Guest blog by ' A Wembley Park Resident'.
The first residential block in Quintain’s rapidly
expanding Wembley Park empire, Forum House was a flagship development at the
time it opened back in 2009. Along with neighbouring Quadrant Court
which opened a year later, these developments were intended to establish
Wembley Park’s reputation for “destination living” at an affordable price.
These early developments were mixed tenure - with private
leaseholders and renters, shared owners and social renters all moving in to the
new blocks. But as Quintain rolling out new developments at a rate of knots,
some of which feature no properties at social rent, they appear to have taken
their eye off the ball when it comes to ensuring that their original residents
remain satisfied. Most of their efforts are going into marketing newer
luxury properties, and promoting their much-vaunted Tipi scheme, based on a
build-to-rent model.
Quintain implicitly acknowledged that the managing agents
they had originally contracted to oversee the developments were
under-performing when they took the contract away from LRM and awarded it to
rivals First Port. But the full scale of LRM’s failure only became clear
subsequently, after they left a vast deficit (thought to be just short of
£100,000) in the Forum House annual accounts for 2016-17. Despite already
high-levels of service charge, LRM had apparently failed to make any provision
for a sinking fund - necessary for prudent management of any estate - and had
consistently overspent despite failing to address recurring problems in
servicing the estate, including the regularly faulty boilers and pumps.
So who is to pay for the shortfall? LRM has
now pocketed its fees and the accounts have been signed off.
Quintain might yet to be entitled to query whether LRM delivered on
its contractual obligations, and potentially recover some of their cash.
But in the meantime, it’s been left to residents to cough-up for a
significant “balancing charge” running into hundreds of pounds each, whilst at
the same time being hit with major service charge increases from First Port
(using LRM’s questionable figures as a baseline guide).
In his usual suave manner, Quintain boss James Saunders
promised WPRA’s febrile Wider Residents Meeting in June that the company would
undertake a review of what monies could be reclaimed from LRM, which he
anticipated might take three months. But when the residents have asked for a progress update, no further reassurances have been given.
Residents fear they’ll still be on the hook for the costs of having been failed
by the freeholder and managing agents. Isn’t it time, they are asking, that
Quintain paid the price for its own mistakes?
