ESPIRIT HOUSE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION MEETING MINUTES Meeting Date & Time: Wednesday, 26 March 2008 from 18:30 Meeting Venue: Putney Station, 94-98 Upper Richmond Rd, LONDON, SW15 2SP Attendees: Apologies: Peter Martin (PM) Chairperson Jahan Anzsar (JA) Minutes Vanessa Drummond (VD) Nick Moore (NM) James Watson (JW) Diya Agarwal (DA) Mark Golledge (MG) Karen Martin (KM) Simon Middleton (SM) Simona Esposito (SE) Minutes 1. Minutes + Actions from last meeting, & Introductions Minutes from last meeting 1.1. The minutes from the last association meeting on 13 December 2007 were approved. Actions from last meeting Item No Action Who Due date 1.2 Note informing JA 05/01/2008 residents that Association had met to be distributed 1.3 Contact details of all JA 21/12/2007 members to be circulated 2.3 Constitution to be JA 21/12/2007 finalised and distributed to all members 3.2 List issues that need PM/JA/KM/MG/VD/NM Next meeting resolving under each of the key areas identified and start the process of getting them resolved 4.2 Association member JA 12/01/2008 to be at future CRM inspections of Espirit House 7.3 Enquiries and JW Next meeting Page 1 of 8
quotes to be obtained for installing CCTV 10.2 Determine whether a contract exists between the Espirit House Management Co and CRM, and obtain a copy of the contract if possible 11.1 Espirit House website to be set up JA 31/01/2008 JA 31/01/2008 1.2. Item 1.2 has been done. JA circulated a note informing residents of the last meeting. 1.3. Item 1.3 has been done. JA maintains a list of the contact email addresses of those owners who are in touch with the association. 1.4. Item 2.3 has been done. 1.5. Item 3.2 is well underway by all members of the association. 1.6. Item 4.2 has been actioned. VD was present at an inspection that CRM carried out of Espirit House on 17 January 2008. 1.7. For Item 7.3, JW has obtained CCTV quotes through CRM. This is discussed further in Section 6 below. 1.8. JA liaised with Claire Moore at BDO about Item 10.2. Whilst Claire wasn t able to provide the contract that applies between the freeholders and CRM, she forwarded a copy of the generic contracts that apply to developments that the freeholders own which are managed by CRM. JA forwarded this contract to members of the association. 1.9. Item 11.1 has now been done. The Espirit House website has been set up at www.espirithouse.co.uk. This is discussed further in Section 8 below. 2. Water leaks Underground water leak 2.1. PM updated everyone with the latest on the underground water leak. 2.2. The main priority remains to get the leak the stopped. Following recent discussion amongst members of the association, it was agreed that the re-route option would be preferred. PM has been liasing with CRM to push this forward. Thames Water now sub-contract repair work and Anne-Marie O Leary has met with the Thames Water appointed sub-contractor to assess the way forward and obtain a quote. 2.3. PM has asked CRM to obtain quotes from other contractors rather than just the Thames Water sub-contractor, as well. 2.4. PM also suggested that a meeting should be set up with the freeholders to discuss the water leak issues (including asking them to ensure that new buyers of flats in the Page 2 of 8
block were informed of it) as well as the lack of transparent accounts in relation to the 2006 service charges (more about this in section 3 below). Everyone agreed this would be a good idea. ACTION: PM to draft an email to freeholders highlighting current issues with the water leak as well as the lack of transparent accounts for the 2006 period and also suggest a meeting with them in London, by 30 April 2008 1. Water leak in car park 2.5. Arrangements are currently underway by CRM for a plumber to gain access to as many flats in the block with flats 1-13 to inspect the hot water tanks in these flats. 2.6. The leak in the car park appears to be from one of flats 1-13. 3. Service charges 3.1. JA updated everyone with the latest on the various service charge issues. Apportionment of car park service charge 3.2. Anne-Marie O Leary had sent an email on the day of the meeting with the latest from Forsters on the apportionment of the car park service charges. 3.3. The car park costs have to be divided between those that are shared between: i. us/the commercial unit/swish car park (e.g. maintenance of the garage door) and ii. those costs shared just between us/the commercial unit (e.g. electricity costs for the lighting in the Espirit House car park). The costs of i) have to be split equally between the number of car parking spaces in the Swish car park (72) and the number of car parking spaces in the Espirit House car park (25 2 of which are for the commercial unit). This equates to approximately a 1.03% share of the cost for each car parking space. The costs of ii) have to be split equally between us and the commercial unit based on the number of car parking spaces in the Espirit House car park. This equates to a 4% share per car parking space of these costs. 