First Residents Meeting, Tuesday 5th September
Hi,
This (very long) email and blog entry details the events of the first residents meeting held on Tuesday the 5th of September, in the City Island Management suite. It was a closed meeting as we simply did not have the space for everyone to attend. Invitations were based on the amount of input people had put in to CIRG.
However, if you are interested in a full attendance event, and can suggest a venue, please get in touch. Also, get in touch about anything in this email/blog, if you simply want to get more involved in CIRG, or if you wish to attend the next closed meeting.
It might read a bit rough and ready as I was taking these notes as the meeting progressed, and don’t really have time tonight to format them all nicely, if something doesn’t make sense, drop me an email and I’ll try and explain.
Pre Agenda
These point came about as we were chatting waiting for people to arrive and before following the agenda that I sent to you all:
· Phil, the previous concierge was dismissed for not following process and procedures as part of his responsibilities as an Accent employee. Read as: The rumors were true.
· Accent described their company, in terms of striving to be national, and summarised by describing themselves as "huge". They built Highroyds in Menston, also run Gateway, North Street development, and lots of other small developments. Big in Manchester, Sheffield, Bradford. City Island Management Company are the client of Accent, but Gotts Island Company own the freehold of the site.
· Morgan’s are no longer involved in selling the remaining 13 apartments that remain unsold. The unsold apartments are owned by Mayfair.
· The building in front of City Island II, next to the ring road is an Energis data centre, which has about 7-8 years left on its lease, and Jonathan Morgan thinks outline permission for a development to replace it may have been submitted.
· The only money that Accent take from City Island are management fee’s. No kickbacks or commissions of any kind.
· There is a (very) vague possibility of the downstairs part of the management suite one day being turned in to a shop of some sort.
Agenda
Development Work
Monk Bridge Development
o Seem to be sticking to their commitments of sticking to the agreed starting times, although Tony disputed this. If anyone else is being disturbed earlier than the agreed times – let us know and we will go back to the site manager.
o One of the residents has discovered that we have until the end of October to protest the development and lodge an objection, and he was auctioning this.
o Jonathan Morgan suggested using precedents in the objection, loss of amenity, outlook, sunlight, etc. He also suggested getting ward MP or councilors involved, as if there is enough objection, they will sit up and take notice, so if you are affected by the developments, get in touch and get involved.
Management Company
o Inappropriate parking, outside of City Island property, Accent have arranged for council traffic wardens to attend more regularly, and if parking is preventing access or is particularly dangerous, there is a mechanism in place for us to contact them to attend immediately. It was agreed that the situation had improved greatly recently.
o Visitor Parking, basically, there simply is not any provision for visitor parking at city island, and there is unlikely to ever be. Even if there was space the management of such spaces is near on impossible, and open to abuse. If you have workmen or deliveries simply talk to Tony the concierge, and he will make temporary arrangements for access and parking so that they do not get tickets. Accent also pointed out that this is not unique to this development, or even Leeds, developers are under pressure from the Government and local councils to dissuade the use of cars within cities, and one of the ways that they do this is tell developers not to provide additional parking.
o Spare Parking Spaces, many people have asked about these spare parking spaces which are apparently available, and why they cannot rent them. Basically the reason is that they are being held for sale with City Island II. However, Accent are currently in the process of making arrangements to rent these spaces out until they are needed for the new development, and this will happen shortly, but will obviously be a temporary rental arrangement. The funds generated from the rental will go back in to City Island management funds, so we all benefit. If you are interested in one of these temporary spaces, let me know your full details and I will forward them, or alternatively, contact Accent directly yourself.
o Barrier, although much improved and fully operation of late, Accent apologized for the outages it had been subject to, and attributed this to a 3rd party who had the contract to maintain it letting them down. This company has now been replaced with a better one.
o One Way System, a couple of people had asked us to suggest a one-way system to avoid the potential for collisions in the car park, this was taken on by Accent as a via idea to give consideration to. An alternative that was suggested was the placement of some large convex mirrors to see around corners.
