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Urang and The Right to Manage Company plan to spend upwards of £300,000 on ‘upgrades’ with no meaningful leaseholder consultation
On December 20th, Urang issued leaseholders a section 20 notice of intent as they are legally obliged to do when planning expenditure which is likely to amount to £250 per apartment or more. Urang have cynically chosen to issue the notice just before the Xmas/New Year period, clearly hoping that people will be too busy during this period to ask for more details or to object. Urang chose not to include the schedule of planned works or estimated cost as they could easily have done but instead force people to request this if they wish to see it (again hoping that most people will not bother). No evidence has been provided that these upgardes are necessary or that they are the preference of leaseholders – indeed such evidence as we have suggested that reducing the service charge is the priority. These ”upgrades” have been identified, at least in part, by Garton-Jones estate agents (according to Bella Metcalf of Urang). Leaseholders cannot see any record of these conversation nor of the meetings between Urang and the directors of the Right to Manage company.
Below is my reply to Urang’s section 20 notification.
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Dear Urang,
In reference to your email of 20th December 2025 notifying leaseholders that Urang and the CBW RTM co intend to spend huge (but unspecified ) sums of our service charge funds on
Carpet replacement throughout the property. (Ref: 1000588)
It is sad to see that once again you are playing games and insulting the intelligence of residents.
Firstly there is no evidence at all that this program of upgrades is either necessary or a resident priority. There have been 2 meetings with residents since you took over (excluding the 9 minute AGM) and it was clear from both of those that residents’ priorities were to keep service charges down. 74% identified that as their priority at the meeting in July.
You have not in fact consulted meaningfully with residents on what their priorities are. Following the heavy criticism which Urang received from residents about lack of consultation, you hurriedly carried out a “residents’ survey” in October which was amateurish, biased towards Urang, ridiculously long, and for which you did not use any reminders (and hence will have a very low response rate). You have refused to publish the results of this survey or to give any indication of the results to residents. Likewise, you refuse to use the results from your idiotic “staff survey”. Why?
That is a rhetorical questions because I think we all know why you refuse to share the findings – because they do not support the programme of upgrades which you and the RTM company have been pushing from long before you arrived. We know who has been consulted on this ‘upgrades agenda’ , though: Garton-Jones (specifically Chris Garston) – because Bella Metcalf accidentally told us at the last residents’ meeting that Garton-Jones had been instrumental in identifying which aspects should be ‘upgraded’ (although, strangely this does not appear in the meeting notes). So the programme of upgrades reflects the priorities of buy to let landlords, upgrades to (supposedly) push up property values and rents. The ‘upgrades agenda’ (or what should perhaps be called the ‘estate agents agenda’) does not reflect the priorities of residents, who were also not consulted on the capital expenditure programme which underlies the ‘upgrades agenda’. At both of the meetings which have been held with residents since Urang took over at Chelsea Bridge Wharf it is quite clear that the priority of residents is the reduction of service charge and to have proper accountability and elections for the directors. Clearly you have failed with regard to holding fair elections as I have documented.
You are serving us with the section 20 notice about the huge amounts of money you are planning to spend only because you are legally obliged to do so (because the cost will be at least 250 pounds per apartment or more). Yet you have not actually told us what the approximate amounts will be per block or apartment. If we assume the minimum amount for a section 20 consultation that means we are talking about expenditure of at least £287,500 ( 250 x 1150 flats). I suspect the sum involved will in fact be much more than that. It would have been very easy to include an estimate of the expenditure and a schedule of the works but you chose not to do that. Why? Instead you state that people can get this information by letter or email request – again you obviously hope that most leaseholders will not make that request or will not realise that they are entitled to make such a request.
And even with the section 20 consultation you are once again playing games by trying to use the Christmas period as part of the consultation period for the section 20 notice (i..e many of the 30 days consultation period will happen over Xmas and New Year) and you are of course well aware that people will be otherwise engaged during this period with the usual festive activities, thus minimising the chance of anybody having time to read or think about your proposal to spend huge sums of leaseholders’ money or object to them
I am hereby requesting a schedule of the planned works and estimated costs so please send me that schedule of works as soon as possible.
So much for your ‘new era of transparency’ and ‘leaseholders being at the centre of decision-making’ (both claims that you have repeatedly and implausibly made since you took over).
Again I ask you where are the service charge accounts for Warwick Building, which are now almost 4 months late?
Why can we not see the contract with Urang? Why can we not see the notes of weekly meetings between the directors and Urang? Why can we not see notes of the weekly meetings between Chris Garton/Garton-Jones estate agents and Urang/The RTM company? I note that the planned works include improvements to the area around the Garton-Jones office (” Refurbishment of main entrance by Garto- Jones to create more distinction between public and private property”).
I consider Urang are conducting themselves in a way which makes it impossible for any leaseholder to have confidence or trust in them or the Chelsea Bridge Wharf Right to Manage Company
Mike O’Driscoll
***This is Urang’s email , which I am replying to ****
On Sat, 20 Dec 2025 at 03:15, Chelsea Bridge Wharf <chelseabridgewharf@urang.co.uk> wrote:
Dear Leaseholder,
Please find enclosed a Notice of Intent issued under Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 in relation to proposed works at Chelsea Bridge Wharf.
The notice sets out the scope of the works, how further information can be inspected or requested, and how to submit observations or contractor nominations within the consultation period.
If you have any questions after reviewing the enclosed notice, please contact us using the details provided.