CBWRA refuses to allow committee or residents to see the contract with Urang – Is there something to hide?

I proposed this motion for the CBWRA AGM –

”The contract which CBW RTM signed with Urang (managing agents) in September 2023 approx, for preparing the RTM application, and becoming managing agent if the RTM application is successful, should be made available to leaseholders on request”

CBWRA have refused to accept it because the ”motion relates to the RTM Company and not to the RA which is bound by different terms and liabilities. As such, we will not put this motion forward to the AGM”. This is total nonsense of course and they have also refused to accept at least one other motion on this pathetic excuse. CBWRA have also refused to publish motions for the AGM on the CBW app.

This is the context for my motion:

The contract with Urang to prepare the Right to Manage application for Chelsea Bridge Wharf, and to take over as managing agent if the application is successful, was not approved by the CBWRA committee (according to CBWRA committee meeting notes 24.9.23) and has not been seen or approved by residents. The contract was apparently only seen by the ‘co chairs’ and a ‘solicitor’?.

Residents should be able to see the details of this contract which have massive implications for the future of CBW in terms of management fees, service charges, notice period for Urang and the general terms and conditions, clauses etc. 

It also seems that the contract was signed for a 2 year period which is highly unusual (contracts with managing agents are usually for less than a year).

If RTM goes through, the contract MAY be seen as a ‘qualifying long term agreement’ which would require a section 20 consultation with residents.

In any case, there is no justification for keeping this contract private not just from leaseholders but apparently from the CBWRA committee. It is unjustifiable that leaseholders cannot see and did not approve the contract which will be so important in shaping the future of CBW

This desperation to prevent not only residents, but the CBWRA committee from seeing this contract must inevitably lead residents to wonder -is there something which the CBWRA Co-chairs (Larisa Villar Hauser and Louis Sebastian Kendall) trying to hide? It also leads to the related question of ”who on earth do they think they are”? 91% of leaseholders did not or could not vote in Chair elections and none of the Directors of the RTM company are elected. Yet they think they have the right to sign this vital contract without committee or residents seeing or approving it.

It’s also clear that this feeble excuse of ‘It’s RTM business so we can’t discuss it” will increasingly be used to refuse perfectly reasonable request from residents for information. The CBWRA co-chairs have zero legitimacy in my view and are in power simply because they control the CBW app. In my view Right to manage will be a disaster in the hands of this tiny group of people who seem to be determined to exclude residents from decision-making.