o Car Park CCTV and Security, Accent stated that the CCTV is a security measure, but has blind spots and cannot film everything all of the time. The bike cage lock that someone identified as being broken was taken on by accent to be fixed. It was also pointed out that from some outside areas it is easy to see in to the car park for thieves. Accent took an action to investigate reducing this visibility.
o Building materials left in car park, Accent to chase this as an action.
o Window Cleaning, pretty much as the previous blog entry, waiting on abseil points, and only responsible for the common areas, and unsafe windows. If you can reach it yourself – clean it yourself. Accent expect this situation to be resolved sooner rather than later, and Tony and others are working on this.
o Bin Areas, need jet washing more often, Accent took this as an action. It was pointed out that the larger blocks such as Faroe, have the same amount of bins as the other blocks, which means they obviously fill up quicker as there are more people. A temporary measure was suggested that the bins be rotated to alleviate this.
o Recycling, the view is, that if it’s not easy for people, they don’t do it, it gets abused, then it is removed. So if you want recycling, use it properly. You may have noticed we now have green, brown and clear glass recycling at the front of the management suite, however some people are still missing the main recycling bins for paper etc. Accent took this as an action to chase the council.
o Management Accounts, To summarize this at a high level, basically if the electricity bill had not been so high, we would have been in an under-spend situation. However, the original estimate for power was done 2 years ago and since then power costs have more than doubled. Also, all of our lights are on all of the time. Accent have been proactive about this, and have commissioned a survey to investigate the installation of passive infrared sensors to activate lighting, which would mean lights off for 22 hours a day on average instead of never off. Current costs are £53,000. Proposed work would cost £30,000. However, annual savings would be in the region of £45,000. Accent are waiting on Mayfair (as lease holders) to give them permission to do this. Accent to chase as an action.
o The lack of 24 hour security, Accent have taken this as an action to reinstate it as a 24 hour service. If you have a view on this please let us know and we will let Accent know.
o Tony the concierge, it was noted that everyone without exception thought very highly of Tony as the concierge even though he was only doing the job as a stand in. We stated that everyone who lives here WANTS TONY TO HAVE THE JOB, there was some kick back from Accent saying that proper procedures needed to be followed, however, I was insistent and stated that I would like to talk to them off offline when they could talk without having to be sensitive to Tony (who was in the meeting). I have not had a chance to do this yet, but I understand that Tony has now been given an interview – so fingers crossed everyone!
o Concierge Responsibilities, lots of emails have asked what we can expect as the concierge service – I have now been supplied with this and will try and type it up and distribute it shortly, if I haven’t done so in a week or so, remind me and I will do it, so we all know what we can reasonably expect.
o Noise, processes are in place to deal with any noise issues, in the first instance if it is during Tony’s core hours, contact him. After this contact the council on 0845 124 0113 during weekdays, or email env.health@leeds.gov.uk, or a night time and weekend number ring number 0113 240 7361. The people who respond to these numbers have power of seizure, so if the noise continues after their first visit and they are called out again, they can take the stereo equipment away with them. Also, report the incidents to the concierge, as all incidents are logged and leaseholders are informed that they, or their tenants are in breach of their lease. There is no need to suffer noise – use these services.
o Entering apartments without permission, two of you had complained about this, but Accent knew of only one complaint, and had no evidence to back it up. However there has no been a program of returning keys to leaseholders, those that have not been collected or returned have been destroyed, so this should no longer be an issue for anyone.
o Canal Side entrance, an order has been placed for a magnetic, self closing, auto-locking vandalism proof swipe card entry door, that will be compatible with your existing swipe card. Replacement lights are on order and will be replaced once the new gate is in place. This is a great success and a huge move forward.
o Cleaning, hallway carpets have all been shampooed this week. However, Accent stated that the choice of color was poor for such a high use development.
o Maintenance, anything that the management company does not pick up, let us know and we will ensure Accent are made aware and action it.
o Management Company Boundaries, are we going to share management with City Island II, and if so what are the boundaries? Action on Accent to confirm details.
