Crest Nicholson: Abolish Unfair Service Charges and Hunts Grove Management Company

Crest Nicholson: Abolish Unfair Service Charges and Hunts Grove Management Company

Started
12 January 2022
Petition to
Peter Truscott (CEO, Crest Nicholson Holdings Plc) and 3 others
Signatures: 624Next Goal: 1,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Hunts Grove Parish Council

Support This Petition and Let's Abolish The Management Company at Hunts Grove!

The maintenance of Hunts Grove village in Gloucestershire has been neglected for the last two years by Crest Nicholson. To add insult to injury, hundreds of residents have been forced to pay out service charges for more than three years to a management company that is providing no services other than producing bills.

Money For Nothing

The management company is taking thousands of pounds of residents' hard-earned money each year.  The agents fee guaranteed under the current contract is £77.95 + VAT per property per year - this is for admin and profit, and prior to any costs for maintenance services on site.

To put this in perspective, this was £24,940.58 in 2021. When the village is complete, this will be charged at £163,700.00 plus the costs of actually maintaining the village.

This is governed by the arcane "Estate Rent Charge" written into the homeowner's deeds. Failure to pay can result in bailiff action, blocking the sale of your property, or even right of entry to take over your property.

Added to that, the managing agent charges even more fees if you need to remortgage, change names on deeds, "sales packs" you must purchase if you wish to sell your property, and much more.

This must be changed. Nationally this scandal is known as "fleecehold" and there is huge support to get the law changed and introduce fairness and consumer protection that simply is not there currently.

Hunts Grove Parish Council Is Calling For The Management Company To Be Abolished

Hunts Grove Parish Council is a brand new council formed following a residents campaign and community governance review held by Stroud District Council. The review and referendum received the most responses from residents in Stroud District Council history.

One of the most compelling arguments that came out of the community governance review was that a new Parish Council could unite the complete development area of Hunts Grove (Phase 1-5, plus the proposed Hunts Grove Extension) and take on the long-term maintenance of the public open spaces and amenities - just like thousands of Parish Councils across the United Kingdom.

Double Taxation

In every community surrounding Hunts Grove, maintenance of public open spaces, play parks, and community facilities is provided by the Parish, Town, or District Councils within the council tax you pay. This is what most residents expect. Funding for this maintenance is usually budgeted within the "Parish Precept" element of your council tax and across Stroud District this varies between approximately £30 and £200 per year, depending on the local amenities managed.

Progress So Far

The new Parish Council has made great progress over the last eight months. We have been working on four tracks in parallel:

1) Encouraging Crest Nicholson to resolve the neglect and lack of maintenance; 2) Researching the options for abolishing the management company and putting in new arrangements; 3) Discussions with stakeholders that signed the original legal agreements (Crest Nicholson, the landowner Colethrop Farm Ltd, Stroud District Council, Gloucestershire County Council); 4) Preparing a plan and budget for the new Parish Council to take on responsibilities, build a legal fund and a reserve fund.

- In November 2021 our Parish Clerk held discussions with another council in Devon (Cranbrook Town Council). Cranbrook is a new village that originally had a management company and the Town Council successfully got that abolished and took over responsibilities for maintenance of the open spaces and amenities. We are learning a lot from the Cranbrook experience and they have been very helpful in their guidance.

We Asked For Assistance From Siobhan Baillie MP

It was proving difficult to get all the stakeholders around the table, therefore we called in support from our MP Siobhan Baillie to help with that, plus to raise the issue of management companies and the Hunts Grove situation in Parliament.

We have already received a letter from Government as a result of Siobhan's initial work on this. We will publish this on the parish website shortly - www.huntsgrove-pc.gov.uk

- In November 2021, Siobhan's office arranged a meeting of all stakeholders to discuss the management company arrangements. This had to be postponed unfortunately as Crest Nicholson couldn't make a meeting in November;

- In December 2021, Siobhan Baillie MP hosted a video-conference call attended by representatives of the landowner Colethrop Farm Ltd, the County Council, the District Council, and Hunts Grove Parish Council. Unfortunately, Crest Nicholson did not attend and has advised they had technical difficulties joining the call. Significant progress was made at the meeting, however.  The District and County Council representatives see no reason why the Parish Council cannot take over from the management company and have offered their full support to the Parish. Further, the landowner stated they "would be delighted" for the Parish Council to takeover. A key point for them is also that the original agreements state that the maintenance of the village should not be "for-profit". As the management company has been charging residents hundreds of pounds for more than three years, yet providing absolutely no services, it has demonstrated that it is substantially for-profit to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds.

In December 2021, over the Christmas and New Year break, solicitors for the Parish Council were reviewing the original Section-106 and legal agreements. An initial scoping call was held on 14th January 2022 to establish options for the Parish to step in instead of the management company.

January 2022 - The Parish Council is extremely concerned that Crest Nicholson is pursuing transfers of responsibility to the management company. We understand that these have been brought forward as early as this month and our assessment is that this is to frustrate our efforts. The management company is not currently responsible for anything. Now is the time to hit the pause button! The Parish Council has written to Crest Nicholson to request that any transfers be put on hold whilst these discussions are ongoing.

So What Do We Need Now?

Well, as the above demonstrates, the Parish Council has achieved a great deal in just eight months! We have a clear mandate we feel from the community governance review, however, we want to hear the voice of residents LOUD & CLEAR whether we are still on the right track. 

It's important that Crest Nicholson HEAR YOUR VOICE - so support this petition today and we can sort out the village maintenance locally, get things done, eliminate the service charges and save at least 50% costs (*1) by our estimates.

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(*1) Actual savings will be subject to a future business-case and budget prepared by the Parish Council. This statement is based on the expectation that the Parish precept (Council Tax) will be increased to cover the maintenance costs of the village, whilst eliminating the management company service charges. The current managing agent contractor (Preim Limited) is guaranteed £77.95 + VAT per property per year for their admin and profit. As the Parish Council is run on a not-for-profit basis, by volunteer residents (councillors), we expect to be able to provide the same professional management of the open spaces and amenities without the overhead costs granted to the managing agent. Therefore, it is a reasonable expectation that the net savings to residents will be at least £70 - £80 per year.

 

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Signatures: 624Next Goal: 1,000
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Decision-Makers

  • Peter TruscottCEO, Crest Nicholson Holdings Plc
  • Mark FoyleMD, Crest Nicholson (South West)
  • Bradley StoneDirector, Crest Nicholson (South West)
  • Gaynor ParkinsonLand & Planning Director, Crest Nicholson (South West)