NEXT MEETING FOR ALL GHA FACTORED HOMEOWNERS

        THE DATE AND VENUE FOR THE NEXT MEETING >>>>> 

WE WILL MEET AT THE JURYS INN HOTEL ON JAMAICA STREET, GLASGOW

AT THIS MEETING THERE WILL BE AN UP-DATE OFF CURRENT BUSINESS.

IF ANYONE HAS AN ON-GOING COMPLAINT ABOUT THE GHA AND THEIR CLADDING AND ROOFING WORKS, PLEASE BRING YOUR COMPLAINT TO THE MEETING ALONG WITH PROOF OF THE COMPLAINT AND ANY PHOTOS YOU MAY HAVE .

Glasgow City Council Letter you can copy.

                            Address:___________________

 

                            __________________________

 

                            __________________________

 

 

Mr. Steven Purcell,

Leader of the Council

Glasgow City Council

City Chambers

George Square

GLASGOW

G2 1DU

 

Dear Mr. Purcell,

 

I am writing as a Glasgow Housing Association factored Homeowner who will face having a substantial bill to pay for the Home Improvement Programme. It is clear to me as a factored Homeowner that across the board that a Grant of 90% should be applied forthwith.

 

I do appreciate that Glasgow City Council only administers the Grant Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Government, however, we would like Glasgow City Council to make further representation to the Scottish Government to bring in a fairer Grant Scheme to be applied to these Homeowners who do not quality for the means tested Grants.

 

Further, the 50% Grant which everyone qualifies for is inadequate given the fact that Homeowners in Castlemilk, Pollokshields and Hillington etc., are now facing bills in excess of £24,000 each.

 

I trust that you will reply soon.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

 

Signed_________________________

COPY OF A COMPLAINT

 

 

BELOW IS A COPY OF A COMPLAINT BY ONE OF OUR CAMPAIGNERS REGARDING AN INSTANCE OF PHANTOM CYCLICAL MAINTENANCE AND THE OUTCOME.

 

 

From: **********************************
Sent: 05 February 2009 12:40
To: #GHAm Enquiries
Subject:

 

gham_info@gha.org.uk

Top of Form

Top of Form

 

Account number  **************

 

 

Repair number W0014***********

 

YOUR CHARGE US £43.13 FOR GUTTER CLEANING – MUST BE INCORRECT. NO ONE HAS BEEN NEAR THE GUTTERS ON THIS BUILDING AND I CAN PROVE THAT THEY HAVE NOT BEEN CLEANED.

WITHHOLDING PAYMENT AND WILL PURSUE THIS MATTER ALL THE WAY.

SORRY, NO PAYMENT OF £43.13 FROM US.

 

 

REGARDS

********************

 

 

From: McDermott, Paul
Sent: 05 February 2009 13:20
To: Angus, Elaine
Subject: FW:

 

Elaine, Could you please have a look at this customers enquiry.

Many thanks

Paul

 

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

 

From: Heffron, Melanie
Sent: 05 February 2009 13:15
To: McDermott, Paul
Subject: FW:

 

Hi

 

Can you pass this email to your team – FS*******

 

Thanks

 

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

 

Mr Mrs **************************** 20^th April 2009

 

Thank you for your enquiry.

 

The gutter cleaning was raised by Parkview Local Housing Office as part of the cyclical maintenance programme for the area. 

 

Unfortunately, I have still not received an update regarding your enquiry and can not confirm if the work has been carried out, I have now cancelled the cost charge of £43.13 inc vat.

 

Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused.

 

Should you have any other factoring enquiries, please don’t hesitate to contact me direct.

 

Best Regards

 

Elaine

 

Elaine Angus

Factoring Officer– Repairs

GHA (Management) Limited

Granite House

177 Trongate

Glasgow G1 5HF

0141 274 6460 (TEL)

0141 274 6202 (FAX)

 

 

 

Bottom of Form

Billions of pounds are being flushed down the drain by GHA

 

GHA has been the subject of intense criticism over the past few years. The most serious is that it is unaccountable to the taxpayer while it receives considerable sums of public money.

When Labour drew their plans for the GHA, they made sure it was exempt from Freedom of information legislation.

GHA like other housing associations has a charitable status and the limited company status on company’s house shows they do not need to file any annual accounts with them.

They are also exempt from the Scottish office of the Charity Regulator. Finding out what goes on in their offices is almost impossible. Even MSP’s in Holyrood are unable to access documents from the so-called tenant-run board.

The architects of this billion-pound scandal are sitting happily in offices across the city. Their homes are safe and watertight.

