Rendall and Rittner replaced at Battersea Reach
Rendall and Rittner have been replaced as managing agent at Battersea Reach, London SW11 as a letter to residents from the freeholder announced on 23rd February. Rendall and Rittner have been at Battersea Reach for 11 years, around the same period they have been at Chelsea Bridge Wharf. This replacement was achieved through a management contract retender (not Right to Manage). This is in effect a voluntary agreement by the freeholder (under pressure from residents) to change the managing agent. Unlike Right to Manage, with a retender of the management contract, the freeholder (Berkeley /St George), remains in control – the new agent (JFM) answers to them and can only be replaced if the freeholder wishes to do that. Hopefully that will not be necessary and I wish everyone there the best of luck. I know that many residents at Battersea Reach have been deeply unhappy with Rendall and Rittner over a long period and the service charge levels there are considerably higher than Chelsea Bridge Wharf (and ours are bad enough) without any obvious reason. Many residents, inside and outside BROA have worked hard to raise awareness amongst residents and organise support for change. It is rumoured (and I do not have verification on this and have not seen any supporting documentation) that there are some legal action/s against Rendall and Rittner from Battersea Reach but I am happy to be corrected on that.
I hope that all Rendall and Rittner staff who want to stay on will be able to do so under TUPE and are treated fairly and with respect. As ever it is not the front line staff who are usually the problem but much more to do with the corporate culture and the Directors of Rendall and Rittner in my opinion. Residents at countless Rendall and Rittner managed developments who I have spoken to complain of high service charges, lack of transparency/comprehensibility in accounts and billing, poor upkeep of the development, very poor communications, lack of consultation and unwarranted interference in residents’ associations. That is why nearly 5,000 residents at Rendall and Rittner developments have signed my petition. If you haven’t yet – please do!
Update: The replacement of Rendall and Rittner was stalled at the last moment when one freeholder (Fairhold) decided to retain Rendall and Rittner, despite the vast majority (from St George/Berkeley Homes owned blocks) wanting Rendall and Rittner to be replaced with another agent (JFM). Residents do not want to accept a situation where there would be two managing agents which would potentially increase costs and complexity, so the installation of JFM has been postponed and Rendall and Rittner continue as agents…for now.
Statement from BATTERSEA REACH OWNERS’ ASSOCIATION below (dated 29.5.24).
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BATTERSEA REACH OWNERS’ ASSOCIATION
IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ALL BATTERSEA REACH LEASEHOLDERS & SHARED OWNERS ABOUT OUR NEW MANAGING AGENT
Today, with just three days to go before the scheduled handover of managing agent (MA) duties to JFM, we were informed that the owner of the head lease of Baltimore, Commodore and Kingfisher Houses (Fairhold Athena) has refused to appoint JFM and has decided to remain with Rendall & Rittner as the MA of those three blocks.
This would mean that the other 14 blocks and the estate (open areas) and car park would be managed by JFM. This is totally unacceptable.
The MA review process was predicated on replacing Rendall & Rittner because of its failure to provide Battersea Reach with the standard of service our leaseholders expect. The majority of leaseholders expressed the view that R&R needed to be replaced.
St George was responsible for facilitating the review and ultimately, in consultation with BROA, appointed JFM as the new MA. This was all done with the clear understanding that the new MA would be appointed for the whole development. It has now just been revealed to BROA that Fairhold Athena wishes to act independently and retain Rendall & Rittner.
In BROA’s view this is both unworkable, contrary to what was agreed and not in the best interests of leaseholders. The higher cost and confusion of two MAs sharing responsibility for the effective and efficient management of the entire development are just two of the deep concerns we have.
Accordingly, we inform you that we have agreed and recorded with St George:
- BROA does not and will not accept the decision to limit JFM’s appointment as MA to the blocks that do not fall under Fairhold Athena’s jurisdiction.
BROA Box, Estate Office, Juniper Drive, London SW18 1GJ batterseareachowners@gmail.com - The fact that Rendall & Rittner remains as MA of the three Fairhold Athena blocks is unacceptable and runs contrary to the decision taken with St George, following the extensive and thorough review process led and agreed by BROA in consultation with St George.
- The manner in which this decision has been reached is unacceptable to BROA and the lack of consultation and poor communication is equally unacceptable.
