We all seem to be facing the same problems highlighted in your programme. Wandsworth Council has refused to do anything about it claiming that it is the leaseholder's responsibilty and saying it is the way residents live. No one beleives this. It would be useful if you can investigate this.
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Being having problems with my management company [Company details removed] for the last five years. Our water system is operated by water pumps. For the last five years have had problems with having no water in the morning on and off! Found out the water pumps were not maintained as i had requested copies of invoices which they could not provide. But we all were charged £50 each a year for the maintenance of these pumps. Still till this day we are having problems. The government needs take action now as these management companies seem to be ripping us all off! Have enquired about changing management company but its so hard to do.
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oh this all sounds so familiar. we bought our property in 2001 as a leasehold. a large housing assoc is the freeholder but as far as we are aware all properties in the block are privately owned. over the past years we have found that getting anything repaired takes months and countless emails/phone calls to our so called leasehold property manager. he generally ignores our emails/calls unless we persist.
a couple of examples of problems
1. i reported the intercom broken 3 years ago, still waiting for it to be fixed, repeatedly when i have hassled the freeholder they have sent somneround to tell us the same thing ts too old no parts avail we need a new one ( we knew this 3 years ago) this has now been replaced by us being told 'were waiting for quotes for a new system' how long does it take to get quotes??? this has been going on for months, the waiting for quotes has also been interspersed with the leasehold property manager telling us that the other owners do not want the system replaced. really? where are the copies of letters sent to these owners?? and anyway surely an intercom system is an integral part of security for a communal block. it is extremely annoying to have to run downstairs to see whos at the door when our intercom is buzzed ( we get the buzzer but cant speak to those outside) our flat is at the back of the building we cant look out to see whos at the door.
2. we suffered a water leak form the roof just before xmas last year, i bumped into the leasehold manager as he was visiting the building on another matter and reported it saying it was urgent. 5 weeks later we woke to a waterfall on top of our heads in the bedroom. emails and calls were initially ignored until finally the lh manager called back my partner and we were told a surveryor would be sent. we told them unless the surveyor was going to get up on the roof to fix it this was no use to us (it was pouring rain - inside our bedroom & outside!!) a roofer was sent and made a good temp repair. he stated he would need to come back to make the repair permanent. that was over 6 weeks ago. after more calls a surveyor is supposed to be coming today, i wont hold my breath.
i could go on and on with a catalogue of similar stories from the past 7 years.
tvh are very good at sending countless leaflets through the post about 'ethnic diversity' etc etc etc but trying to get repairs done which we cannot get done independently is like pulling teeth. extremely frustrating as owners of a property we would rather just get things done but unfortunately as leaseholders we cannot do this without going through the freeholder.
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We live in a house rather than a flat but are having similar mould problems. The letting agent will not investigate if there is a damp problem and just says loads of people have the same problem in winter and it is due to poor ventilation. We have had water dripping from above the window and wet walls. There is mould in the airring cupboard which I cant reach to clean even with a step ladder. I am worried about my baby's health but in fear that the agent could ask us to move out we dont feel that we should push the matter. The problem is that a landlord can say that you have breeched the tenancy aggreement if you do not sufficiently heat and ventilate your home. Even if you do open windows a jar, wipe condensation and keep your heating on all the time. Its your word against theirs. My health visitor suggested that we report it to environmental health.
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So... the reserve fund has £16000 in, yet the works cost £60 000. I dont know how many flats are involved, lets say 25. That would mean each flat would need to pay £1760 to get the works done. SO PAY UP! This story is so biased. The management company cant do works, if there is no money doh! The £1600 they pay per year would be used for Buildings Insurance, Cleaning, Electricity, Gardening, Management Agents fees, Accountancy fees, Fire Alarms etc etc These residents need to look at their accounts more closely, and they would see that clearly £1600 is not enough to service the building. It is a great shame that Watchdog did not make this apparant last night, that they are £44 000 short to do the works. And no, I dont work for the company in question.
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Does anyone know the legality of withholding your service fee or where to get free legal advice? I have been living for 5 years in a flat, the managing agent are a disgrace. They have not given a set of accounts (which is required by law) until this year, and then they have not been certified and include landscape gardening, when we have 2 pot plants out the front.