The Scottish Housing Regulator said it was stepping in after it was reported that a contract worth millions had gone belly up.

The regulator, under pressure from The Herald newspaper and the new housing minister Alex Neil said that it was bringing forward an audit into GHA.

Billions of pounds are being flushed down the drain by GHA. A conflict of interest between Scottish Government agency Communities Scotland and North Glasgow Housing Association that the new government under Alex Salmond abolished the department.

During Communities Scotland’s ‘investigation’ into complaints against North Glasgow Housing Association, the government department subsidised them to the tune of more than £1 million of taxpayer’s money. Where is the audit into that?

The work of Communities Scotland’s regulation and inspection division has been transferred to the new Scottish Housing Regulator. Same offices, same people different name, same squandered money.

 

 

 

OFT finds significant factoring problems

OFT finds significant problems in Scottish property management market

OFFICE OF FAIR TRADING News Release (12/09) issued by COI News Distribution Service. 12 February 2009

The OFT has today published a study into the Scottish property management market which has found that the market is not working well for consumers in Scotland.

Scottish property managers, also known as ‘factors’, manage common shared property such as roofs, staircases and gardens within tenements and other residential properties with a shared common space. Around 135,000 Scottish households rely on property management companies. The OFT’s study also looked at land maintenance companies which maintain open spaces, typically on new housing developments.

The OFT found that whilst the majority of people were happy with their property manager, around one in three said they were not. Two-thirds of consumers who had made a complaint about their management firm were dissatisfied with the way their complaint was handled.

The study says that:
* many people do not understand their complex legal rights and are unsure about the standard of service they should expect, and
* there is limited scope for redress when things go wrong, and
* owners rarely switch their property manager – and at the same time, there is little evidence of active competition between property management companies to attract business.

As a result of its findings, the OFT has today recommended:
* early implementation of a Scottish Government promoted self-regulatory scheme, with an independent complaints redress mechanism, to ensure better accountability of property managers for their standards. If this fails, a statutory scheme should be introduced, and
* the development of an advice and mediation service by the Scottish Government – available to owners and managing agents – to help overcome the legal complexities and prevent the breakdown of arrangements.

In addition, the OFT study found similar problems in the market for land maintenance companies, with consumers experiencing particularly extreme barriers to switching land maintenance suppliers when ownership of open spaces had been transferred to private companies.

Following discussion with the OFT, Consumer Focus Scotland has agreed in principle to support home owners to bring forward a test case applying legislation which may allow owners to switch land maintenance company. If this proves to be an impractical option for home owners, then the OFT recommends that the Scottish Government should review the legislation.

The OFT’s recommendations have now been submitted to the Scottish Government which has agreed to respond within 90 days.

John Fingleton, OFT Chief Executive, said:
‘This is a market that is not working well for many homeowners in Scotland. People often have little or no understanding about their rights, households rarely switch factors, suppliers do not seem to be actively competing with each other and the options for consumers when things go wrong are very limited. The OFT’s recommendations for change should be to the benefit of many Scottish consumers.’

NOTES
1. Download a copy of the OFT Market Study of Property Managers in Scotland from the OFT website – http://www.oft.gov.uk
http://www.oft.gov.uk.

2. In October 2007, Consumer Focus Scotland (formerly the Scottish Consumer Council) submitted evidence to the OFT which raised concerns about Scottish property managers. For more details about this go to the Scottish Property Managers webpage on the OFT website: http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/market- studies/current/scottish.

3. As part of its market study, the OFT commissioned Ipsos MORI to carry out a survey of flat owners to see how well the property managers market in Scotland was working from the perspective of consumers. In addition, the OFT sought information from property managers across Scotland, asking them to complete an online survey. To see this survey go to the Scottish Property Managers webpage on the OFT website:
http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/market- studies/current/scottish.

4. Consumers wishing to complain about residential property management services should in the first instance contact either Consumer Direct or their local Citizens Advice Bureaux for advice on how to deal with their concerns.

 

PUBLIC enquiries: 0845 7224499
enquiries@oft.gov.uk
OFT reports and consumer information leaflets are available free from:
OFT, PO Box 366, Hayes UB3 1XB 0800 389 3158 oft@ecgroup.uk.com

GHA’s tenants will soon see an improvement

GLASGOW Housing Association tenants will not see an improvement to their neighbourhoods after contractor for grounds and garden services was pulled out. Connaught Partnerships Limited had been awarded the three year contract for grass-cutting, backcourt cleaning and maintenance at GHA properties. Good old credit crunch !

