Over 200 extremely dissatisfied residents from ten developments send open letter to Rendall and Rittner

‘Enough Is Enough’ An Open Letter to Rendall & Rittner 21st July 2020 FINAL

Appendix open letter to R&R 21.7.20 AMENDED

Over 200 residents from TEN London developments managed by Rendall and Rittner delivered an open letter to Rendall and Rittner Directors  on 21st July  2020.

The letter draws attention to widespread resident dissatisfaction with Rendall and Rittner on wide range of issues but especially:

  • Significant failures, inaction, delays, insufficient communication and inadequacies in addressing the
    fire safety of developments
  • Rendall & Rittner’s failure to properly pursue and/or seek to recover costs from companies responsible (such as the developers/ freeholders/ other relevant parties) who are, or should be held accountable for, certain costs such as build defects, cladding and fire safety failures and investigations, resulting interim measures and remedial works, with Rendall & Rittner instead passing on the costs to leaseholders.
  • Specifically with regard to build defects and problems resulting from poor workmanship and/or materials or communal systems whicch its contractors installed at build and that are evidently not fit for purpose, as is demonstrable by multiple recurring issues, Rendall & Rittner have, it seems, failed to hold the developer (or other such responsible parties) to account by not seeking to recover the costs of any remedial work needed from them and again have defaulted to passing the costs to leaseholders.
  • Specifically regarding who pays for remedial action if unsafe cladding or unsafe materials are found on a building at one of the developments they manage, Rendall & Rittner have stated that they do not agree with, and therefore do not follow, the Government’s guidance from September
    2018 which states:

“building owners are legally responsible for ensuring residents’ safety” and that, “they should do all they can to protect leaseholders from incurring costs, either funding it themselves or looking at alternative routes such as insurance claims, warranties or legal action.” (Source: House of Commons Library Briefing
Paper, number 8244, dated 16th June 2020.)

Rendall & Rittner, in email correspondence with residents, have stated that, “the cost… has to be raised from the lessees under the lease so that any work can be instructed and carried out and paid for.”

  • Unreasonable, drastic and unjustifiable rises in service charges, high management fees, and service charges that are considerably higher than other comparable developments, and yet with little to no evidence of quality maintenance or resident satisfaction, and with many developments reporting a state of neglect, deterioration and disrepair.
  • Lack of transparency with regard to accounts – specifically service charges, evidence of inconsistencies and confusing charges / ‘statements’, and a tendency towards apparent obfuscation in this regard. The failure to provide residents with clear statements regarding service charges (often instead substituting them with an incomprehensible list of transactions on an online portal) is particularly worrying, since if leaseholders cannot clearly see what the service charge is, they cannot easily monitor or compare, year on year, the large increases that are being levied. Flat rate so called ‘late payment fees’ are not authorised in any lease, yet Rendall & Rittner continue to charge these.
  • Rendall & Rittner’s failure to properly communicate, adequately respond to or take swift action regarding leaseholders’ and other residents’ complaints, often failing to follow its own complaints policy (e.g. members of staff investigating complaints made against themselves, or simply not responding at all) and seemingly demonstrating a tendency to withhold key information from leaseholders and residents.

We await Rendall and Rittner’s response.

The residents who support the letter come from the following developments:

Bridges Wharf
Chelsea Bridge Wharf
Discovery Dock East
Kidbrooke Village
Millennium Quay
New River Village
One Stratford
Royal Arsenal Riverside
Royal Artillery Quays
Vista Chelsea Bridge

if you would like to join this collaboration please contact residents@chelseabridgewharf.org.uk

Category : Rendall & Rittner, resident complaints about Berkeley Homes, Right to Manage, Uncategorized