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My son and daughter-in-law live in a Housing Association controlled development and they are having problems with their Management Company. The original contractors have gone bust so the car parking area of the developement remains unfinished and the communal areas have not been cleaned or maintained for months. Another company has now been appointed and although they are yet to undertake any work they have sent out bills increasing the maintenance charge from £1.50 per week to £7.00 per week.
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I have paid £50 per year ground rent to my company for over 10 yrs & am still wondering what I pay it for, I have never seen a rep, my property is maintained by myself, there is a parking area for residents which is never look after, the fence is falling apart, I did write to them asking the purpose of the £50 but it just seems I'm paying this amount for the land I happen to live & share on, the reply I got was I must to my release which after reading doesn't really explain their role
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I found the report to be very biased reporting unusual for BBC Watchdog!?
At no point was it discussed the property/flat builders responsibility in regards to ventilation or lack of and creating a flat roof in the first place. How was this missed by the RICS expert?
Secondly have all the residents paid their individual service charges to enable repairs to take place.
Thirdly the reserve fund accumaltes money for major repairs such as redcorations or in this instance a roof. If the reserve fund is short what can the management company do?
The management company is the agent acting on behalf of the Free holder and they do not have money to pay for new roof if the management account has not accumalted enough money from residents to cover the cost its simple the residents will have to wait till it does accumalate or pay up now.
As a previous blog states if each resident pay's an qual share of the 40,000K needed then they will get the roof repaired.
Not all residential management companies are bad I have the one in question on my development and they have been professional and informative with a very high level of customer service offered.
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I have also got the same p[roblem with damp in my flat. I payed to have the property surveyed by a condensation specialist who said the problem was caused by the roof. However the management committee refuse to accept the findings and claim as usual that its condensation. We are having a meeting later this week and hopefully this matter will be raised by other flat owners
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I am currently going through a lengthy dispute with Colchester Borough Council, I have had a mould problem in numerous rooms of my flat since October, I have gone through all the correct channels regarding trying to get this problem sorted, yet 6 months on my situation is no different.
I have a 7 month old baby who was born extremely premature (28 Weeks gestation) and spent 8 weeks in a special care baby unit, And also a 14 year old daughter who's room is damp and has mould, She's suffered with chest infections yet the council still have not done anything productive to remedy this problem.
They would not upgrade me to move on medical grounds despite my sons prematurity as they must have deemed the house safe to live in.
I have received a report from the council stating that the building is at fault and the problem is nothing to do with my lifestyle, yet they have still failed to make the building liveable as far as i am concerned.
My daughter was unable to sleep in her bedroom for weeks and i had to have her sleep on the sofa in the living room, But then received a letter from the council stating they would cut off my central heating if i continued to allow her to do this as it was illegal for her to do so because of the health and safety implications - Yet they take no responsiblity for her having to sleep in a damp room!!!
They have been out on numerious occasions and wasted money by doing so called repairs that have then had to be done again and again, I've got a cold water pipe that is covered in black mould in my kitchen that they boxed in, the mould has penetrated through the boxing, This was done back in October and the "repair" remains the same despite me getting involved the Chief executive officer and the Property services Manager.
I am at my wits end.
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We unfortunatley have to deal with a management company [details removed] who are absolute rubbish, they do not believe in customer service to start with. A number of residents recently held a meeting with them to discuss the problems and try to get them resolved it was like hitting your head against a brick wall. Also the spokesperson at the meeting basically called about 20 residents liars as they did not believe what we were telling them, they had decided to take the word of a single one ban band company. The residents are now trying to work together to get the problem sorted and many of us have stopped paying the management company, however we are stuck because we need legal advise but can not find anyone willing to help us without asking for a fee.
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In response to Cheeky Benito comments ... Why are there insufficient funds in the Reserve Account? Surely, the 10 year or indeed 5yr plan would have flagged this - I can bet the answer to that is there is no 5 or 10 year plan.
From someone who did once work for the company in question!
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since there is so many of us with this problem but nothing is being done, who can we turn to.... at the moment i have refused to pay any serivce charge....
