Floorweald Limited and ABC Estates overcharged leaseholders £27,000, according to the Bristol Live web yesterday.
Leaseholders at Grantham Apartments in Two Mile Hill won the tribunal ruling last week over a section 20 major works bill.
Leaseholders claimed their management fees had also gone up from £50 to £178 a month, according to the website.
Of the £73,799 demanded the tribunal said £27,100 should not be paid.
The tribunal also disallowed £4,100 demanded to insure the building.
The 14 leaseholders were represented by Christine Crowe.
“Before the hearing we showed the tribunal members around the apartments so they got to see for themselves what did and did not need doing, and the fact they knocked £27k off the figure shows it was too much,” she told the website.
The case was the second property tribunal hearing, after one in May 2017 which found that the leaseholders were overcharged in service charges.
https://decisions.lease-advice.org//app/uploads/decisions/act85/12001-13000/12339.pdf
Bristol tenants take London property giants to court over ‘skyrocketing’ fees
People living in a Kingswood apartment block have taken the building’s owners and managers to court over “skyrocketing” and “extortionate” management fees. Residents of Grantham Apartments in Two Mile Hill claim the amount they pay per month to management company ABC Estates for general works and repairs has more than doubled in the past few years.
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ABC Estates are members of NAEA ,ARLA. IRPM and ARMA
I wonder what action these organisations will be taking against their member.
The CEO of ARMA reckons that leaseholders are apathic but obviously not in this case. Well done to them.
Will ARMA take firm action (eg dismissal) or will it be an apathetic slap on the wrist.
Thanks for this. A good point for the headline (now amended).
The leaseholders should certainly complain about ABC Estates to ARMA: what remains of its tattered regulatory regime should deal with disgraces like this one.
Not sure that the leaseholders are able to do this.
The ARMA website says that being a Trade Association they are unable to consider complaints against their members.
And I doubt that the guilty verdict in Bristol will hold much sway.
The OFT /Peverel guilty verdict meant nothing when they accepted FP.
The relevant MP in Bristol – Chris Skidmore? – should send a demand to the Companies Commissioner to disqualify the directors of Foorweald Ltd and ABC estates from serving as Director of any company for next 5 years..
I have just read the 2017 Tribunal decision report that is linked to this LKP article and it seems that ABC Estates and Floorweald Ltd are repeat offenders. The LKP article refers to a 2018 Tribunal hearing and findings that the leaseholders were overcharged by 27K.
At the 2017 Tribunal concerning the same building, it was determined that the leaseholders had been overcharged c.20K. The 2017 Tribunal report states that some of the charges made to the leaseholders were ‘unlawful’ and at one point in the Tribunal report, it suggests that the Landlord (Floorweald Ltd) was effectively borrowing money from the leaseholders! ABC Estates made charges for ‘reserve funds’ and ‘contingencies’ when the lease did not allow for these heads of expenditure and they charged the leaseholders BT re-connection fees when it was their own tardiness in paying the bill that got the service cut off in the first place.
So ABC Estates are IRPM, NAEA and ARMA members, are they? You would think that they would be able to read and interpret a lease then, wouldn’t you?
Have you found the judgement in this case?
It would be great if someone had leaseholder Christine Crowe get in touch and we could raise this issue with MPs.
It should be kicked out of ARMA, or brought to Communities Secretary Sajid Javid that this nonsense about “ARMA good guys” needs to stop.
I was referring to the 2017 judgement report that was linked to the LKP article above. For those that are interested in reading it in full – cut and paste the following into your browser:
https://decisions.lease-advice.org//app/uploads/decisions/act85/12001-13000/12339.pdf
It is a weighty, 35 page tome that reads like ‘Blackadder does block management’. You would not think for a nano-second that it related to the business practices of one of Sajid Javid’s ‘good guys’, more like the ‘cowboys’ that he counter-pointed them with at that infamous ARMA conference.
I sincerely hope that LKP puts the full weight of its support behind this group of plucky leaseholders.. My instincts tell me that there are perhaps more abuses to be uncovered by the pairing that is Floorweald Ltd and ABC Estates …
We are trying to contact the leaseholders so that the issue can be raised by her MP, our patron MPs, the Secretary of State and ARMA, to suggest discontinued membership.