with thanks to thisisnorthkensington.wordpress.com

Comments

DAMESATHOME@GMAIL.COM
send the Dame your information, discretion assured.
Comments are welcome but do not necessarily reflect the view of the Dame.
Offensive/inappropriate comments will be deleted and the poster banned.

Thursday 28 March 2024

A POMPOUS COUCILLOR MOVES ON

There are hard-working Conservative councillors who take their role very seriously...Cllrs Will, McVeigh, Addenbrooke, Thallasites, Kemahli, Taylor-Smith and Lindsay spring to mind but there are many others.

A LOCAL VIEW ON LOCAL MANAGING AGENTS

Sometimes a Hornet comments so succinctly about a topic the Dame is forced to elevate it.

Here is on such....

Grist to their greed money making mill!



Dear Dame,

Congratulations on all the hits that your blog is now getting. 

This increase in your website's traffic should put the wind-up all the parliamentary hopefuls in Kensington.

Felicity Buchan MP has a circle to square that will prove impossible.

The Tory Party is in reality, and has always been, on the side of the wealthy, greedy Freeholder (known in Law as the Lessor) and their Managing Agents. 

The last vestiges of feudalism resides in the psyche of every Tory politician. These Tories pay lip service to their constituents about the morality of greedy Freeholders, and their even greedier Managing Agents, fleecing Leaseholders with onerous service charge bills and extortionately high percentage management and supervision fees on top.

There is nothing that a Managing Agent loves more than a building being neglected by its Freeholder. When major works can be put off no longer, these Managing Agents can recover from Leaseholders the costs of the works which need to be done which, in the case of neglected buildings is always expensive. Managing Agents then make their money by levying Management Fees, Surveyors' Fees and Works' Supervision Fees as a percentage of the total major works' bill. The more that a building is neglected the greater the cost to the Leaseholder to put things right and the greater the profit for the Managing Agent. The hypocrisy of property mismanagement.

These Managing Agents are Past Masters at keeping a close on eye on Tribunal decisions about the "reasonableness" of management fees. They rub their grasping hands with glee if they find a Tribunal decision declares a higher than usual percentage management fee as "reasonable." Accordingly, Managing Agents increase the Leaseholders' Management Fee contribution for major works and point out to any Leaseholder who complains that the Tribunal has held that percentage uplift to be a "reasonable" one. These Managing Agents know that most Leaseholders do not want to go anywhere near a Court or a Tribunal and impose these charges in a morally corrupt way.

Joe Powell's Labour Party does not escape unscathed. Between 1997 and 2010, the Labour Party paid lip service to this situation and introduced "Commonhold." This was not a decent solution to the plight of Leaseholders. It was more about protecting the Freeholders' interests. By the time Labour was shafted in 2010, only one or two blocks of flats had taken advantage of the so called Commonhold reforms. Why did Labour shaft Leaseholders at the expense of Freeholders? Many Freeholders in Kensington are landed gentry.

In Scotland, the Tenement (Scotland) Act 2004 created a framework for each leaseholder to own their flat freehold with a share of the common parts of the building being collectively owned (including a share of the airspace on any tenement's roof.) Any landlord wishing to be compensated for loss of the freehold interest was entitled to twenty times the yearly ground rent and had a limited amount of time to make that claim from flat owners. Most landlords were untraceable and very few Leaseholders in Scotland had to pay anything. As a result of these reforms the owners of many flats in Scotland have carried out major works and have had some control over costs, programming of works and outcomes.

Respectfully, My Dear Dame,

A victim

THE DAME HITS RECORD 113,000 VIEWS AND HITS OUT AT MANAGING AGENTS

 


click to enlarge

Every reader has a story to tell about a K&C managing agent. 

Some are lazy....some work hard and are honest... many are downright corrupt.


'we hear but we don't listen'!

The Dame wants to hear your story about your Kensington & Chelsea managing agent. 

When she has all the evidence she will be submitting it to Felicity Buchan MP and Joe Powell, the Labour challenger.

