Attendees:
Ian Forrester (IF)
Katherine Harrison (KH)
Jonathan Isaacs (JI)
Tracey Langford (TL)
Wayne Langford (WL)
James Needham (JN)
Anand Patel (Revolution)
Paul Spence (Revolution)
Apologies: Paul Kelly and Suzan Swientozielskj
Minutes Last Meeting
- Accepted as a true recrod.
Matters Arising:
- Digital signage – fee is per display but is a fixed fee, ie no restriction on volume of updates. Cost is £150 per display per year; further updates awaited. ACTION: REVOLUTION
MATTERS TO DISCUSS WITH REVOLUTION
DECORDATION
FURNITURE:
- Addition of furniture in the reception lobby of block B. Revolution have appointed a company called Fusion to provide options inc square table and chairs. Some discussion followed re: best fit, ie chairs/couches. AP will arrange for Fusion to meet with the committee to choose/decide. Also discussed why only for Block B which is different by design to Block A where there simply isn’t space to allow for placement of furniture. Also, the choices made will be sent out to members of the residents association for a vote in order to ensure the right choice of furniture from residents perspective. ACTION: REVOLUTION AND RESIDENTS COMMITTEE
LIFTS:
- JI and members raised the issue that lifts are now looking very tired. Revolution will arrange for the bent panel (lift in Block B) to be replaced and also for the lift polisher to clean the lifts; they will have been used before and the results are excellent. WL also asked if new flooring could also be priced up. ACTION: REVOLUTION
- Lift to the Penthouse apartments is still out of action (now two weeks) which is causing considerable access issues to the owners. There is also water ingress in the stairweel which has been reported including the submission of photographs by WL to Revolution with no response date. PS asked WL to re-send. ACTION: WL AND REVOLUTION
SMOKING ASH TRAYS:
- Have been chosen and will be ordered. ACTION: REVOLUTION
METAL SHIELDS FOR LIFT CORNERS:
- Replacements have been ordered and decorators have also been commissioned to make good any repairs that will be needed after installation. ACTION: REVOLUTION
REMOVAL OF STICKERS ON DOORS:
- Some stickers remain on the main doors, Revolution to organize removal. ACTION: REVOLUTION
REPLACEMENT OF WARNING STICKERS/EXIT SIGNS WITH METAL:
- Committee asked Revolution to look into options to replace the plastic signage currently in place for something “less tacky”. Revolution reiterated that the style (i.e color) cannot be changed as this is stipulated by law. However will price up for options for other alternatives. ACTION: REVOLUTION
GARDEN
BBQ AREA BIN AND SIGN:
- JN informed the committee that the new BBQ’s had been well received and utilised by the residents. Now need to decide if 2 more are needed. Revolution asked to price up. ACTION: REVOLUTION
STOCK OF GRILLS AND COST
- Revolution will purchase a stock of disposable grills that will be made available through the main office and they will inform residents of the cost. Discussion then took place re 2 options for residents – either a) pay a deposit for a grill and return clean, or b) buy and retain. Signage is required notifying residents to clean up after themselves as well as action that can be taken when the garden and bbq have been left in a mess. It is noted that the fob system along with the CCTV can identify those responsible; Revolution will then follow up with the individuals concerned.
UPLIFT OF DECKING:
- Noted that a lot of the planks are lifting with nails sticking out and looking generally warped. Revolution is asked to review and price up for repair/replacement. ACTION: REVOLUTION
4G MAST:
- IF asked AP/PS re the appearance of the 4G Mast in the garden; Revolution advised it is a temporary installation for Laing O’Rourke to have internet access to their unit during the building works.
OTHER
HOT WATER ADMIN CHARGE:
- Revolution are just awaiting final word from the regulator but in essence the admin charge will be dropped from residents water/heating bill and each apartment will be charged £10 per quarter, which is much less than what is charged now, and it will go into the service charge. Apartments water/heating bills will then only be for the units they use. KH asked if any refund would be forthcoming to residents from the previously high charges; in short no! Revolution explained that the charges paid before they took over the system were the legitimate charges of that provider. Revolution will be informing residents as per the regulator instructs.
FIRE ALARM:
- WL and IF are concerned that there is still confusion on what should happen when the fire alarm sounds. At the recent alarm, WL noted he was the only person to evacuate the building and also that the Fire Brigade went to the wrong address. Not only that, the fire brigade were unable to assess the problem, couldn’t make sense of the panel etc. Revolution reiterated that the Fire Brigade made a full assessment of the building 18 months ago and that the normal procedure in the event of an alarm being triggered here is that the plans etc for Islington Wharf are sent to the fire crew to respond. Clearly there are still numerous issues that need addressing both with the fire brigade and residents information. Revolution to inform the Fire Brigade Operations Director of what happened here. Updated information for residents also required. ACTION: REVOLUTION
BLOCK A DOOR FAILURE:
- Problem has been addressed, new power supply and battery back-up installed.
