Category Archive: Right to Manage

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CBWRA announce results of fountains ‘consultation’ as not showing support for new pumps and then immediately contradict themselves

CBWRA announced the results of the ‘fountains consultation’ on 5th September, They state

”A total of 253 leaseholders completed the survey. Of these:

130 voted in favour of submersible pumps
18 voted to turn the fountains back on without changing the pumps
105 voted to leave the fountains out of operation until such a time as they could be replaced.”

very bizarrely CBWRA decided not to give percentages for the results so I am happy to help them out

130 (51.4%) voted in favour of submersible pumps
18 (7.1%) voted to turn the fountains back on without changing the pumps
105 (41.5%) voted to leave the fountains out of operation until such a time as they could be replaced.”

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£450 a night Airbnb in Howard Building – apparently CBWRA and Rendall and Rittner have only just noticed it

It has been reported to the author of this blog that a property in Howard building has been used as an Airbnb for at least two years and possibly longer. The property is listed here:

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/6683135

The property, which goes for upwards of £450 a night, was apparently purchased in 2015 for £1,025,000 and is currently valued at up to £1,022,000 (according to themovemarket.com).).

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Tower Development (Vauxhall, London) : another victim of massive service charge increases under Rendall and Rittner

By Scott Johnson, Associates Times Feb. 2023https://associatestimes.com/outrage-erupts-as-randall-and-rittner-service-charges-double-at-the-tower/amp/ London: Residents of The Tower, a luxury apartment building in London managed by Rendall and Rittner, are up in arms as the property management company announced… Continue reading →

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CCTV installed in foyers – the latest in a long line of poor CBWRA decisions made without notice, information or resident consultation

Sadly this is what we can expect going forward from the existing Chairs and committee – they have been explicit that they do not wish to consult with residents because there is ‘low engagement’. This is an astonishingly ignorant and self serving ‘take’ because they are causing ‘low engagement’ by failing to consult with residents, hold meetings with them etc. Personally I find it terrifying that if Right to Manage succeeds, this tiny group of unelected / unfairly elected people will have full control over millions of pounds of service charge money and will continue to make decisions which deeply effect our lives, without consulting residents. Nor will it be possible to vote them out given that the election for Chair are self evidently unfair and the committee are not elected at all.

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CBWRA’s meaningless selection and consultation process for a managing agent is challenged by residents and Rendall and Rittner

A number of residents had an online meting with Urang on 30th May. Urang have been ‘recommended’ by CBWRA following a very superficial ‘selection’ process which did not appear to involve any formal scoring of bids from managing agents. Residents were provided with very sparse information on the other bidders and a ‘deeper look’ was only provided for Urang and residents only get to meet with Urang. So it was not and is not a genuine consultation.

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Chelsea Bridge Wharf Residents’ Association has chosen a managing agent for Right to Manage application – your view does not matter.

CBWRA announced today that they are ‘recommending” Urang as the managing agent to handle the Right to Manage application for Chelsea Bridge Wharf. Except that it is not really recommending – the decision has been made. Residents are offered the opportunity to meet with Urang online on 30th May – but none of the other companies have been invited! Residents have been provided with some incredibly weak and superficial ‘analysis’ document, supposedly the basis on which Urang are recommended but detailed examination is only provided for Urang and not the other bidders. So this is not a consultation, it is in true CBWRA style, a decision made without resident consultation and then they insult our intelligence by asking for feedback after the decision. If such a consultation were carried out in any private or public organization it would be dismissed as heavily biased, or in plain language, a token consultation on a done deal. This is pretty pathetic given that millions of pounds of service charge are involved here (I believe Rendall and Rittners’ overall revenue, i.e. the total service charge collected, is in the region of £3 million a year at Chelsea Bridge Wharf) and that 2.5 years have been wasted by CBWRA telling us that Right to manage is not possible. So this is the biggest decision that a residents’ association can make and rather than doing it in an open and inclusive way, the decision has pretty much made already by a small cabal of mostly unelected people. ‘Consultation’ is happening AFTER their decision has been made.

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The CBWRA Annual General Meeting April 2023.

*CBWRA plans to spend huge sums on new fountains *no meaningful response on massive service charge increases * CCTV installed in block foyers with no consultation *no action on management audit

In summary, dear CBWRA, thank you for the work that (some) of the committee are doing, but could I respectfully suggest that you please stop trying to blow smoke up the residents’ rear ends and start behaving like a normal democratic residents’ association, then we might actually get somewhere as a community of engaged residents. Even the CBWRA home page is not being straight with us – ‘a board of elected residents’?. No one on the committee is elected apart from the co-Chairs and there are many aspects of that which are questionable to say the least.

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Warwick Building Service Charges increase by 40% (yes, fourty)! CBWRA announces no action to be taken on audit or in challenging electricity costs

The latest service charge demands from Rendall and Rittner show that service charges will increase by 40% for the year commencing 1 April 2023. My service charge has increased from £ 247.71 to £347.05… Continue reading →

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A very strange letter from CBWRA and what it really means

What CBWRA’s letter should have said in my view is ”we are being derecognised because we outsourced our membership management/ fee taking to Rendall and Rittner , rather than run our own membership databases, and Rendall and Rittner then withdrew that service (according to CBWRA) when they heard that Right to manage might start and we now have no way to prove we have 50% leaseholder membership”.

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Berkeley Homes contradict CBWRA claim that management contract retendering has been decided and also state that CBWRA recognition to be withdrawn

Berkeley Homes today confirm they have given CBWRA notice that their recognition will be withdrawn. The reason is not (as CBWRA have been desperately trying to say) anything to do with me –… Continue reading →