It's tough enough being a leaseholder without having a low-quality managing agent ruining your life and your bank balance.

For too long leaseholders have been prey for the greedy and dishonest.

Labour says they will overhaul the system...let's see....



Sunday 24 March 2024

COUNCIL SPONSORED VANDALISM OF A PIECE OF HISTORIC LONDON

 

This magnificent example of Art Deco style and architecture made the Odeon in High St Ken outstanding and quite unique.

Below is what happened when New Delhi based Lodha got its greedy hands on the building.

So much for the redevelopment respecting and retaining the facade of the original building. 

What we have actually ended up with is a half-hearted pastiche.

The Council has a Conservation team. 

The Dame's experience with the team is a tedious obsession with the minute internal details of a development. 

Yet it allowed developers to tear down wonderful internal features like this.

It would have been more honest had the Council agreed demolition of the building rather than pretending to residents it would be preserved....what an insult to us all.




Saturday 23 March 2024

THE GREATEST QUESTION OF ALL

As we move towards Easter the Dame thought she would address a question of greater import to our lives than Cllr Isse’s switch from Corbynism to Toryism in a New York Minute.

Tom Vaughan is a Kensington resident and co-founder of Juliana’s. 
He is also a descendant of Cardinal Vaughan, founder of the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School.

It is unusual for a businessman to write a book that makes you stop and think: Tom has done so in Hope and the Hedgehog.

It’s a small book packing a big punch and it certainly got the Dame thinking.

Is Hope and the Hedgehog about religion? 


Tom says it’s not…”First, there is a fundamental question, a primary choice facing all of humanity  -  without exception  -  before religion of any persuasion comes into the frame. 

This choice is a binary one separating faith from religion. Put simply it is this: either there is a creator (for some, God by another name) which would arguably give life a purpose, or there is not, and our existence is nothing more than a random cosmic accident with no discernible purpose. 

It is one or other of these two choices, there is nowhere else to go.’

 

The Dame really recommends Hope and the Hedgehog to readers. It is rare for the Dame to stray away from mundane matters of local life but this book by a local resident is worth buying.

It is stocked by Amazon LINK TO BUY and Blackwells and Waterstones

Thursday 21 March 2024

IN DEFENCE OF LAMMY

 


Corbyn's people soon savaged David Lammy for his sane and sensible assessment of Thatcher. She had something else lacking in today's leaders.....courage.

As a 'young thing' many years ago the Dame was ordered to go to Birmingham New St and collect Mrs Thatcher. She was then 12 years away from becoming PM.

Arriving in  Coventry Mrs T was greeted by a horde of  Socialist Workers Group 'activists'.

They swore and cursed at her.  The Dame tried to commiserate saying how awful the experience was. 

Her reply and look are forever etched on the Dame's mind. "My dear, when they shout and scream at me it means they are frightened of me."

Leaders of today want to be loved by all: it just doesn't work.

Wednesday 20 March 2024

WHY COUNCILS ARE GOING BUST

 

laughing all the way to the bank

The Dame has been looking at Judge Khan's WEIRD JUDGMENT which has enriched Mrs Wright-Turner to the tune of £4.6 million...tax free

The press has been guided to believe she suffered PTSD as a result of working on the post-impact of Grenfell: but that is not the case.

This man below will have suffered. 

Mrs Wright-Turner was clearly a nightmare employee who should never have been given the £125,000 a year job in the first place. So, Human Resources has two questions to answer. 

*Why Wright-Turner ever got appointed

*Why so they buggered up the dismissal process. 

The result is that every H&F resident will have to chip in £25 so Mrs Wright-Turner can lead a life of luxury. 

No doubt she retains a platinum plated pension.







Tuesday 19 March 2024

COMMUNICATIONS DEPT 'FORGETS' ANOTHER MEETING!

 

Click on image 

This is North Kensington always has a humorous touch which the Dame appreciates. 

Here's another important meeting that got 'overlooked'!




Read THINK  HERE