The contract – valued at £2 million per annum-would have let this mob rip us off again. The best I have seen them do was supply Poles and that was not the scaffold poles type either.

No more urinating in our gardens etc. The GHA had comprehensive and customer-focused service to GHA’s 65,000 tenants, generate income from GHA’s 26,500 GHA factored homeowners and provide better value for money ensuring key improvements are enjoyed by tenants and funded by factored homeowners. No !  Con-u are out the picture. Hope we have a survey but not like their last one. Had you been contacted.

Let us know please.

Yipee!!!!!

GHA Ltd advertised in the European Journal inviting tenders

In 2004, GHA Ltd advertised in the European Journal inviting tenders for Insurance of £2.2bn worth of housing.

The only tender put forward was Royal Sun Alliance who offered a premium/charge of £1.00 for every £1000.00 of cover. Within two months, this increased substantially to £1.42 per £1000.00 of cover over three years, 2004 – 2007. There is no contract documentation or paper trail and no ojec. No ojec award and no written acceptance of tender.

All of the above demands a full investigation. Again it is the factored owners who have been overcharged. It is clear GHA Ltd have ripped of their 26,000 factored owners living in Glasgow.

It is very important that the Scottish Housing Regulator does NOT carry out a financial investigation as they are too closely associated to GHA Ltd.

An informal memo dated 29^th January 2008 from Christine MacLeod to Karen Wall, Chief exec to the Housing Regulator states; “The Regulator will not engage in checks, reviewing or corresponding about the detail of the quarterly progress report”.

This memo also stated that monitoring GHA Ltd is not to be intensive. The memo stated that; “it avoids micro managing GHA’s improvement strategy. It is not an onerous process for GHA to sustain as GHA relies on its own monitoring reports”.

It is clear that a truly independent financial investigation has to be carried out by Audit Scotland, which has the respect of every one.

Therefore, Alex Neil, Minister for Housing, is called upon to instigate an investigation as soon as possible.

In Hillington, owners have been asked to pay an estimate of £33.000 for GHA’s improvement works with Castlemilk at £25.00.

The owners have received their ‘estimates’.

An open letter to Alex Neil, Minister for housing & communities.

An open letter to Alex Neil, Minister for housing & communities.

The Chair of the Glasgow Homeowners Campaign is calling for a forensic financial investigation for the over pricing of home improvement works with regard to the actual charges levied by contractors for the cladding, roofing and wilful lack of monitoring by GHA Ltd of contractors of the above between 2004 – 2008.

A forensic financial investigation should, also be carried out to include other financial matters including VAT and Insurance.

During 2004 – 2008, the insulated render and cladding association (UK Trade Body) recommended that render per meter squared should be between, £45.00 – £65.00. The private contractors for the GHA were, well above the industry recommended pricing level. Lovell’s, Morris Spottiswood, Campbell’s Construction and Connaught were charging between £80.00 – £102.00 for over cladding.

However, the worst culprit for over charging was City Building (still a part of Glasgow City Council) who charged £120.00 per meter squared in Sandyhills in the East End of Glasgow.

The same firm working in Springburn told factored homeowners in writing that their bills would be £9119.18 (Bagnell Street, Springburn). One week later they were informed that their bill would increase to £10300.00.

Again, the same firm in Whiteinch stated that the columns detailing the price / cost on their estimate/costing paper work should, not be completed, there-fore giving no de£ail. The instruction given was to leave the co£umns blank on owners copies.

It is clear that City Building are charging 40% more than the private contractors, there-fore all of the above justifies a financial investigation.

In addition, GHA Ltd charge all homeowners VAT on the improvement programme. The GHA reclaim almost all the VAT back, as they are a ‘registered charity’. Although registered charities are entitled to claim back the VAT, this does not sit well. GHA Ltd claim they are a not for profit organisation but GHA(m) has been created out of GHA Ltd for the very purpose of creating wealth for the company, wealth/profit, created through payments made by all of the GHA’s Factored Homeowners.

In relation to the GHA’s Compulsory Buildings Insurance, it is clear that fraud by stealth has been operating for several years now.

Firstly, Glasgow’s GHA Factored owners have been, overcharged by £1.5m on administration charges for the Buildings Insurance. For four years the GHA Ltd have charged a £15.00 fee annually when their management fee should have covered the cost for Buildings Insurance.

GHA Ltd denied this fee was to cover admin costs. This now appears to false. In May 2003, June Milne, factoring manager of the GHA Ltd stated in a letter that administration of Insurance would be covered by the said management fee.

Prior to GHA’s involvement, Glasgow City Council covered all administration charges through the management fee.

