Investigate GNC Service Charges

We ask that the council investigate these disproportionate service charges and the cost of being under GNC management.

We also petition against perceived inadequacies in customer services, communication with residents, failures in being receptive to repairs, maintenance and improvements.

We wish for support from the Councillors, MPs and Manchester City Council to address these serious concerns as appropriate and seek solutions and support for residents facing another service charge increase in these times of austerity. Please refer now to bullet points below about various examples of concerns.

Whichever GNC Managed building you live in, please do give examples of your experiences of GNC management.

PLEASE NOTE: You can hide your name and be anonymous, though you are officially signing this petition with your address and full postcode.

Service Charge:
• Long terms discontents with Northern Counties and now Guinness Northern Counties, stemming back to the nineties and records of their accounts.
• Service charges increases occurring without consultation across several years far beyond what is reasonable
• Unjustifiable service charge as one of the highest in Manchester City Centre and in comparison poor service, development, poor communal areas and provisions to justify this cost especially in comparison to firms managed by Managing Agents getting far greater value

Customer Services:
• Concerns about transparency and communication with residents
• Failure to respond in timely manner to complaints and a sense of not being taken seriously for a very long time in GNC’s premises

Repairs, Security & Improvements:
• Unjustifiably expensive contactors and paying far more than is reasonable (e.g. comparing neighbouring properties like Venice Court cleaning of windows of three blocks to ours, the cleaning costs, repairs to doors, carpets etc. being extraordinarily costly)
• Concerns about security and being untruthful to residents (e.g. about CCTV ‘dummy’)
• The nature of how repairs are communicated
• Denial of problems and the lack of reparation sought and concerns of internal structures
• The ‘non improvement’ clause used to justify inaction in necessary repairs to the or to utilize funds for improvements to the buildings