Leasehold Advisory Service to Bottomley: two more weeks to investigate Benjamin Mire

The Leasehold Advisory Service has told Sir Peter Bottomley that it will need another two weeks to investigate complaints against controversial chartered surveyor Benjamin Mire.

Mire, the chief executive of Trust Property Management based in Colindale, in north London, resigned from his judicial appointment on the property tribunal last summer following an investigation into his conduct.

In November, the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office made clear that Mire would have been sacked.

Trust Property Management appears in the professional directory of the Leasehold Advisory Service because it pays the quango a fee, believed to be £519 including VAT. Leasehold owners Colin Dennard and another, nameless leaseholder have both complained to LEASE that Mire and Trust Property Management are included.

Leasehold owners may assume that the professional directory on the LEASE website is either a comprehensive list or, if selective, means the firms concerned are reputable.

Instead, it is a commercial transaction and yet another example of the corrosive commercial activities of LEASE, which was set up with taxpayers money to address the injustices home-owning leaseholders face.

The complaints concerning Mire and his company being included in the LEASE professional directory came from two leaseholders.

Before taking any action, LEASE insisted on passing to Mire the names of the complainants. This has infuriated anonymous leaseholder, who cannot understand why her name was passed to Mire by the quango.

She has indicated that had she still been a leaseholder in a block managed by Trust Property Management, this would have been an extremely serious matter.

She has demanded an explanation from LEASE of its complaints procedure.

In a letter to Sir Peter concerning the complaints regarding Mire and Trust Property Management – which have been involved in a slew of property tribunal cases –  Anthony Essien, CEO of LEASE, says

“Some issues have arisen that have resulted in the process taking longer than we would have hoped to have reached a resolution, but we expect to have completed the process within the next two weeks and will of course update you.”