It is clear that senior management within the GHA pursued an additional admin charge for £1.56m. This should be, refunded, as this constitutes fraud !

Chair

Sean Clerkin

info@gsohc.co.uk or andrew@gsohc.co.uk

GHAm extends time to pay

Glasgow Housing Association extends time to pay

Feb 2009

GLASGOW Housing Association (GHA) is at last looking at ways it can help its factored homeowners.

The association is to seek clearance from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) on introducing more flexible payment plans for homeowners at risk of facing court action because they are having difficulty paying their share of bills for major works such as re-roofing and over cladding.

The move comes following a review of GHA’s Debt Recovery Strategy for homeowners with extend repayment periods for up to two years for owners, willing to pay their bills, but are struggling to meet the GHA’s current 12-month payment period.

If introduced, it means that GHA can become more flexible in considering payment options on a case-by-case discretionary basis for those owners participating in their capital investment and improvement programme.

GHA is now to seek input from HMRC to ensure any increased flexibility would not expose GHA and its tenants to tax liabilities.

GHA plans to spend a further £20 million in the coming financial year (2009/10) on GHA factored ‘owners’ homes.

The investment works not only increase the re-sale value of owners’ properties but also improve their energy efficiency, helping reduce owners’ fuel bills.

All GHA-factored homeowners who live in a common property alongside GHA tenants have access to a grant scheme – not available anywhere else in Scotland – under which they can receive grant assistance of between 50 per cent and 100 per cent of their share of the costs of these improvement works.

To date, almost 7,000 owners have received over £51 million in grants to help offset their share of the £70 million worth of capital works carried out on their homes.

Sandra Forsythe, GHA Tenant Chair said: “We recognise that even with the grant assistance available, owners are finding it difficult to pay us their share of the cost of improvement works within 12 months.

“With the impact of the, ‘credit crunch’ and increased fuel bills more owners may struggle”

She added: “The latest proposal approved by the GHA Board would offer an extra lifeline by allowing us to apply discretion on a case-by case basis to assist those owners who are at risk of facing court action and genuinely need help due to our high bills.

Sean Clerkin, chairman for the Glasgow Home owners Campaign, said: “We welcome this step forward.

“This is a clear victory for homeowners in that it gives a payment extension to homeowners, up to a new GHA maximum of two years to pay back.

In addition to the grant scheme, owners factored by GHA also have access to a Financial Assistance Scheme, operated by Glasgow City Council on behalf of the Scottish Government. This offers financial advice to homeowners before paying their share of the cost of works and can help facilitate loan facilities from organisations such as Glasgow Credit Union.

The recent review of GHA’s Debt Recovery Strategy for homeowners found that despite some assistance being available, some homeowners with limited income or in difficult financial circumstances are still at risk of facing court action because they are not able to pay off the GHA’s bill within one year.

Existing GHA policy already enables homeowners to agree repayment plans with the association.

This more flexible approach now proposed would allow GHA to take more account of owners’ individual circumstances and their ability to pay. A homeowners repayment plan would have no bearing or relevance on any of GHA’s tenants rent arrears or current payment arrangements.

Homeowners lobbied GHA board meeting

Homeowners lobbied GHA

A GHA board meeting at the GHA offices in Trongate was lobbied by homeowners over charges for home improvements.

The Glasgow Homeowners Campaign made the discovery of charges after the social landlord issued itemised bills for repairs. The campaigners claim they were misled over the city-wide improvement plan with added management and contingency fee charges of six and three per cent – based on average bills ranging from s7000 to s14000 across 26000 properties.

Sean Clerkin, chair of the Glasgow Homeowners Campaign said: “What the GHA has done by not telling homeowners, for three years about management fees, shows a concerted attempt to mislead them.”

Homeowners can apply for 50 % up-to100 % grant from Government or in same instances, a loan from a council run scheme with Glasgow Credit Union that is means tested so do not guarantee full funding.

The GHA claim that 95 % of homeowners have already paid for their improvements within their required 12-month period.

For the 1300 homeowners with bills outstanding the issue is not just the cost but also a matter of transparency.

Sean Clerkin added: “We have campaigned for three years for a flexible payments scheme that will enable GHA factored homeowners to get longer than one year (current arrangement) to pay thousands of pounds for over cladding and re-roofing under the GHA’s improvement programme.

“We understand GHA agreed to discuss, for approval at its board meeting on Friday January 30, the introduction of a flexible payment scheme giving these homeowners a maximum of two years (interest free) to pay these bills for the GHA home improvements. We welcome this step forward and as a gesture, we will end our non-payment campaign.