You will recall that directors have been investigating site-wide costs for the last 2 years and neither DJC nor POD acting as managing agents were able to provide sufficient assurance as to what we were actually paying for given that only circa 20% of site-wide land was available for use.
We have advised all parties involved on many occasions during the last 2 years that we would only pay for site-wide land we had access to and only where we were confident that expenditure was valid and appropriate. Without such information being made available, we took the decision to withhold monies and credit residents last autumn based on a proposal put forward to the site-wide management company via POD last year.
PG Property Management (who took over from POD Management and now support the site-wide management company) proposed a way forward in February 2021 which directors agreed to in principle on the understanding full sets of reinstated accounts for the last 4 years were made available for us to inspect. The site-wide contributions that form the 2021/22 Service Charge presented at the EGM in May support this proposal.
Unfortunately we have not been furnished with re-stated accounts and as we are obliged to look after the interests of CCMC members, we are standing firm in that we will not pay any further monies owing until the accounts (together with supporting information and invoices where appropriate) are received. PG Property Management have suggested that they will be writing to all residents imminently (as part of a wider update) flagging the CCMC arrears position.
CCMC directors (supported by Remus) are working with PG Property Management on this issue and indeed no direct legal relationship exists between the site-wide management company and individual residents.
As such individual residents do not have to take any action and there is no requirement or need to liaise directly with the site-wide management company on this issue.
Given the lack of assurance we received from both DJC and POD in relation to site-wide expenditure, we believe that members would rather us undertake sufficient and robust due diligence prior to paying any further monies to PG Property Management, especially as this accounts for 30% of the overall service charge.
For the avoidance of doubt, PG Property Management is a company created by directors of Ptarmigan Land to act as site-wide managing agent. Ptarmigan Land is the consultancy firm that acts for and represents the land owner in relation to the Channels development.
Channels (Chelmsford) Management Company Ltd 