A Plea For Help From Sion Simon M.P.
After being told by Chris Jones of CPM/RMG that he had been told by his superiors not to reply to our emails but that we should receive a reply in due course, we simply got another request for payment of the invalid service charge and notification that further debt collection charges would be added to our account.
I feel that the latest reply is simply not satisfactory and hence I have contacted the local M.P. with a brief letter about matters to date.
This is the letter I sent to Sion Simon M.P.:
Dear Sion Simon,
I am writing with regards to some issues we have been having with our estate management company (Residential Management Group Ltd [RMG], formally CPM Asset Management Ltd) and the directors of this company, and I would appreciate your help.
I live at the apartment at 71 City View, Erdington with my wife and we pay a service charge for estate management services.
The main issues are as follows:
1) We have an incorrect balance on our service charge statement and I have been trying for over a year to remove it as all the evidence I have shows that it is incorrect and our solicitor has also confirmed that it is incorrect.
I have copied recent correspondence with this letter which contains the details. However, in brief, we had a few debt collection charges added to our balance which our solicitor managed to remove as the invoices were being sent to the wrong address. However RMG refuse to remove one debt collection charge for an invoice that was again sent to the wrong address.
The balance has increased from having the invalid debt collection charge to that of a greater one for no apparent reason. I have questioned RMG why they chose to remove all the debt collection charges apart from one which was still related to correspondence sent to the wrong address and they have not replied appropriately. They have simply said that it will not be removed. I have also questioned why the invalid balance has increased for no apparent reason and I have not had a satisfactory reply.
Recently a local property manager of RMG told my wife that he had been told by his superiors not to reply to our recent correspondence as they thought that the information on my website blog was not a true representation of matters. My blog simply contains copies of our correspondence. I have asked for dialogue to continue and if there is anything correct on my blog then I am happy to discuss, amend or remove it, but I have not had a reply.
You can see the related blog articles at the following web address:
http://www.karavadra.net/blog/category/my-work-clients/the-mall-2-erdington/cpm-rmg/
When we last spoke to our solicitors they told us that the balance was incorrect but to take matters further we would have to pay legal fees of perhaps a few thousand pounds which would not be recoverable. I did not see the point of paying legal fees to remove and incorrect balance and hence made the matter public on my blog and continued discussions with RMG myself.
We were advised that the constant request for payment of an invalid service charge and inexplicable increases and further threats of debt collection charges being added to our statement seemed to be behaviour associated with bullying and harassment and perhaps we should report the matter to the police or a financial ombudsman.
I contacted all the directors of the company (some of whom are residents and owners of properties) but they have not replied either.
I have previously been involved with a separate financial issue where the Financial and Health Service Ombudsman intervened and found the case in our favour. I originally contact our local MP who was Dr. Lynne Jones M.P. (as I lived in Moseley at the time) and she agreed with my case but could not get a satisfactory reply from the organisations involved and referred the matter to the Financial and Health Service Ombudsman and we did succeed in claiming our rights. Hence I am now writing to you for your help with this matter.
2) Related to the above issue, my wife has applied to become a director of the management company in order that perhaps a better management company can be created and as she has a right to be a director as the as the owner of the property. We have previously been told that she cannot become a director because we have an unpaid balance. This is the balance in point one above and we have argued that it is incorrect and hence the reasoning for not giving my wife directorship status is invalid. Again we have not had a satisfactory reply.
I have copied all related and recent correspondence with this letter and would sincerely appreciate your help with this matter as it is causing us stress and which is especially not healthy for my wife as she is mothering our first child.
I believe we are not been treated fairly and would sincerely appreciate your help and advice.
Please note that I am away from 16th March for about a month so you may not get a reply from me if you respond during that time, but my wife will do her best to respond.
Thank you and sincerely,
Mr. Bharat Karavadra and Mrs Shilpa Karavadra
Move Your Mouse Over the Stars and Click
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I have 2 Comments to the above Post:
Penny Holbrook from the Parliament contacted me today to inform me that she will be contacing CPM/RMG to request a full explanation of matters.
ReplyWe are interested in knowing how your complaint against RMG/CPM progressed and the current situation, as we too wish to register a complaint against RMG/CPM.
We own 2 buy to let apartments in a building of 20 in Chester. We have a correspondence address for our buy to let properties including these 2 which are managed by RMG. The service charge is collect by standing order over 10 months from Jan 1 to Oct 1. The 2010 invoice and S.O. for one of the apartments was received and the S.O. was duly set up and the account is up to date. We did not receive the invoice and S.O for the other apartment so we wrote to RMG accounts department on 15/01/10. As we had not receive a reply by March, on 12/03/10 we wrote again and enclosed a cheque for the 1st three payments and again asked for the S.O. asap so we could set it up in time for the April 1 instalment.
On 13/03/10 we received a letter from our Lender informing us that a debt collector [pdc] had written to them on behalf of their client RMG to request payment of the annual charges in full plus their fee. They enclosed copy of the letter from pdc. We informed our Lender that we have already written to RMG and sent payment to bring the account up to date. On 26/03/10 we received another letter from our Lender plus copy of another letter to them from pdc, and debited our account with their fee of £100 for having to correspond with us. We tried unsuccessfully to contact RMG by telephone to find out why they had not replied to either of our letter nor cashed the cheque.
On 09/04/10, we paid a visit to RMG/CPM’s regional office in Northwich. Their regional manager, Paul Latham, was on holiday but their Operations Director, Justin Herbert, met us to discuss our complaint. He explained that they had been writing to us at the actual apartment address because that is the address appearing on the Land Registry Document, even though in previous years they had sent communications to our correspondence address. He was not able to explain why neither of our letters had been replied to or why the cheque had not been cashed yet but he promised to investigate and write to us. He asked for copies of both letters which we sent him by email attachment on 12/04/10.
We thought that was the end of the matter now that one of the RMG directors had personally got involved and had copies of the letters. But we were wrong in our logical expectations. He emailed us back on 16/04/10, attaching copy of the invoice which had been sent to the apartment. He explained that on 25/01/10 they had sent a reply to our letter of 15/01/10 not to our correspondence address from where it had come but again to the actual apartment which we did not receive nor did he sent copy which we will be requesting. He also said that they had not received our letter of 12/03/10 or the cheque [which we do not believe] but in any event, even if they had received it, he says, it would have been returned it to the apartment address, because the matter was already in the hands of their debt collector [pdc] and so they could not accept any payment and their collection charges still stand.
Immediately upon receipt of the invoice, and the corresponding payment reference number, by email, we made an online payment for the 1st four months, bringing the account up to date, and set up a S.O. for the remaining 6 months.
We have not replied to Mr Herbert’s email yet, that will be done on Monday, but we have a feeling that RMG are going to continue to demand full payment plus their collector’s fees which now has gone up to about £400.
We think RMG have caused this problem by refusing to communicate with us as our correspondence address and for failing to send their reply to our letter of 15/01/10 to the address where it originated from and is stated on the letterhead. RMG did not even have the professional courtesy to at least send a copy to our main address to give us the opportunity to act as necessary to avoid a simple matter becoming a problem. Surely the role of a management company is to collect payment and provide good service without creating a conflict both of which they have failed to do. Therefore, we do not think their collector’s charges are justified in this case as our account should never have been referred to them for collection in preference to responding to our letters at our correspondence address. Furthermore, we think they should refund us the £100 charged by our Lender with whom they have damaged our reputation unnecessarily.
We will take action against RMG, if they do not accept our payments and drop their charges and any advice or suggestion would be welcome.
Thank you – Phoenix Properties.
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