Rendall and Rittner dragged to first meeting with residents in 9 months-and then postpone for another month due to the death of the Queen!

Rendall and Rittner have been dragged to their first meeting with residents in 9 months (previous meetings December 2021 and October 2020). The meeting was due to be on 14th September 2022, 6-8.30pm, Pestana Hotel, Chelsea Bridge Wharf (see flyer below for further details and how to join by zoom). Absurdly, Rendall and Rittner have now postponed the meeting by a whole month (to 10th October from 6.30pm to 8pm), claiming this was due to the death of the Queen! What possible relevance has the death of the Queen got to this meeting? And why postpone for a whole month? It looks like desperate playing for time, as Rendall and Rittner know they are likely to face a serious grilling from residents about massive service charge increases. In fact there is no legal obligation to postpone meetings or events during the period of ‘national mourning’ , it is entirely at the discretion of the individual organisation. Rendall and Rittner did not consult with residents before postponing the meeting.

In June 2021, the CBWRA promised there would be QUARTERLY meetings with Rendall and Rittner but in fact, since the Chelsea Bridge Wharf Residents’ Association was ‘reactivated’ in January 2021, there has only been one meeting between Rendall and Rittner and residents (December 2021) thus allowing Rendall and Rittner to escape direct resident scrutiny. Rendall and Rittner confirm that the postponement of the September 14th meeting was agreed with CBWRA but no resident consultation took place. Some people would see this as another instance of the bizarre ”collegiate relationship” between CBWRA and R&R which mainly seems to involve CBWRA doing what Rendall and Rittner want and getting little or nothing in return. The two rounds of large service charge increases since January 2021 certainly not seem to be very ”collegiate”.

Why have the Chelsea Bridge Wharf Residents’ Association allowed Rendall and Rittner get away with this? Well because they are even less interested in meeting with residents it would seem: there has been only one meeting of of CBWRA with residents since January. 2021 (the failed AGM in May 2022). So in total, all meetings included, there have been TWO meetings with residents since Jan 2021. Despite promises to do so, no recording of either event has been distributed to residents. CBWRA did not use their mailing list to publicise the meeting on 14th September.

The traditional format for Rendall and Rittner’s ”residents’ meetings” is to waste an hour giving a self congratulatory presentation full of PR and fluff, running down the clock so that there is only 30 minutes for residents’ questions. The meeting notes usually take more than a month to produce and are generally full of photographs of Rendall and Rittner giving themselves awards, with just a few lines on the actual discussion in the meeting. Here are Rendall and Rittner’s notes of the December 2021 meeting (which I was not able to attend), Apparently no one had any questions about the service charge! A likely story..

Rendall and Rittner have said that a recording of the September 14th meeting will not be made/shared though residents can join by zoom.