3.4. Forsters are not clear on why all of our leases refer to a 0.92% figure as being the share attributable to leaseholders for the costs that are shared with the Swish car park. 3.5. Anne-Marie O Leary has suggested that we change the leases of all of the leaseholders. This will involve a somewhat complicated legal process. 3.6. Everyone present at the meeting agreed that the preferred option would be to avoid the legal costs and associated delays of getting all the leases changed and instead charge the 0.11% difference as a shortfall amount when collecting service charges in the subsequent year. This would need to be communicated to the other owners at Espirit House though. 1 As of 13 April 2008, PM has sent an email to the freeholders as well as set up a meeting with them on 22 April 2008. Page 3 of 8
ACTION: JA to inform Anne-Marie O Leary that the preferred option would be to avoid changing the leases and charge the 0.11% difference as a shortfall amount in the subsequent years service charge demand, by 15 April 2008 2. Apportionment of other non car-park service charge costs 3.7. The response from Forsters was that the commercial unit lease did not have specific apportionment percentages but that the managing agent could use its discretion to apportion a fair and reasonable proportion of costs to the commercial unit. Judgement would need to be made if each cost could be apportioned according to the floor area occupied by the commercial unit. 2006 service charge accounts 3.8. CRM had forwarded a set of accounts for the Espirit House Management Company in relation to the period 1 March 2006 to 31 December 2006. 3.9. Everyone agreed that these accounts didn t really provide much in the way of detailed information on how service charge monies collected in relation to this period had been spent. 3.10. A detailed statement of expenditure was needed showing each item of expenditure as well as the date it was paid out on. This should be available to CRM as such a statement would have been used to put together the accounts provided. ACTION: JA to liase with CRM to obtain more detailed accounts on expenditure in the 2006 period, by 15 May 2008. 3.11. CRM will also need to provide details on exactly how much money has been collected from the amounts invoiced in August 2007. ACTION: JA to request details from CRM of how much of the service charge monies invoiced had been collected, by 15 May 2008. Buildings insurance 3.12. PM expressed concern that Espirit House Buildings insurance policy did not refer to the ground floor commercial unit. The insurer could refuse a pay out (especially in the event of a large claim) if they had not been informed of this commercial unit. ACTION: JA to ask CRM for confirmation and proof that the insurers are aware of the ground floor commercial unit at Espirit House, by 30 April 2008. Service charge calculations 3.13. JA informed everyone that he was currently putting together spreadsheets that calculated the 2006/7/8 service charge amounts and would be discussing these with CRM. 2 This has now been communicated to Anne-Marie O Leary. Page 4 of 8
4. Bin area/garden Bin area Garden 4.1. Everyone agreed that the recent mis-use of the bin area by someone moving in to/out of Espirit House was unacceptable. A reminder of the note with details on proper use of the bin area would be re-circulated. ACTION: VD to re-circulate her note on appropriate use of the bin area, by 30 April 2008 3. 4.2. VD was looking in to plans to extend the bin area thus making access to the bins easier. ACTION: VD to liase with CRM on extending the bin area, by the next meeting. 4.3. PM suggested that moving the recycling bins to just outside the bin area would be a good temporary measure to improve access to the bin area. ACTION: VD to move the recycling bins to outside the bin area, by 30 April 2008. 4.4. VD also said that she had met with gardener to discuss plans to improve the garden area. The gardener has come up with a plan that does not involve spending significant amounts to improve the garden as it was currently in a very poor state. ACTION: VD to liase with CRM and the gardener to get the garden replanted, by the next meeting. 5. Doors 5.1. NM updated everyone on latest position with the various doors that needed fixing at Espirit House. 5.2. The glass fire door that leads from the garden in to the basement car park has now been replaced with a sturdy white fire door. 5.3. The issue with the fire vent doors in the block with flats 1-13 has now been resolved. 5.4. The middle lock on the main door of both blocks is still not functioning properly as it does not catch with the locking mechanism when the door shuts. ACTION: NM to liase with CRM on getting the middle lock on the main door fixed, by next meeting. 5.5. NM also said that the door leading from the garage in to the block with flats 1-13 does not shut properly at present and he was chasing CRM on this issue. 3 This has now been done. Page 5 of 8
