One of the issues which has affected the management of High Royds has been the number of blocks not yet in management – Aysgarth Court, Appleton Court, Grassington Mews and Cotterdale.
These are blocks that have not been under management and from which maintenance funds haven’t been collected.
But action has now been taken.
See below for a question asked by an HRRA committee member at the recent Q&A session with Avant and Trinity:
‘Can Avant provide a comprehensive update on the current situation regarding defective contracts? This issue was first identified in 2014, and eight years later it remains unresolved. The impact of this issue has resulted in a number of blocks still not coming into management. This of course means the service charge is continually depleted of revenue every year.
Can Avant provide a definitive timeline for the resolution of this matter?
Would it also be appropriate that Avant take responsibility for the resultant service charge void bearing in mind this problem was caused by their legal team?
And the response from Sue Platts, group legal executive of Avant:
‘You refer to “contractual defects”. What actually happened was that the solicitors who drafted the original Freehold Transfer Deeds on behalf of the company, drafted them in such a way that meant individual freehold property owners would be responsible for the repair, maintenance and insurance of their own properties (in the same way that would normally be expected with a freehold house). It was however the company’s intention that an obligation should be included for freehold property owners to contribute towards a Block Charge (as with the leasehold properties), so that Trinity would deal with maintenance and insurance of all the buildings. As soon as the omission came to light (at some point in 2015), the freehold Transfer Deeds for the unsold properties were amended to ensure that from then on, the freehold Transfer Deeds included such a Block Charge. The Block Charge arrangement could not be forced, retrospectively, upon owners of the properties that had already been sold. Therefore those owners were asked to “opt in” to the arrangement by entering into a supplemental Deed with ourselves and Trinity to vary the original documents to include provisions for the Block Charge. Responsibility for completing this substantial task fell at the door of the solicitors who had drafted the original documents.
‘As to the “why” of the delays, you will appreciate that I only inherited this matter following Jo Massey’s departure at the end of November 2021. I am unable to explain exactly why we are seven years on without the matter having been resolved. As mentioned previously, the acting solicitors carried responsibility for completing the supplemental Deeds, which involved liaising with those appointed to act for the 37 affected properties (and any mortgage lenders where appropriate), not all of whom were willing to “opt in” and many of those who were, did not respond promptly. Further complications ensued whenever properties changed hands, as documents had to be re-drafted in the names of the new owners and re-submitted. Trinity were unwilling to take the blocks into management unless and until the issue was completely resolved and the months and years have plainly slipped away. My personal opinion is that those involved perhaps lacked the enthusiasm or incentive (and possibly sufficient understanding) to actively pursue sorting it out. For our part, I confess that I don’t think the changes within our company structure and the gradual turnover of staff, both at Avant and the acting solicitors, helped to retain focus on the matter to ensure things were chased along often enough and, of course, we had a pandemic in between, that brought with it a number of strains on various resources. Of course none of this justifies or excuses the delay, but I hope it goes some way to explain it. Whilst I appreciate the residents’ frustration, it must be borne in mind that during all this time, no maintenance charges have been levied on any of the residents of the affected blocks.
‘Obviously, we can all can be wise after the event as to how things could have been handled better, but we are where we are and I believe it is more important to concentrate on moving things forward instead of looking back. To that end, when I became responsible for the matter, I imposed a deadline of 31 March 2022 for the supplemental Deeds, such that the offer to “opt in” would be withdrawn from anyone who had not completed a Deed by then.
‘This has enabled us to finally provide Trinity with details of the properties who have opted in to the Block Charge and who have chosen to remain responsible for the full extent of their own property. Therefore we are now progressing the handover of these blocks and the region is liaising with Trinity to conduct final inspections in readiness for the blocks to be taken into management by Trinity as quickly as possible. I am keen not to allow this to lose momentum.’
High Royds Residents' Association 