Make Your Voice Heard :  Leaseholder meeting with Urang & unelected RTM Directors Mon. 15th Sep 6.30 pm – at Pestana or Online

Just a reminder to all leaseholders that there is a meeting with Urang and the unelected RTM company directors tomorrow, Mon. 15th Sep 6.30 pm – at Pestana or Online Despite RTM, you… Continue reading →

Government consultation on Leasehold Reform – Closes 26th September – please have your say – the freeholders certainly will!

The UK Government’s July 2025 Leasehold Reform Consultation claims to outline major changes to empower leaseholders and end outdated, unfair leasehold practices in England and Wales. Built on the foundation of the Leasehold… Continue reading →

Our Petition is Cited in Government Letter to Rendall and Rittner! Answers demanded by 11th July.

Following Rendall and Rittner’s appearance before MPs in May, which I attended as an observer, they have now been called on by the Housing, Communities and local Government Committee to answer some key questions… Continue reading →

Chelsea Bridge Wharf RTM director resigns – Still no answers from Urang on the fundamental questions at Chelsea Bridge Wharf

Urang and the RTM directors need to answer these questions: So much for Urang’s ‘new era of transparency’. If you would like to leave a review for Urang on Trustpilot (good or bad) the… 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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Domestic electricity prices to fall by up to 20% – but we are still stuck with crazy prices on the business electricity supply

Domestic electricity prices should fall by up to 20% from 1st July due to a fall in energy prices on the open market and the subsequent lowering of the government cap. Ofgem, the… Continue reading →

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CBWRA to proceed with Urang for RTM application – no meaningful consultation with residents and key aspects of resident feedback ignored

CBWRA informed those residents on their mailing list today (17.6.23) that they they are to engage Urang as managing agents for the RTM application at Chelsea Bridge Wharf. As reported here there has… Continue reading →

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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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Property management firms that rip off leaseholders could be banned under Labour

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/may/24/property-management-firms-that-rip-off-leaseholders-could-be-banned-under-labour (c) The Guardian Kiran Stacey Political correspondent Wed 24 May 2023 06.00 BS Property management companies would be banned from operating in England and Wales if they persistently ripped off leaseholders, under plans… Continue reading →

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How England’s flats turned into second-class housing

Leaseholds and cladding crisis help explain the stagnation in apartment prices JOHN BURN-MURDOCH Financial Times 18th May 2023 https://www.ft.com/content/df25ccc7-5dcf-446e-8a07-332ad5612f09 If Zoom, Peloton and pet shops were some of the unexpected winners of the… Continue reading →

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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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Rendall and Rittner – the failure of ‘bulk tendering’ of Electricity supply and 40%+ service charge increases

It appears that Rendall and Rittner’s electrical supply tendering strategy has failed.  Rendall and Rittner have tried to tender for electricity supply on a huge bulk scale at a time when energy companies were risk averse /energy prices were very volatile and thus there was almost no response to the tender. This has left us at the mercy of EDF (existing supplier) and a new contract was signed with them at a 333% increase. Had Rendall and Rittner negotiated for Chelsea Bridge Wharf on single development basis (and given that our freeholder has no credit rating issues)  it is likely we could have got a much better deal.

I am not convinced that Rendall and Rittner have behaved reasonably in this matter and I will be paying service charge under protest until further notice while I investigate further and obtain advice.

In the meanwhile I suggest a plan for the urgent reduction of electricity consumption in communal and external areas should be drawn up, in consultation with residents, and the fountains should be a central part of that.

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Leasehold/Commonhold reforms unlikely to happen before next general election – LKP exclusive interview with former leasehold and building safety minister Stephen Greenhalgh

The reforms which CBWRA maintained for 2 years were just around the corner are unlikely to materialise Throughout 2021 while on the CBWRA committee, attempts to discuss Right to Manage in committee meetings… Continue reading →