o Full Building Inspection, seemingly we cannot release funds as, as the leaseholder, Mayfair may not want us to this so that we can then use the inspection against them. We are investigating an alternative way of contacting all leaseholders to create a massive list of faults in all apartments, and then considering options from that point. Accent to advise.
o Shares in the management company, basically until the last apartment is sold (13 left in City Island I), we have no right to realize our legal right to issue shares to leaseholders and vote in our own board who can hire and fire people. Further concern was expressed that this may be when all apartments were sold in both City Island I and City Island II. Accent to confirm.
o Mail shot to lease holders, up until now we have only been able to flier apartments, and email people who have responded to those fliers. This in general means tenants and not owners (about a 70/30 split), and of as a generalization again, tenants tend not to care about the apartment as much as owners. However, Accent could not release the names and addresses of lease holder due to the data protection act, but they have agreed to allow us advertise ourselves in their next mail shot to owners.
o Housing Association, as with all new developments nowadays, a certain percentage of the housing needs to be affordable/community housing. City Island is no different, however, Tony tells us that most of the anti-social behavior at City Island is because of these tenants. Accent stated that this should not be the case, as Yorkshire Housing operate a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy, if they are anti-social, they get kicked out. Accent also stated that their legal team were very experienced with dealing with ASBO’s. So if you have ANY problems at all, report them to Tony, and then chase up with Accent, if you don’t get anywhere let us know and we will take it up with Accent.
Developers
o Pedestrian Bridge, Jonathan Morgan has heard that the developers of Wellington Place may contribute to it to action it. Accent had heard that the fact that the landing site for the bridge is a building site was preventing the bridge building. What happens is that Mayfair have contributed to the council for the bridge and by contributing, and having proved they couldn't build it in the time scales of City Island, it’s now down to the council to sort out. However, people were quite certain it is a case of when not if the bridge will be built.
Estate Agents
o Jonathan Morgan, was in attendance for which we thank him for taking the time and interest. A summary of the criticisms you levied at Morgan’s were put to him and he promised that he would take them on board. Jonathan also agreed to keep in touch with us, and to give us any information he can on building developments and so forth that may affect the development.
Cheers,
CIRG
This (very long) email and blog entry details the events of the first residents meeting held on Tuesday the 5th of September, in the City Island Management suite. It was a closed meeting as we simply did not have the space for everyone to attend. Invitations were based on the amount of input people had put in to CIRG.
However, if you are interested in a full attendance event, and can suggest a venue, please get in touch. Also, get in touch about anything in this email/blog, if you simply want to get more involved in CIRG, or if you wish to attend the next closed meeting.
It might read a bit rough and ready as I was taking these notes as the meeting progressed, and don’t really have time tonight to format them all nicely, if something doesn’t make sense, drop me an email and I’ll try and explain.
Pre Agenda
These point came about as we were chatting waiting for people to arrive and before following the agenda that I sent to you all:
· Phil, the previous concierge was dismissed for not following process and procedures as part of his responsibilities as an Accent employee. Read as: The rumors were true.
· Accent described their company, in terms of striving to be national, and summarised by describing themselves as "huge". They built Highroyds in Menston, also run Gateway, North Street development, and lots of other small developments. Big in Manchester, Sheffield, Bradford. City Island Management Company are the client of Accent, but Gotts Island Company own the freehold of the site.
· Morgan’s are no longer involved in selling the remaining 13 apartments that remain unsold. The unsold apartments are owned by Mayfair.
· The building in front of City Island II, next to the ring road is an Energis data centre, which has about 7-8 years left on its lease, and Jonathan Morgan thinks outline permission for a development to replace it may have been submitted.
· The only money that Accent take from City Island are management fee’s. No kickbacks or commissions of any kind.
· There is a (very) vague possibility of the downstairs part of the management suite one day being turned in to a shop of some sort.
Agenda
Development Work
Monk Bridge Development
o Seem to be sticking to their commitments of sticking to the agreed starting times, although Tony disputed this. If anyone else is being disturbed earlier than the agreed times – let us know and we will go back to the site manager.
o One of the residents has discovered that we have until the end of October to protest the development and lodge an objection, and he was auctioning this.
o Jonathan Morgan suggested using precedents in the objection, loss of amenity, outlook, sunlight, etc. He also suggested getting ward MP or councilors involved, as if there is enough objection, they will sit up and take notice, so if you are affected by the developments, get in touch and get involved.
