Elections for Directors at Chelsea Bridge Wharf – Candidate still silenced, no dates, no procedure and the contract with Urang remains secret.

Can you have fair elections when one of the likely candidates has been deliberately silenced by the others? Where there is no opportunity for candidates to debate the issues that matter? Where there is a culture of fear which makes many leaseholders silent? Where leaseholders are still not allowed to see the contract with the new managing agent (Urang) who were appointed in a highly undemocratic way and yet who will apparently run the elections?

The Chelsea Bridge Wharf Residents’ Association announced on 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, with Urang as the new agent. However we still have no dates or procedure for these elections and we have not seen Urang’s recommendations on how they might make savings on the service charge as mentioned in the CBWRA committee meeting notes in February or what other changes they propose to make in how things are run.

Nor has there been any response to my letter of 27th January 2025 to CBWRA asking if the electoral manipulation of the past would be repeated or the complaint I submitted about the lack of response.

It seems Larisa Villar Hauser is already talking down the possibility of any reduction in the service charge, which to my mind is quite lame. What was the point of RTM if we cannot reduce the service charge? There is no shortage of ‘low hanging fruit’ which would allow that to happen, IMHO.

The announcement of elections for directors of the RTM 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 numerous occasions (especially around RTM) 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.

Personally I am grateful to Urang for managing the RTM process successfully and I am certainly not implying they have done anything wrong but we need to see the contract with them as a matter of urgency and before any new contract is signed (assuming it has not been already). There is absolutely no justification for this being kept secret and it adds to the lack of trust which many residents feel following the undemocratic way in which Urang were appointed (which was done by CBW RTM, and not the choice of Urang).

I think it is odd that Urang are conducting elections for Directors of the RTM company and I suspect the idea is to give the elections some semblance of independence from the RTM company and its current unelected directors. How much independence they have in reality is as yet unclear.

I can only hope that Urang do not intend to involve themselves in the dysfunctional culture of the past. Supporting those behaviours in CBWRA did not end well for Rendall and Rittner as it ultimately contributed to a complete loss of trust.

RTM at Chelsea Bridge Wharf is an opportunity to draw a line under the dysfunctional culture of CBWRA and I hope all involved will take that opportunity. Urang has been engaged by the Chelsea Bridge Wharf RTM but they should behave in a transparent and ethical way in the interests of all leaseholders and residents, regardless of who is calling the shots, and I hope that they will.