6. CCTV 6.1. Through CRM, JW had obtained 3 quotes in relation to getting CCTV installed in the Espirit House car park. Copies of the 3 quotes can be found on the Espirit House website at http://www.espirithouse.co.uk/page_1203503487406.html. 6.2. JW suggested that the quote from Lazerbeam security appeared to be the most suitable one. 6.3. JW also suggested that it would be useful to have a camera at the ground floor lift pointing towards the main door in each block. Everyone agreed that this would be a good idea. ACTION: JW to liaise with CRM to extend the Lazerbeam quote to include the camera at the 2 main entrances as well as get the CCTV installed, by the next meeting 4. 7. Transfer of Freehold update 7.1. JA had been in touch with Claire Moore at BDO for an update on the sale of the flats. 7.2. Six flats are left to be sold and at present, there were 3 flats for which the sale process was underway and another 3 that are on the market to be sold. 7.3. BDO are keen to get the transfer of freehold going as soon as possible and would commence the transfer once the sale process was underway for the last flat. 8. AOB Cables in Front Garden 8.1. These appeared to be from a display board that once existed in front of the Laing Homes marketing suite. 8.2. Everyone agreed it would be good to remove them but no one was tasked with the action. This will be carried forward as an agenda item to the next meeting if it is not resolved by then. Air conditioning units 8.3. These have been installed at the back of the building by the owners of the ground floor commercial unit. 8.4. They will make a significant noise once switched on at the moment they are switched off as no one is occupying the ground floor commercial unit. 8.5. A complaint would be lodged with Wandsworth Council if the units create a disturbance once switched on. Notice boards for the lobby areas 4 Quotes for the additional cameras have now been obtained. Page 6 of 8
8.6. CRM have confirmed that they will put up notice boards in the lobby area. However, this was in January 2008 and nothing is yet to happen. 8.7. It was agreed that JW would purchase the notice boards and fix them in the lobby area as well as send CRM the bill for the cost of the notice boards. Website ACTION: JW to get notice boards fixed in the lobby area and recover the cost from CRM, by 31 May 2008. 8.8. Everyone agreed that the website set up at www.espirithouse.co.uk was a good idea. 8.9. JA asked everyone to forward him suggestions on information they would like to see on the website. 8.10. A sign would also be placed at the entrances of each of the 2 blocks to inform residents of the website. Next meeting 8.11. The next residents association meeting would be held in approximately 3 months time. Summary of Actions Item No Action Who Due date 2.4 Email to be sent to PM 30 April 2008 the freeholders to request a meeting to discuss the issues with the water leaks and the lack of accounts 3.6 Anne-Marie O Leary JA 15 April 2008 to be informed that the association does not wish to get the leases changed for the 0.11% discrepancy in them relating to the apportionment of the car park service charge 3.10 More detailed JA 15 May 2008 accounts to be obtained from CRM 3.11 Details from CRM to be obtained of what % of service charges invoiced have been collected JA 15 May 2008 Page 7 of 8
3.12 Confirmation to be obtained that the insurers are aware of the ground floor commercial unit 4.1 Note explaining appropriate use of bin-area to be recirculated 4.2 Liase with CRM to get bin area extended 4.3 Recycling bins to be moved to outside the bin are 5.4 Middle lock on both main doors to be fixed 6.3 Quote from Lazerbeam to be extended to include a camera at each of the 2 main entrances & CCTV to be installed 8.7 Notice boards to be fixed in the lobby area and CRM to be sent the bill for the boards JA 30 April 2008 VD 30 April 2008 VD Next meeting VD 30 April 2008 NM Next meeting JW Next meeting JW 31 May 2008 Jahan Anzsar 6 April 2008 Page 8 of 8