Management Company
o Inappropriate parking, outside of City Island property, Accent have arranged for council traffic wardens to attend more regularly, and if parking is preventing access or is particularly dangerous, there is a mechanism in place for us to contact them to attend immediately. It was agreed that the situation had improved greatly recently.
o Visitor Parking, basically, there simply is not any provision for visitor parking at city island, and there is unlikely to ever be. Even if there was space the management of such spaces is near on impossible, and open to abuse. If you have workmen or deliveries simply talk to Tony the concierge, and he will make temporary arrangements for access and parking so that they do not get tickets. Accent also pointed out that this is not unique to this development, or even Leeds, developers are under pressure from the Government and local councils to dissuade the use of cars within cities, and one of the ways that they do this is tell developers not to provide additional parking.
o Spare Parking Spaces, many people have asked about these spare parking spaces which are apparently available, and why they cannot rent them. Basically the reason is that they are being held for sale with City Island II. However, Accent are currently in the process of making arrangements to rent these spaces out until they are needed for the new development, and this will happen shortly, but will obviously be a temporary rental arrangement. The funds generated from the rental will go back in to City Island management funds, so we all benefit. If you are interested in one of these temporary spaces, let me know your full details and I will forward them, or alternatively, contact Accent directly yourself.
o Barrier, although much improved and fully operation of late, Accent apologized for the outages it had been subject to, and attributed this to a 3rd party who had the contract to maintain it letting them down. This company has now been replaced with a better one.
o One Way System, a couple of people had asked us to suggest a one-way system to avoid the potential for collisions in the car park, this was taken on by Accent as a via idea to give consideration to. An alternative that was suggested was the placement of some large convex mirrors to see around corners.
o Car Park CCTV and Security, Accent stated that the CCTV is a security measure, but has blind spots and cannot film everything all of the time. The bike cage lock that someone identified as being broken was taken on by accent to be fixed. It was also pointed out that from some outside areas it is easy to see in to the car park for thieves. Accent took an action to investigate reducing this visibility.
o Building materials left in car park, Accent to chase this as an action.
o Window Cleaning, pretty much as the previous blog entry, waiting on abseil points, and only responsible for the common areas, and unsafe windows. If you can reach it yourself – clean it yourself. Accent expect this situation to be resolved sooner rather than later, and Tony and others are working on this.
o Bin Areas, need jet washing more often, Accent took this as an action. It was pointed out that the larger blocks such as Faroe, have the same amount of bins as the other blocks, which means they obviously fill up quicker as there are more people. A temporary measure was suggested that the bins be rotated to alleviate this.
o Recycling, the view is, that if it’s not easy for people, they don’t do it, it gets abused, then it is removed. So if you want recycling, use it properly. You may have noticed we now have green, brown and clear glass recycling at the front of the management suite, however some people are still missing the main recycling bins for paper etc. Accent took this as an action to chase the council.
o Management Accounts, To summarize this at a high level, basically if the electricity bill had not been so high, we would have been in an under-spend situation. However, the original estimate for power was done 2 years ago and since then power costs have more than doubled. Also, all of our lights are on all of the time. Accent have been proactive about this, and have commissioned a survey to investigate the installation of passive infrared sensors to activate lighting, which would mean lights off for 22 hours a day on average instead of never off. Current costs are £53,000. Proposed work would cost £30,000. However, annual savings would be in the region of £45,000. Accent are waiting on Mayfair (as lease holders) to give them permission to do this. Accent to chase as an action.
o The lack of 24 hour security, Accent have taken this as an action to reinstate it as a 24 hour service. If you have a view on this please let us know and we will let Accent know.