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I think it is terrible that there is no regulation of management companies in the UK. With financial as well as managerial responsibility for some 5 million flats (using Watchdog's figures) the potential for mis-management and fraud is huge.
I live in a Wood Management "managed" property and have had to instruct solicitors to receive any response at all to correspondence. Substantial problems with the building that have been drawn to its attention have been ignored, incorrect legal information has been provided, service charge monies have "disappeared" and non-existent payments have been charged to the property's account. Despite the fact that the other leaseholders and I did not enter into any contract with Wood Management, it is expected that we take the initiative to seek redress through the courts - at our own expense.
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Unlike other European countries we are not familiar with leasehold management. As new developments in the last few years have been build leasehold management has increased two fold. What is very important to stress is - It is not difficult to change management agents. Most reputable agents will advise and handle the changeover. So if you genuinely feel you are not getting the service - switch agents.
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Hi All
At last, these companies are being recognised for the Rip Off Merchants they really are! I do want to name and shame the Company who is Ripping all our residents off but from reading all the other posts the moderator removes the company names. I am going to give the company name for the benefit of the BBC as I think it will be a really, really good story for future programmes.
The Company is called [company details removed]
I my Wife and 2 children moved in to our Brand New House, YES House not apartment or Flat, almost 2 years ago. We where the 3rd to the last to move in on the whole estate! As usual with any new house people buy, we were very excited and very happy with our New Dream Home.... BUT! We started receiving Letters of Statement from a Property Services Company asking almost £9.00 per month with no formal introduction and no reason for the charges! Furthermore we’d had no mention of any Service Charges at the point of sale and it was most certainly not brought to our attention by our ‘Online’ Solicitors. If it was mentioned we would have reconsidered the purchase!
Obviously I had no intention of paying as I thought ‘who are they and what the Hell are they trying to charge us for’? We decided to TRY and contact the Management Company! My God! After several phone calls (to many to mention) all we could get was:
1) Oh, we must be charging you for your windows to be cleaned! We said NO, we have our own Window Cleaner.
2) Arrrrrrr, we come and do your Gardening! We said NO, we tend our own Private front and rear Garden.
3) Mmmmmmmm, maybe we are charging you for street lighting! You can imagine what I said to this comment.
What a professional organisation this is I thought! No introduction, No reason for charges and No actual Bill, just Statements of Account! Due to the unprofessional approach/response from the company I quickly concluded they were just making a BIG mistake. I managed to find a contact e-mail address for them and basically sent them a Seven Day Letter saying if they do not give me a valid reason for their charges I would take it they had made a mistake and all charges would be revoked forthwith.
Finally I got an officially response from the Seven Day Letter which said “Our charges are for us to tend 2 PUBLIC open spaces of Land and any Un-owned Land on the scheme”! They included a Budget report of all the charges for every House and apartment on the estate. To cut a long story short they are NOW charging 138 dwellings £7.98 each, per month to tend 2 PUBLIC open spaces of land. This Totals Annually: £13214.88 for 10 Visits a Year over 5 summer months. So if you work on the 5 summer months this equates to £2642.98 per month!!!! (MY GOD!!).... Somebody is doing very well from this line of business. On top of these charges other residents in Houses get extra charges for Electric Gates which is understandable and other residents are charged for Maintenance fees because they live in apartments also understandable.
The real worry for us was their increase in charges which were very apparent in their budget report. Some 55% increase from the year before. After further investigation I was told that we had signed a Lease which meant we are legally bound to pay their charges BUT there is no Governing body that controls what they do or what they charge! My God I thought we are trapped!! What’s happened to human rights and freedom of choice?
While all of this had been going on we started taking photos of the PUBLIC open spaces because they were not being tended at all. There was a Christmas Tree dumped and left for 18 months, the boarders had Weeds & Grass which had grown to Hip High and the main lawns were also above our knee. I wrote back to them because phone calls would always get passed around, and advised, as a consumer I did not have to pay for something I was not getting. There response was “I have checked the Visiting Officers Reports and spoken to him and there has been no reported problems”! I asked if their visiting officer has regular eye tests and sent them our photographic evidence! They said they would send a visiting officer round to inspect it and they would get back to me within a week............. I’m still waiting their response from June last year! Subsequently in the last months we’ve had a letter advising us of our New Gardener..... Mmmmm...... Very Strange don’t you think?
