CBWRA’s meaningless selection and consultation process for a managing agent is challenged by residents and Rendall and Rittner

A number of residents had an online meeting with Urang, and representatives of the CBWRA committee, on 30th May. Urang have been ‘recommended’ by CBWRA following a very superficial ‘selection’ process which did not appear to involve any formal scoring of bids from managing agents. Residents were provided with very sparse information on the other bidders and a ‘deeper look’ was only provided for Urang and residents only get to meet with Urang. So it was not and is not a genuine consultation.

At the meeting, residents (including myself) raised the following issues:

• that the cost of Right to Manage might not be recovered through service charge as Urang have claimed
• that Urang do not have an in house accounting / billing system and there are some reports from other developments of accounts being presented very late
• the biggest development which Urang currently manage is around 250 units as opposed to around 1150 at CBW so there are question marks about capacity
• it is not clear how many staff Urang would ideally like to have at CBW and this is a very important issue because many people consider the current washes bill to be inflated / unnecessarily high
• that no site visits (to sites managed by Urang) have been carried out by CBWRA
• the lack of consultation by CBWRA in relation to the selection of a new managing agent and generally failing to consult residents
• the need to urgently reduce service charges (Urang state they will aim to reduce service charge by just 10%). Many residents may feel much bigger savings can be made and other bidders had more ambitious targets on reducing service charge.

I am not against Urang – on the contrary, it was me that first identified them as possible agents for CBW and I had a good conversation with their CEO in February this year before the Chair elections and had a positive view of them. After those (very questionable) Chair elections, I referred Urang to the CBWRA committee, as an agent which might be considered to handle the Right to Manage process, but there are also other good options which have not been given fair consideration in my opinion. What I am against is the lack of a fair and transparent selection and consultation process. The lack of fair process has left us open to challenges by Rendall and Rittner who pointed out yesterday (30.5.23) in an email to residents that the CBWRA selection/consultation process was weak, not evidence-based and lacking in fairness. I am committed to Right to Manage and indeed have been campaigning for it for far longer anyone else living here. I have also had to fight a long battle to stop the CBWRA committee misinforming residents that Right to Manage was not possible. However, this feeble and undemocratic selection/consultation process by CBWRA may negatively influence the decision of Berkeley Homes or other freeholders about whether to contest the RTM application. CBWRA state that residents can contact them with any feedback on the proposed appointment of Urang up to 2nd June (info@cbwra.com). I urge residents to do that and to point out that this is not a genuine consultation and that residents have not been given a chance to make an informed judgement about the choice of managing agent to handle the Right to Manage application. This is a massive decision and will effect our service charge levels, the value of our properties and their saleability and our own happiness and well being in living here, potentially for years to come. So please do not let CBWRA railroad you, or rely on your inaction. Get involved, have your say, by 2nd June, and tell CBWRA what you think at info@cbwra.com. If you would like to discuss further with me please contact residents@chelseabridgewharf.org.uk