RVRA

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November News 2008

November 2008

 

 

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Saturday 1st November 2008

 

The LVT Tribunal has made its determination in respect of the case number CHI/24UF/LSC/2007/0112 which was jointly raised by Labyrinth Properties Ltd on behalf of the Landlord and the Village Residents Association in December 07.  This application was made for 2206, 2007 and 2008.  It would appear that LVT action will need to be raised for 2009 separately to enable all Service Charges to be collected.

 

The considerations and findings were as follows:

 

1. Insurance-The Tribunal was initially not satisfied that the level of premium had been tested in the market or that the level of on-site security actually provided was a requirement of insurers.  However Labyrinth provided the Tribunal with documents which satisfied the Tribunal on both points.  It accordingly found the sums in respect of insurance premium and security were reasonable.

 

2. Rates/Water-The Tribunal initially noted that no provision was made in the 2008 budget for this item.  The expenditure under this head for 2006 and 2007 did not seem to be consistent with there being no budgeted provision.  However, from further explanation and documents provided by Labyrinth the Tribunal is now satisfied that the nil provision for 2008 arises as a demand has yet to be received.

 

3. Landscaping/cleaning-Initially the Tribunal was unable to reach a decision about this item in view of the extent and complex nature of the site.  Further enquiry of Labyrinth  showed that it was not known how the contractor had calculated the charges, save that it covered work required by specification provided by Labyrinth.  However, further enquiry showed that in October 2007 Labyrinth had gone out to tender for this work and of those received, Labyrinth had accepted the lowest.  The Tribunal found that this demonstrated the budget for 2008 in this respect was therefore reasonable, but it also considered the tenders provided a reasonable benchmark for 2006 and 2007 and accordingly agreed those figures also.

 

4. Management Fees-From its own knowledge and experience, the Tribunal would normally expect a reasonable rate of fee to be calculated per flat at about £150.00 per year.  However, in such cases, the units would be almost entirely occupied and there would be a significant management workload in dealing with day to day issues, repairs and maintenance as well as major work.  At the Village, the Tribunal considered there would be significantly less management time involved because of the decision not to keep the premises in good repair, many units being unoccupied and also the Association itself appears to carry out a good deal of day to day work which a managing agent would otherwise need to do.  For these reasons the Tribunal found that a reasonable fee for each of the years in question would instead be £39,130.00 plus VAT.

 

 

As a result the Tribunal determined that all the figures relating to service charge, save for those relating to management fees were reasonable.