Drop the extortionate service charge costs at Parkwest Development

Once I have the support of the residents that do not agree with the increasing service charge and the way it is spent I can forward this petition onto Consort Property Management / Parkwest / Nottinghill Housing Association.

If all residents stand together on this they will have no choice but to do something about it and drop these extortionate service charge costs. Leaseholders need to receive a fair, honest and reasonable service charge and this is certainly not happening at the moment!

FAO: Consort Management/Nottinghill Housing.

With regards to the latest demand for £218.75 for the service charge accounts for the year ending 2011, we require justification and clarification of the following:

1. Concierge costs: 20% above budget - why?

2. Electricity costs: approx 500% above budget - why?

3. Cleaning costs: approx 50% above budget - why?

4. Landscaping costs: £18,209 over budget - why? You explain in your letter that you have gone this much over budget due to the extreme weather conditions, and employing additional yardmen to water the gardens. The only watering that we can see being done is through the sprinklers (we also have video evidence to back this up) - where are the additional yardmen that you have employed to water the gardens that we are paying all this extra money for? The sprinklers are not only a waste of water and money, but they are also water-logging the grass area, perhaps this is why there is 'widespread damage to many of the plants and gardens on the development?' (quoted as per
your letter)

5. General repairs: approx 1600% above budget - why? This is completely unacceptable!

6. Plant maintenance cost of £83,627 in excess of budget is totally unacceptable. As this is an ongoing problem, it suggests that it is a design or a construction problem which should be resolved by St George AT THEIR COST? Not everybody has children and therefore do not dispose of nappies etc through the drainage and we are not prepared to subsidise the irresponsible tenants that do this. Personally I think this is just a poor excuse that you are using to justify why you have gone so much over budget.

7. CCTV charges of £35,544 is still excessive and surely could be obtained cheaper? It has also been reported by a number of residents that the CCTV isn't working so how can we possible be paying this much money for something that isn't working?

8. Drain maintenance: 150% above budget - why?

9. There was no budget for the door entry system and yet you have spent over £7500 - why?

10. The lift at Marlborough House: This has been reported on many occasions, the floor doesn't always level and I personally have tripped over it on many occasions. Surely this is a health and safety issue as somebody could do some serious damage to themselves? Again it makes us question exactly what our service charge money is being spent on.

We require Parkwest / Consort Property Management / Nottinghill Housing Association to explain why these charges have been allowed to escalate to this level.

Until we have received a satisfactory explanation from you, we are not willing to pay this unacceptable demand of £218.75 or any interest which may occur.
We will also be holding back any further payments for the remainder of the service charge for the year ending 2012 until these charges are dropped and we receive a fair, honest and reasonable service charge from you.

Finally we have worked out the cost difference for the service charge from 2011 to 2012, it has gone up by £375.56 in one year. This is an increase of over 27%.

If the costs go up by this amount every year we will soon be paying more on service charge costs than our mortgages and rent! This is completley unacceptable and will not be tolerated by the residents at Parkwest.