o Tony the concierge, it was noted that everyone without exception thought very highly of Tony as the concierge even though he was only doing the job as a stand in. We stated that everyone who lives here WANTS TONY TO HAVE THE JOB, there was some kick back from Accent saying that proper procedures needed to be followed, however, I was insistent and stated that I would like to talk to them off offline when they could talk without having to be sensitive to Tony (who was in the meeting). I have not had a chance to do this yet, but I understand that Tony has now been given an interview – so fingers crossed everyone!
o Concierge Responsibilities, lots of emails have asked what we can expect as the concierge service – I have now been supplied with this and will try and type it up and distribute it shortly, if I haven’t done so in a week or so, remind me and I will do it, so we all know what we can reasonably expect.
o Noise, processes are in place to deal with any noise issues, in the first instance if it is during Tony’s core hours, contact him. After this contact the council on 0845 124 0113 during weekdays, or email env.health@leeds.gov.uk, or a night time and weekend number ring number 0113 240 7361. The people who respond to these numbers have power of seizure, so if the noise continues after their first visit and they are called out again, they can take the stereo equipment away with them. Also, report the incidents to the concierge, as all incidents are logged and leaseholders are informed that they, or their tenants are in breach of their lease. There is no need to suffer noise – use these services.
o Entering apartments without permission, two of you had complained about this, but Accent knew of only one complaint, and had no evidence to back it up. However there has no been a program of returning keys to leaseholders, those that have not been collected or returned have been destroyed, so this should no longer be an issue for anyone.
o Canal Side entrance, an order has been placed for a magnetic, self closing, auto-locking vandalism proof swipe card entry door, that will be compatible with your existing swipe card. Replacement lights are on order and will be replaced once the new gate is in place. This is a great success and a huge move forward.
o Cleaning, hallway carpets have all been shampooed this week. However, Accent stated that the choice of color was poor for such a high use development.
o Maintenance, anything that the management company does not pick up, let us know and we will ensure Accent are made aware and action it.
o Management Company Boundaries, are we going to share management with City Island II, and if so what are the boundaries? Action on Accent to confirm details.
o Full Building Inspection, seemingly we cannot release funds as, as the leaseholder, Mayfair may not want us to this so that we can then use the inspection against them. We are investigating an alternative way of contacting all leaseholders to create a massive list of faults in all apartments, and then considering options from that point. Accent to advise.
o Shares in the management company, basically until the last apartment is sold (13 left in City Island I), we have no right to realize our legal right to issue shares to leaseholders and vote in our own board who can hire and fire people. Further concern was expressed that this may be when all apartments were sold in both City Island I and City Island II. Accent to confirm.
o Mail shot to lease holders, up until now we have only been able to flier apartments, and email people who have responded to those fliers. This in general means tenants and not owners (about a 70/30 split), and of as a generalization again, tenants tend not to care about the apartment as much as owners. However, Accent could not release the names and addresses of lease holder due to the data protection act, but they have agreed to allow us advertise ourselves in their next mail shot to owners.
o Housing Association, as with all new developments nowadays, a certain percentage of the housing needs to be affordable/community housing. City Island is no different, however, Tony tells us that most of the anti-social behavior at City Island is because of these tenants. Accent stated that this should not be the case, as Yorkshire Housing operate a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy, if they are anti-social, they get kicked out. Accent also stated that their legal team were very experienced with dealing with ASBO’s. So if you have ANY problems at all, report them to Tony, and then chase up with Accent, if you don’t get anywhere let us know and we will take it up with Accent.
Developers
o Pedestrian Bridge, Jonathan Morgan has heard that the developers of Wellington Place may contribute to it to action it. Accent had heard that the fact that the landing site for the bridge is a building site was preventing the bridge building. What happens is that Mayfair have contributed to the council for the bridge and by contributing, and having proved they couldn't build it in the time scales of City Island, it’s now down to the council to sort out. However, people were quite certain it is a case of when not if the bridge will be built.
Estate Agents
o Jonathan Morgan, was in attendance for which we thank him for taking the time and interest. A summary of the criticisms you levied at Morgan’s were put to him and he promised that he would take them on board. Jonathan also agreed to keep in touch with us, and to give us any information he can on building developments and so forth that may affect the development.
Cheers,
CIRG
posted by City Island Residents Group at 7:02 PM
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