The Orwellian World of the Chelsea Bridge Wharf Residents’ Association
In my view, The Chelsea Bridge Wharf Residents’ Association (CBWRA) misinformed residents about the law regarding Right to Manage, stating that the supreme Court judgement of First Port v Settlers Court prevents Right to Manage at Chelsea Bridge Wharf. However, independent advice clearly shows that this judgement has NO RELEVANCE to Right to Manage at Chelsea Bridge Wharf. NB I do not claim there was any intent to misinform, nonetheless the advice given would appear to be incorrect.
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Right to Manage for the whole development IS therefore possible, indeed it is the only way that residents can gain the right to choose the managing agent for the development.
CBWRA concede that here has been little or no improvement from Rendall and Rittner (committee meeting notes)
CBWRA continue to censor opposing views and discussion on Right to Manage on the CBW app and apparently do not plan to consult residents
My CBW app account was closed for supposed ‘misleading’ information. No evidence was provided – no investigation or appeal occurred. The email closing my account had a letter attached from Roger Southam, stating that ‘Right to Manage (RTM) is now not a feasible option for Chelsea Bridge Wharf’. i..e CBWRA were saying that RTM was not possible at CBW and this letter from Roger Southam was the supposed proof. For me to insist that Right to Manage WAS possible was termed ‘misinformation’ and this supposedly justified the permanent closure my CBW app account. No information or evidence was supplied regarding the supposed ‘repeated breaches of the community guidelines’
It appears that stating the simple fact that retendering the management contract would fail (which it has) and that Right to Manage was the only way forward is ‘misinformation’ and that such judgements can be made without any due process or discussion, no right of appeal.
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In 2022, The CBWRA committee are banned from making complaints or petitions against Rendall and Rittner (CBWRA committee meeting notes, September 2021)
Since January 2021 there has been ONE meeting between CBWRA and residents (May 2022) and two meetings between Rendall and Rittner and residents (Dec 2021 and October 2022).
Residents were promised recordings of the meeting with Rendall and Rittner in December 2021 and the failed AGM in May 2022 but these have not been produced for either meeting.
Only leaseholders (not residents more generally) may attend CBWRA monthly committee meetings but only as mute observers – they cannot ask questions or comment. Attendance is only in person (no online access) which makes it much harder for leaseholders to join the meetings (especially those with a disability, those who have caring responsibilities, those who are not able to work from home or those who do not live at Chelsea Bridge Wharf or even in the UK (a significant proportion of leaseholders at CBW are landlords who live outside London or live abroad),
I understand The meeting room used for committee meeting only allows for 3 to 4 residents to attend (although given that they are not allowed to speak, there is not high demand to attend).
No recordings of the CBWRA committee meetings are available to residents, and sometimes no notes are produced. Residents are not allowed to join the meeting remotely/by zoom etc. The location of the meeting is not announced until the day of the meeting. A ‘transcript’ is provided usually a 3-4 weeks after the meeting. This is odd given that a transcript takes only a few days to produce.
No quorate AGM has ever been held
No statement of the number of members has ever been given
CBWRA states that it does not have list of its members
Service charges continue to increase massively and way beyond inflation – neither CBWRA or Rendall and Rittner have given any credible explanation for these shocking increases
The ”management audit” of service charge accounts promised by CBWRA in January 2022 did not materialise until Jan 2023 and the CBWRA committee refused many requests for the initial report to be shared. This is not in any case be a management audit but apparently a superficial audit of ‘big ticket’ items in the service charge accounts, led by someone who is not an accountant and who is being paid £250 an hour
The vote on options for the fountains (e.g. filling some of them in) which was promised for September 2022 appears to have been quietly forgotten.
CBWRA are continuing to ignore their own constitution by making changes to it at the request of Berkeley Homes, and not having these approved at an AGM
No one on the CBWRA committee has been elected (apart from the Chair)
Residents who are not leaseholders (i.e. tenants or family members of leaseholders) are not allowed to join the committee, not allowed to attend committee meetings and as there are no elections they cannot vote for a representative either and thus are totally disenfranchised
Does this sound like a well governed democratic organisation? Or more like the opposite of that? i.e. Orwellian. Residents may judge for themselves. All thoughts and feedback welcome.
I was puzzled why there do not seem to be elections. How can they get away with this. It IS Orwellian indeed. I do not know who the chair is or why these people think they have a divine right. I would be less bothered if they were actually being effective but service charge is a joke and I cannot see any positive change. We need to say goodbye to Rendall and Rittner please..I don’t think it will happen with the current lot – they told us all sorts of promises about the management contract retendering and it was a massive damp squib – failure and costly @ £15,000 ?
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Hi Alice – thanks for your comment. Yes it is pretty shocking – not to mention £28,000 on security guards for 10 weeks (which has little support) while at the same time claiming that we cannot afford a barrier to sopwith way which has enormous resident support
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Hi Alice – yes you are not the only one who is puzzled. I believe that CBWRA claim committee elections took place at the failed AGM in May this year. But in fact no elections took place. Just 24 residents turned up for the AGM and that was in part because Mr Thompson failed to send out invites to each apartment as required under CBWRA’s own constitution. Further more no nominations were invited to the committee which again was contrary to the constitution. The constitution requires that there be at least 15% of members present for an AGM to be valid (quorate) but the attendance was approximately 2.4% of members. So the constitution was ignored on many counts and no nominations were invited – Mr Thompson simply announced that the committee had resigned and ‘re-elected’ – not a single resident cast a vote. CBWRA claim they lost their recording of the meeting (for technical reasons), which they had promised to share with residents!. Luckily I made my own recording and am happy to share with any resident on request. I understand that the Chair elections due in January 2023 will not happen until April. If true, that is the second time Mr Thompson has tried to extend his term as Chair without election – he also tried this in Autumn 2021 and it was one of the reasons why I resigned from the committee at that time.
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CBWRA are not a proper residents association. When are the meetings with residents? What they have actually done apart from waste our money and tell us we cannot do nothing about Rendall and Rittner. No committee people have been elected – why they do not understand what democracy means.
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I have to agree Shazza. up to £15,000 on a pointless and failed process which it was claimed was a ‘faster and cheaper’ alternative to Right to Manage, and now £28,000 for ten weeks of security guards which will have no effect on anything much. All decisions from an unelected committee which does not think it needs to consult with residents. We now have residents being put in the absurd position of complaining to Rendall and Rittner about their residents’ association, in order to stop what many feel is CBWRA wasting residents’ money. This has to stop.
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Hi Shazza – yes I agree and see my comments in response to Alice Roberts, below. These abuses of governance can only continue as long as residents remain silent..so please continue to speak out. Without elections, CBWRA has no legitimacy, it is not our residents’ association
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