At this point I was so annoyed with it all I was considering putting our house on the market but then me & my wife came up with an idea! I put together a letter to all the residents on the estate explaining our problems and highlighting the amount this company was raking in just from these 2 PUBLIC open spaces of land. The response wasn’t that surprising to be honest as I’m sure you can imagine! Several people agreed but also highlighted a profuse amount of problems which had not been attended to across the whole estate! I will not go into details about these other problems because I know we are all going to add to this blog independently so you can see the extent of the problems with this company.
Last Wednesday 18th March we managed to get a meeting with the company and what a waste of time it was! There was one young inexperienced Lady representing the company who was most definitely not prepared for the turnout. We completely took over their main boardroom and there was no control at all. Again, a very unprofessional company. I do need to add though, on arriving it did look very professional so much so we could immediately see how lucrative this line of business actually is. The offices are so big and modern it’s untrue. Offices do not come cheap in the Lowry Shopping Mall in Manchester! We are all now waiting for the official response from the representative’s line manager about all our concerns but I’m not holding my breath!!!
Why should anybody have to pay Extra Fees over and above the Council Tax for PUBLIC Open Spaces of land that anybody from anywhere can come and use/abuse. The Local Council should be responsible for this land because, after all, they stipulated these open plots of land when they amended/approved the original plans for this estate! Please bear in mind these open plots of land are not directly related to any apartments or houses. The apartments have their own surrounding gardens which are also changed separately to the apartment owners. The so called lease we have all signed are worded in such a way you need a degree to understand them, they are so open ended the Maintenance Companies can use them to their total advantage to charge for whatever they want! How can one lease be drawn up for so many different types of dwellings on one estate? Shouldn’t there be separate leases for each type of dwelling?
One last thing for everybody to think about is:
How can these companies ever become financially unstable when everybody has signed a Legal Lease with them? They are theoretically above the Law in my view! They can charge what they want, for what they like and they can choose if they want to do repairs or not! They can also ‘legally’ approach your Mortgage Lender to recoup any unpaid fees!! It’s the best business opportunity for any entrepreneurs out there with no morals and a sound business mind. I’ve been considering going on the Dragons Den to see if I can get some investment to setup myself. I’m sure the Dragons would jump at the chance to join a business that’s made for life because our lease runs for 88 years and let’s be honest..... Most people just pay because they don’t want the hassle!!
I hope to see more and more posts on here, then hopefully we may be able to get the government involved to impose greater controls over who and for what they charge people for!
Keep Up The Good Work Watchdog
Kind Regards
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You can of course choose to move to another property management company, maybe a more local one rather than a huge bemoth.
Can take a few months from notice period.
Easy to find via yellow pages/thomson local.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
We are block managers and are transparent and endeavour give service.
I have been lobbying for regulation for a long time because of the lack of transparency and probity on the industry. You can go to Leasehold Valuation Tribunal or if more than 50% band together you can go Right to Manage if you want to change.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
In FAVOUR OF management companies.
I am the Chairman of a residents commitee. What a management company does - OR charges you for - is only as good as the residents who bother to keep check on the way the money is spent.
Did the lady in the program check the roof with a SURVEY when she bought the flat? Has the block got the funds to repair the roof? (the funds don't come from the management company itself)
Maybe the management company should have advised the residents in the block that there was a problem coming up in the future - and that they should put money aside. Otherwise there probably isn't the money!
Where does your viewer expect the repair money to come from??
Getting a GOOD RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION - who keep a check on the Management Company and what they spend their money on is the ONLY answer.
William
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RE: Ground rent. FAO Iancru
Your ground rent does not pay towards the upkeep or maintenance of your property - it is purely a rent to the freeholder for you to 'occupy' the land. The company you pay this to will be passing the amount collected onto their client, the freeholder and will take a fee from them for doing so.
RE: Service Charges. FAO MarilenaR and Cheeky Benito.
I agree with Cheeky Benito, a large problem managing agents face is collecting funding, yes they can ensure they receive the funds but this is not a quick process if residents do not pay.
Although I am not sure if this agent has acted correctly I know there are many companies that act correctly and it's always the case that you hear the complaints rather than the praise!