REPLACEMENT OF SHATTERED GLASS (APTs 91, 19x and 200):
- To note that it is taking far too long to replace. Unfortunately Revolution is unable to do anything about this due to the current stock of glass. It is difficult to turn around a repair in less than 6 months and although the Committee are very dissatisfied with this there is no further action that can be taken at this time.
BINS IN RECEPTION AREAS:
- Noted the grey plastic bin is still needed usually to manage the disposal of the MEN free paper which most residents simply throw away! Discussed how unwanted delivery can be better managed with some committee members being aware of a sticker system for letter boxes, ie a red dot signifies ‘do not deliver free paper/junk mail here’. This needs to be clarified and explained to residents. ACTION: JN
WINDOW CLEANING:
- Following on residents being asked to fill in the satisfaction survey, a revisit of apartments whose windows had not been cleaned satisfactorily had still not taken place. Revolution to follow up with contractors. ACTION: REVOLUTION
JOINING FEE FOR RESIDENTS:
- Having investigated the legal position further, the committee discussed the possibility of reducing or abolishing the fee element to join the association. This would co-inside with a re-draft of the constitution.
- JI agree to re-draft the constitution taking this into account. ACTION: JI
- Revolution agreed to speak to their representatives to see if there were any concerns over the above and an update to be provided at the next meeting. ACTION: REVOLUTION
RESIDENTS DISCARDING WASTE OF WINDOWS:
- There have been numerous issues of residents throwing cigarette ends out of their windows plus other detritus including coffee! However, although the soiling of other peoples’ windows is an issue, the greatest concern is the risk of lit cigarette ends blowing back into the apartments below and causing a fire. Revolution to put out a notice immediately to all residents to highlight this issue and for them to stop this behavior. ACTION: REVOLUTION
RESIDENTS SUB-LETTING TO AIR BNB:
- It had become apparent that a number of apartments are on offer through Air BnB. The committee discussed this and concluded that the vast majority of ‘disturbances’ and damage could well be caused by those who are staying short term, who are untraceable.
- Revolution advised that this was against the terms of the lease, and would send a communication out to this effect. ACTION: REVOLUTION
MATTERS TO DISCUSS IN ISOLATION
MAKE UP OF COMMITTEE: STRUCTURE, RECOGNITION AND CONSTITUTION:
- JI has reviewed our current status and for us to become formally recognized we need to define our constitution using the framework provided, decide if a fee is to be charged, and then submit to the Courts and Tribunals with a £25 fee. They then have a hearing (of sorts) inviting the landlord/s to attend; they will receive any objections and then a case is heard or its dealt with as paper to award us recognized association status effective for 5 years.
- AP has sent information to the Committee about a Federation of Private Associations that we could join for a fee of £400. However, given the different nature of this there doesn’t appear to be any benefit and the charge would have to be levied to residents. All agreed to pursue the former. Action – JI will devise a draft constitution to be finalized at the next meeting and in the meantime, will collate ‘as is’ position on those who have signed up and paid.
- This information is required for the submission of our constitution to the Courts and Tribunals service, (apartment no. only, ie no names). Further work is needed in terms of contacting landlords. ACTION: JI
- Outstanding issues re structure etc bring to next meeting.
SUMMER BBQ:
- Put on hold for now.
PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON PICCADILLY BASIN REGENERATION FRAMEWORK:
- KH led a discussion about the impact of this in terms of more high-rise structures in the Ancoats area. In short, agreed to write back with a thank you letter and request to be kept informed and involved as the consultation progresses, especially as IW is mentioned specifically in the document. KH will do this on our behalf. ACTION: KH
PUTTING SOME QUESTIONS RAISED BY LOSS ADJUSTERS TO ISIS:
- JN has done a look-back exercise on emails and docs and has found a lot of information to support our case going forward, especially based on the 2 year deadline of the new homes guarantee for submission of complaints. However, absolute clarity is needed that this applies to each home and not the completion of Islington Wharf.
- Clarity is needed from the insurer re: do we need to pursue a full case at this time or should we just cover the main issues ie windows and water now? JI will follow up and feed back. ACTION: JI
- Also, JI has met with PK and Derek, re Arup. ISIS has confirmed it has never briefed Arup etc, it was Laing O’Rourke (LO) who conducted everything on their behalf. The contract Arup had with LO is understood to be completed and therefore there should be no conflict of interest for Arup to work with us. Their representative worked on the initial project which is helpful.
AOB:
- Non.
Date Of Next Meeting: Tuesday, 6th SEPTEMBER, 19:00