CBWRA and Rendall and Rittner – so much in common?
It’s very hard to imagine how a group of people with with so little apparent respect for governance or professionalism of any kind could possibly hold Rendall and Rittner (or Urang) to account
How can you criticise managing agents for lack of transparency and yet be completely opaque in the way you deal with leaseholders?
In fact CBWRA and Rendall and Rittner have so much in common in their organisational culture apart from a lack of transparency
- avoid meetings with residents wherever possible
- do not produce notes from meetings or produce massively biased notes
- do not publish proper accounts (Rendall and Rittner do publish account for their own business of course but those which related to the management of service charge funds are often late and not at all clear)
- do not consult residents on important decisions which involve spending their money
- frequently have long and unexplained delays in their projects
- make poor financial decisions
- try to exclude or silence those who are critical of them
And of course CBWRA did try to stop the petition against Rendall and Rittner, after an ”intervention” by Rendall and Rittner director Richard Daver. Happily they did not succeed and the petition now has nearly 5,500 signatures.
But surely even Rendall and Rittner would not tolerate a member of staff who had been the subject of 4 police complaints and had narrowly avoided being charged with common assault against a CBW resident when the process timed out due to police error? A person with a history of making false claims against myself and others and saying things that are err.. somewhat less than factual.. (including the claim for 2+ years that Right to Manage was not possible at Chelsea Bridge Wharf – see this blog for a fairly long and well evidenced list of other examples). It seems CBWRA Co-chairs are perfectly prepared to tolerate and indeed support having such a person as a director of CBWRA RTM company and a committee member. In fact they have so much confidence in him that they put him in charge of running the CBWRA Chair elections. It is not credible to demand higher standards from a managing agent than CBWRA is itself able or willing to deliver. This makes the current ‘leaders’ of CBWRA wholly unsuitable to run a residents’ association let alone a right to manage company.
There may be “ something to hide”. You need to get rid of the directors. They are duty bound to provide you with a copy of the contract. I am a longtime campaigner for leaseholders rights and the strict regulation of Managing Agents. Who recommended URANG and why? Democratically unelected directors cannot appoint an agent on behalf of the block. I would doubt that the contract with URANG was legally valid. You have a good case to put before Tribunal. I have seen many RTM blocks go bad due to this type of behaviour . It’s time to put an end to it and quickly. You say one of the directors has allegedly been investigated by the police? Let them explain there actions at any Tribunal hearing…Congrats on getting RTM but if the block allows the unelected directors to continue to behave without regard to statutory legislation then You will have a nightmare on your hands. Pay £110 and make an Application to Tribunal.Get as many leaseholders as you can onside.
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Thanks for your reply, I will message you privately to discuss further. But some key points
i) The Chelsea Bridge Wharf RTM company has not taken over yet – but it is imminent
ii) There is no legal requirement (sadly) for directors to be elected, nor even to hold an AGM. That is my understanding anyway. I don’t think there is any legal right to see the contract with managing agent either but if have other information will be interested to hear
iii) Re URANG – I actually introduced them to CBWRA (LKP claim they did this for some reason but I have the relevant emails on file). They agreed to handle the RTM process in return for being appointed if it was successful. I am well aware that they have very poor feedback but there are not any agents which do get positive feedback and I did so ‘due diligence’ on them and had a long conversation with the CEO.
The contract was for the RTM process, they have not yet been appointed as new agent (Rendall and Rittner are not gone yet).
So there will need to be a new contract (to appoint Urang as agent) but I doubt the cabal of Directors will allow leaseholders to see that either. There may be ‘too many opinions’ as they laughably put it.
Happy to discuss the other aspects with you in a zoom/call if you are willing and will be in touch
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