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my son and partner along with my grandson live in a [company details removed] property in liverpool. they have lived there for the past 2 years and their bathroom is covered from ceiling to floor with this black moss or what ever it is, it is so bad that they can not put their bathroom light on as it causes it to flash on and off both my grandson and his mum both suffer from asthma and chest infections and can not enter the bathroom but they have been told that they must wait until [the company's] budget until they can decide what action will be taken, it has taken nearly 7 months to get someone out to even look at the bathroom and they have been told 3 times that there is no record of any surveyor having been to the property, I have to drive from southport twice a week to bring my grandson to my haouse for a bath and in between he goes to his nanny Jans for a bath I have taken photos of the bathroom and am so tempted to send them to our local paper (liverpool echo) [They] have recently sent out a leaflet praising themselves and have been awarded 2 stars ! for what does my grandson have to be admitted to hospital before anything is done ? there next door neighbour is in the same situation her little girl put her hand through the wall and they are still waiting for something to be done, yes they have put new fences up on the front of the houses but the back is another story no fences nettles as tall as buildings what are our children supposed to do as far as I am concerned these houses are of sub-standard and should be taken out of [their] hands and given to a management company that can make these houses liveable, this house is making my grandson ill please help concerned grandmum
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We are 3 small blocks of 6 flats, totalling 18, with potentially lovely gardens, parking and on a private street. The flats are a great size and should be a wonderful place to live. The management company in question has made our residents' lives unutterably miserable. We pay them about £18,000 a year between us for ABSOLUTELY NO service whatsoever. They even failed to pay our buildings insurance last year until we found out when a resident needed to claim. That meant that if a fire had occured we would have been homeless without even money to cover a hotel while the property was fixed and no money to pay for repairs. This company is negligent, incompetent and, frankly, should not be allowed to trade. It is nothing short of fraud to take money from people and fail to do the bare minimum.
The land and the flats are in poor repair although we pay them plenty of money. The fences are falling down, the guttering is in disrepair and overflows, causing damp to the external walls, the roof is in poor repair and is affecting those who live on the top floor, the interior and exterior decor or in a poor state and internal cleaning is rare (although we pay for it) while window cleaning doesn't happen - it was cancelled before I moved in but we have seen that we've been charged for three instances of window cleaning in the last year.
We have neither meetings nor account updates, despite our requests and the requirements of the lease.
My advice is sack them. It's hard work and I have run around like a crazy person to get the residents to take control and get the Right to Manage (RTM) but it was officially announced today that we won and we take over managing our homes on 30 June. Next stop the freehold (our freeholder is dreadful as well!)
I am delighted, and shattered, that we have the RTM and, while I know it won't always be easy, at least we will be looking after our homes.
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I've been having problems with mould in the flat i rent ever since i moved in 7 months ago. We think the problem stems from poor brick work to the exterior of the property, allowing water to seep in to the walls. We pay £50 a month to our property management company and in the 7 months i have been chasing them to fix this problem all they have ever done is fob me off. They have sent one person round who took no notice of the brick work outside and said the problem was with internal air flow, or lack of it. He suggested leaving the windows open, this was in December when the temperature was struggling to get past zero! He said we could buy a unit for £750 that would pump air in from outside, but as this would be an "internal improvement" the property management company wouldn't pay for this. As well as mould on the walls all of our windows are rotten and full of mould. The management company have recently informed us they will be doing something about the windows....YEY......or not it would seem as they have said they will do one window this year, the living room one that is the one least affected, and wont be doing the rest until 2010. Basically we're living in a cold, damp, mould infested property and pay £50 a month to this usless management company for the priviage......RIPPED OFF??? Yeah just a bit
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I live in a flat not that different to the one featured.my flat is rented from a local housing association.i have mould growth on my walls,carpets,clothing,furniture and windows.my 12yr old son is constantly having problems with his chest and is no longer able to sleep in his own bed due to the condition of his bedroom.i also believe he is allergic to the dampness and mould spores.i live at the top of a high rise block with a flat roof.so any rainfall just sits there until it eventually seeps through into the walls and ceiling.recently i have had water come into my flat through my kitchen light fitting.i have been trying to get this problem solved for 12 yrs now but have got absolutely nowhere.i have applied for a move and have been told that is not an option.my son should not have to live in a house where he gets severly ill depending on what room he is in.please help.
