Elections will be held for Directors of the Chelsea Bridge Wharf Right to Manage Company – but will they be Fair and Free?

The Chelsea Bridge Wharf Residents Association announced today (28th Feb 2025) that they will hold elections for Directors of the Chelsea Bridge Wharf Right to Manage Company, which will take over running of Chelsea Bridge Wharf on 25th May.

This follows long  campaigning and a petition by myself and others and forcing the discussion onto the agenda via this blog and social media and the probability of national media coverage regarding the ‘situation’ at Chelsea Bridge Wharf.

It also follows Leasehold Knowledge Partnership ”recommending” that elections be held (and that followed a discussion that I had with LKP about their very one sided and selective account of events and the story of the RTM process at Chelsea Bridge Wharf  (see my comments at the  end of their article), the opposition to Right to Manage over several years from the current  directors (which only ended when I published independent advice showing their position was wrong), serious online and offline bullying over a long period, arbitrary closure of CBW app accounts, misinformation to residents by CBWRA on countless occasions and a culture of fear and the lack of elections, consultation and transparency from CBWRA/ the RTM company).

Only a few months ago (November 2024) Larisa Villar Hauser and Louis Sebastian Kendal stated categorically there would be no elections for directors which was an absolutely outrageous position which would mean that leaseholders had no way to hold these people accountable regardless of their performance or behaviour.

So elections for directors of the RTM are welcome and a positive step – provided, of course, that they are run fairly. Larisa Villar Hauser and Louis  Sebastian Kendall have still not addressed  my questions to them, over a month ago, asking them whether they intend to hold fair elections or to repeat  the highly manipulated electoral processes of the past (2023 and 2024)  which have led to a complete loss of legitimacy for CBWRA, declining membership, disengaged and fearful residents and a very minimal bank balance.

The decision, without consultation, to close the residents’ association (CBWRA) is predictable but regrettable and typical of the continuing autocratic behaviour which needs to change. Closing the residents’ association (rather than trying to rebuild it) shows contempt for non-leaseholders and means that a huge proportion of people living at CBW have no representation in effect as they are not members of the RTM company and if they are not leaseholders they will not be able to join.

Still it is progress and adds to a long list of things that I have had to campaign for and which are initially bitterly resisted by CBWRA (e.g. Right to Manage) and then some time later come to pass anyway because they are in fact the sensible and inevitable way forward. I see the email from CBWRA also makes various promises on consultation with residents (again something I have long campaigned for) and refers to quarterly meetings with Urang (which are only happening because of a motion I pushed through at an AGM in 2023). Pretty much everything that is said in this email today is a response to campaigns led by me, supported by other residents, and yet CBWRA cannot bring themselves to mention my name or to apologise for their appalling behaviour to me over a long period of time and the wholly unjustified closure of my CBW app account. If you understand how deeply cynical these people are, as I do, then it is easy to see the game – they have been forced into elections, and now pretend they supported my demands all along so that (they hope) I have no manifesto to campaign on. I think they will be disappointed in that hope. Still, as long as we get the change we need, that’s fine but I invite residents to reflect on why Larisa Villar Hauser, Louis Sebastian Kendall and the other Directors have had this sudden 180 turn to the causes of democracy and consultation and whether it is real or simply an unconvincing act for the purposes of the elections.

I call on Larisa Villar Hauser and Louis Sebastian Kendall to ensure that the elections are conducted fairly and by an independent body (not LKP) and I urge residents to ask questions of the existing RTM Directors (and anyone else who wishes to become a director) about why they cannot see the contract with Urang, what undertaking directors will they give to consult residents regularly, and will they undertake to allow leaseholders to decide on any major change of management? Will they undertake to remove directors who engage in bullying or alleged criminal behaviour? Will they undertake to hold regular meetings of the RTM company and an AGM?  Will they undertake to hold annual elections for directors? It is also obviously the case that there cannot be fair elections while certain people  are banned from the CBW app which in my case was done simply because I pointed out that RTM was the way forward and that CBWRA were misinforming residents in saying that it was not possible.  

To leaseholders I would say – when the time comes, please take part in the elections for Directors of the CBW Right to Manage Company and use your vote wisely. You may or may not get another chance to have your say. After 25th May, the RTM company will have almost complete control over how your service charge money is spent, and the right to hire or fire the managing agent. Right to Manage will only make things better if leaseholders are able to choose people they can trust and who share their ideas about how CBW should be run, to be directors, and if leaseholders play a meaningful role in all big decisions.