The boss of a maintenance company responsible for a new-build housing estate told a resident to “get a life” when she complained about the firm’s poor service.
Resident freeholders living on Redrow’s Cwm Calon estate in Ystrad Mynach have to pay around £10 a month for the estate’s upkeep, such as maintenance to the roads and grass cutting communal areas.
Resident Janine Jones challenged Residential Management Company (RMC) Meadfleet and Redrow about the poor quality of maintenance on the estate.
Between March last year and January, in a series of 30 emails, she complained about shoddy grass cutting and minimal upkeep of communal areas.
At one stage, Mrs Jones received an email from Paul Millar, the Managing Director of Meadfleet, which simply stated, “might I respectfully suggest that you get a life”.
Redrow later apologised on Mr Miller’s behalf but also acknowledged that they were having difficulty arranging a resolution to the complaints against Meadfleet.
Mrs Jones also found that, in spite of having director representation on the RMC, Redrow failed to respond to her on several occasions, even after she involved her solicitor.
The monthly charge is written into freeholders’ deed of covenant.
If the prospective freeholder does not accept this covenant, they would be unable to purchase the property. If, after purchase, they refuse to pay the rent charge due to, for example, substandard or lack of service by the property management company, they would be open to civil action and it would be very difficult to sell the property.
It is an area, according to Caerphilly Assembly Member Hefin David, that is largely unregulated and he is pressing the Welsh Government for action in the sector.
He said: “I am convinced that this is not an isolated case. A range of AMs from my party and others have told me of similar incidents in their constituencies and regions.
“The fundamental issue is the lack of regulation of property and estate management companies and the powerlessness of freeholders to find redress when things aren’t right.
“This will become a bigger and bigger issue as new estates are built to meet the housing shortage.
“In addition to all of this, rent charges can be raised by property management companies with no consultation and minimal explanation. The government needs to act.”
Mrs Jones said that dealing with both Meadfleet and Redrow had been “a long, tortuous and circular process”.
She added: “The unacceptable email from Mr Millar demonstrates how much power these property management companies have.
“They just don’t care about residents and there are no consequences for poor service. We just can’t challenge them.”
Surely when the estate is completed the roads would be adopted by the local authority and they wiuld be resoonsible for the maintenance ,and the same regardjng the grassed areas ?
Perhaps the cleaning of the roads?
I can imagine other areas would be adopted by a scheme quite easily.
That’s the first thought that struck me, John. I can only assume that all the public areas of this estate are unadopted. The residents presumably pay the same council tax as everyone else so their first move should be to get together and persuade the local authority to adopt.
They still may not get the service they want but at least would save £120 per year/
I certainly would want a reduction in my council tax if the roads and grassed areas aren’t adoptedby the council.
I would be really unhappy about paying a £10 levy and council tax for services I am not getting.
Also is this a ploy by the local authority to reduce their costs by not adopting these areas ? – if they are not adopted then the council have no liability to maintain and consequently no costs to bear !
That is essentially correct John. I once was involved with an unadopted street in Newbury, Berkshire. The houses had been built in the 1950’s and by the late 1980’s the entire surface needed replacing. The cost was paid by residents as the local authority had no legal responsibility.
£10 a month for some Charlie to cut the grass now and again and council tax to pay – bit of a raw deal isn’t it.
See my reply to Richard
This could be solved by a dose of local Direct Democracy. Fair enough the road upkeep should be forced onto the council via a mandatory adoption process following completion of construction of any sub-division development. However for communities, such as this one, with communal landscaping, playgrounds etc. there should be a Residents Association with an elected board to select the contractors and set the rate of the monthly levy. This model worked very well in places I lived.