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Hello
I live in a flat with my partner on a small development of 8 flats in total. The management company that 'looks after' the the flats is called [details removed] and are based in Shrewsbury. I am sure that we are not the only tennants who have trouble with this particular management company. We pay £475 per year to include buildings insurance, maintenance of grounds etc We had our first bill back in April 2008 (should have been October 2007) and found that there were charges on the invoices for electricity (we have no shared lighting) We were also charged for our first year which had been given as free as an incentive to buy the property. It has taken emails after emails, calls that are never returned and numerous letters to try and resolve this. The first thing we did when we decided not to pay was to register our dispute so that they would stop sending out demands. After nearly a year of calls the management company have finally agreed that we don't have any electricity to be charged for (which they could have seen for themselves if they had visited the flats a year ago or spoken to the builder.) We are still arguing over the fact that they are trying to charge us for a seperate insurance amount even though this is included in the yearly service charges. Our problem now is that we are in the process of buying a new house and our flat is going as part exchange but we cannot complete until we are out of arrears with [details removed]. As they have took a year so far to sort out the electricty charges I am not sure how much quicker they will be with the insurance...
With regards to actual upkeep of the property as part of the lease the flats exterior will be due to be decorated soon so I will be interested to see if that gets done. Outside we do have moss growing up through all the pavements and slabs but all the gardener does is mow the tiny bit of grass that we have in the courtyard.
Also after reading all theses entries I am worried about the new house we are buying after reading entry 48. When we first registered interest in buying our new house there was a mention of a £50 yearly fee for he upkeep of a conservation area. The more I have thought about it unless this area is going to be gated to keep the public out I am not sure why the residents should be paying for it especially when any member of the public will be able to use it. Surely this should be council run if it is open to the public (would council tax not cover this sort of thing?) Has anyone else had any experience of this (before I sign, print & date any documents!!!)
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I live in a house and we have this problem .My housing repare team just keep seanding me informason leaflets on how to advode mould and will not do any thing about it.But we have four people sleeping in one room
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we used to have small problems with our previous management company, main problems included taking ages to get things repaired, poor service, ever increasing charges etc, we found our the main reason for these problems is that the property manager who was supposed to be looking after our flats kept changing and that the resident directors were not "active" . one of the first things we did was to form a residents group, to call an EGM with the management company, at the EGM we apointed new resident directors (which i am now one of them) , the resisdent directors then tried to work with the management company, after about 6 months we as resident directors took the descision to appoint a new management company to manage our flats, this we feel has worked very well and our new management company is 100 times better than the old one (when we 1st apointed them it was for a years contract which we have again renewed this year), we have very good comunication with our property manager, issues are sorted out quickly, we get a response back from them the same day either with the answer or to say they are looking into the problem
my advice to anyone who is having problems with their management company is to take control of things yourself , ensure your resident directors are active , and if you still get no joy with your current managment company then look at others and appoint a new management company
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We have been living in our flat over 2 years now who is with Basildon counil in essex . We got a son who is 2 years we have mold growing everywhere in te living room ,bedroom ,bathroom and toiliet on the walls and cellings in our wardorbes our bed clothes and even our sons bed and matress.Our son is Ashtmic and ezecma and wheezies alot he suffers with chest infections over and over again.The could have come around 6 times saying its due to poor ventilation and condensation and have said leave our windows open all the time which we cant as were got a 2 year cold some of them said keep them shut and have to heating on low . There done thermal boarding to wall and paint various in anit-mold paint and done the ventilation system and it has not worked the mold as come striaght though the wall,ceiling within days they wanna do it all again with the ventilation and anit paint and thermal wall it anit worked one its not going to work again .Were had docotors letters and health vistors letters they ignored them all said they done count . Were done eveyrthing they told us to do not having the heating on and having the windows open first thing moving everything from the walls . Just dont know no what to do now its getting beyoud a joke now specially on my son health he always ill with chest infections and and been rushed to the hosipcal were he couldnt breath probably . need advice.
Gary
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