- No handover of MA responsibility from Rendall & Rittner to JFM will proceed until further notice. The process will be suspended, and no agreement will be signed until the matter is resolved to the satisfaction of BROA.
- BROA will not accept the appointment of JFM unless it is across all blocks comprising the entire Battersea Reach development.
- Rendall & Rittner will continue as MA during the interim to ensure critical continuity of management.
Leaseholders and shared owners will be aware of a meeting scheduled for 12 June 2024 at 18:00. This meeting had been intended to introduce JFM. Obviously, that is not possible; but the meeting will proceed anyway so as to facilitate a discussion amongst leaseholders as to preferred next steps. Please make every effort to attend and have your voice heard. Tickets for the meeting are available at http://www.batterseareachowners.org
29 May 2024
I could not agree more with what you have said about the front line staff and the senior management at Rendall & Rittner. In my opinion, the front line staff suffer as much as the leaseholders from the shocking decisions of the Rendall & Rittner senior management.
The principle is as follows: The senior management of Rendall & Rittner drives an agressive policy to increase the service charges well beyond any amount that can be justified, and they do so in their own interest, since they benefit in different ways from this situation. This is exemplified by the invention of several recently established revenue streams that are designed to move money from the leaseholders into the pockets of Rendall & Rittner. These new streams are hidden in the budgets (even in not appropriate headings) and only visible to those who really look carefully at the excel spreadsheets and invoices that Rendall & Rittner only typically provides outside of the set timescales specified by law. As a consequence, leaseholders get frustrated with exploding service charge budgets, and the chief recipients of their anger are the front line staff. They in turn are left alone by Rendall & Rittner with this appalling situation despite Rendall & Rittner making big claims on their website that they care for their employees. If you are an Rendall & Rittner-managed leaseholder, try to find out by speaking to the local staff at your development, and have empathy – many of them will do their best. Even worse for the local staff, Rendall & Rittner’s strategy has been to exploit staff that is on the payroll of Rendall & Rittner (such as the property managers) by giving them multiple properties and a workload that is just too much. As a consequence, the property managers do not manage to reply to emails properly, since they have too much to do, and also since there are much more emails due to the increase in the service charges. This also increases the anger of leaseholders with the chief recipients again local staff.
It looks like a vicious circle that is not sustainable unless Rendall & Rittner managers understand what is going on, but in my experience, the typical Rendall & Rittner senior manager or director feels so proud about their “achievements”, and they will probably not realise what goes wrong before it is too late. This is evolution. The fittest will survive, and the fittest here may mean those who apply standards that are acceptable by all involved. Let us hope for a better leaseholder future. Chelsea Bridge Wharf and Battersea Reach have demonstrated that it is possible. We all just have to follow.
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Great analysis – spot on. R and R staff are often overworked and underpaid and hence high burnout and turnover. The cost of that is borne by the staff in terms of health and wellbeing but financially by us the leaseholders – we have to pay for the recruitment of new staff and it’s a huge cost – can be several thousand pounds per vacancy. This is sometimes ‘gamed’ as well in ways which I will not go into here but which you are probably aware of.
The view that staff are exploited by R and R is borne out by my personal experience at CBW and what residents at many other developments have told me.
Also this
https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/Rendall-and-Rittner-Reviews-E817349.htm
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Great review Michael. We are having the very same issues at Masshouse HIVE in Birmingham.
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Thanks for the feedback Gary and sorry to hear that. Happy to have a chat /zoom to exchange notes?
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spot on the front line staff in Battersea reach has been blamed by leaseholders or residents most of the time because of silly policy coming from the property manager plus interventions coming from the Residents Association that’s makes the front line staff getting more work loads, underpaid overtime,under staff,doggy contractors hire keep coming back for the same work in less than 3 months costing them money from their budget,costly repairs which you check carefully it can be done by the maintenance but ask a expensive contractors to do it…The front line staff is hesitant to talk because of Data Protection and privacy.they losing good workers because of incompetence of the management.
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Sorry to hear that – it is actually very common at Rendall and Rittner developments – the front line staff are working hard (or most of them) but undermined sometimes by poor managers and in some cases there are serious question marks (ahem!) about why certain contractors are used and proper tendering processes sometimes bypassed it would seem
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