St Martins TRA

We’re having a meeting for Metropolitan leaseholders on Thursday 25th March. Tell us what issues we should focus on

Metropolitan Leaseholder Issues

With Kay Williams from Metropolitan and Cllr Ben Kind

Thursday 25^th March, 6pm

Online meeting, join with this zoom link

Kay Williams from Metropolitan will be present to answer any questions from leaseholders. If you’re satisfied with the response that’s great. If not, Cllr Ben Kind will talk about how we escalate the issue

Please submit questions in advance to StMartinsResidentsLambeth@gmail.com. The deadline is Monday 15^th March.

The questions we’re already received are:

• My block (98 – 121 Gaywood Close) is charged £7288 a year for internal cleaning but the cleaner only comes for one hour a week. This suggests a cost of £140 an hour for a cleaner. Why is it this expensive?
• I’m charged £304 a year for internal cleaning for my one bedroom flat in 98 – 121 Gaywood Close. But a resident of a three bedroom flat in Taylor House is only charged £178. Why the discrepancy?
• I am charged for both Internal Cleaning £325 per year and Door Entry Systems £21.24 per year! Why do I receive these charges since my flat is based on the ground floor and I do not benefit from neither of those charges? 
• I had two workers from Morgan Sindell visit my flat in 113 – 171 Abbots Park pre Xmas regarding ‘replacing’ the front door to meet fire regulations. At this visit, they cut away some of our UPVC frame either side of the door. This was then covered by a strip of scrap UPVC (I say scrap, as neither side matches the other). Why do you think this is acceptable?
• I understand that the Leasehold & Service Charge team is not responsible for the services or quality of the service provided by other teams, but I believe it should be responsible for providing a good service in terms of clarity and transparency on how the service charge fees are allocated to the residents. I’m afraid we don’t feel that is the case, as we are never able to question discrepancies or increases and get a satisfactory clear answer. Moreover few residents have requested receipts and to be able to inspect the accounts ( in accordance with Section 22 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. ) back in January and still haven’t got an answer to this day. When we got internal cleaning receipts in the past, we weren’t able to understand how the costs were allocated to the buildings in the estate, all we could see is that we were paying an exorbitant price for it and didn’t understand why. How do you suggest improving your service so that the Residents are able to verify the legitimacy of the increases and discrepancies when they occur?
• What are Metropolitan doing about the requirement for EWS1 forms on their blocks for people looking to sell or re-mortgage? I have tried to sell my flat recently only to have 3 separate lenders request an EWS1 form/survey which has not been provided. This has been requested due to the cladding on the exterior of my flat in Kynaston House. I have tried to get around this issue by proving that the type of cladding used is a UPVC material (which I believe it is) and not the problem ACM cladding used in Grenfell. Metropolitan have failed to provide this information claiming that they cannot find any information on the original building plans either held by themselves or the Local Authority. They are apparently due to announce which blocks will receive this EWS1 form or an Intrusive survey for the next financial year soon, however this has prevented me from moving home for a year already as currently my flat is unsellable and if my block is not included on their 2021 list then what are leaseholders supposed to do? How can anyone in my situation move on with their lives? On this same point without this survey completed everyone in this block is living at risk similar to Grenfell until confirmed otherwise.
• Morgan Sindell visited my flat to install door seals, however said the door needs replacing. They were scheduled to replace the door with an appointment however never turned up.

Two additional requests:

• If you haven’t done so already, please send us a copy of your service charge statement. can use this to update this spreadsheet that helps us find discrepancies.
• Please email lsc@metropolitan.org.uk to ask for receipts to corroborate your service charge. This is your right under section 22 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. And it might help us identify why there’s such variation in service charges