650 residents have, in the last few days, viewed the stories on the abject hopelessness of the beleaguered TMO and its hapless, under qualified CE, Robert Black.
PACK YOUR BAGS AND BEGONE, SIR
Time for the Council take action rather wait for the TMO stakeholders to initiate a vote of no confidence
When the Council is asked, we are told that it is a matter for the TMO board. When we ask the TMO Board, they all back the actions of the TMO. So they self-police.
The TMO is fire proof. People complain to the Council and are told that the TMO is independent of the Council. People only go to the Council after exhausting the TMO's Complaints' Procedure. The majority of the Resident Non- Executive Directors on the TMO Board are on social security and have less education than Robert Black.
13.53 We can safely say that the people on the TMO Board who have not held down employment for some time are completely devoid of intellect. These untalented people need recourse to social security just to survive otherwise they would be making it in the labour market. The go on the TMO Board and receive generous expenses allowances to top up their social.
Intellectuals believe that REASON will disclose answers to everything. That's what an intellectual is and the term is often used incorrectly. Conversely, Intelligent people know that there are limits to reason solving anything because "reason is and only ought to be the slave of the passions and never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them"
13.53 should perhaps go on the TMO and join the other doughnuts you would do well there.
We need people of high ability on the TMO Board. Since the creation of the TMO, people of low ability who happen to be on Social Security have been attracted to joining the TMO Board,not so they can do good work and develop policy and practice but in order to claim the very generous TMO Expenses' Allowance which is nothing to do with reimbursing out of pocket expenses but to giving these Tenant Non Executive Directors money to top up their Social Security. That's why policy and practice is so bad at the TMO. Black does not want intellectuals on the Board to stop him doing what he wants to do.
Do you remember Miss Rawlings and Mr Beverley no one would say that they were intellectuals but the pair of them were on Social Security whilst on the TMO.
Tenant Non Executive Directors go on the Board to get a Social Security top up.
Tory who objects to the TMO deceiving the Department for Work and Pensions.23 July 2016 at 09:30
09.08. It is unbelievable that the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, a first class Tory Council, would allow its housing management agency to devise a scheme whereby the TMO has intentionally deceived Social Security Officers in to believing that its Non Executive Directors incur out of pocket expenses in excess of £100 a month. You would have to do a lot of journeys on the bus to run up fares in excess of £ 100 a month. TMO Board Members only pay a few bus fares each YEAR because they now only attend a few meetings every YEAR.
This so called expenses' scheme was devised Gordon Perry so that all those Board members drawing means tested benefits did not have their Social Security reduced. However, Robert Black has done nothing to tell Social Security the truth.
650 residents read the blog and not even one came to praise TMO? Oh dear.
Anon 11:29, there is a term for that, Pen-pushing, hot potato! It's always somebody else who deals with it and it keeps going round and round like a revolving door.
We in Grenfell Tower sent a petition and spoke to the council Scrutiny Committee about the way we were treated during our refurbishment. The Scrutiny committee said they would investigate. Instead they asked the TMO to investigate. the TMO set up a so called "independent" panel including Condon-Simonds - and they came up with a whitewash report without speaking to a single resident.
How can any TMO panel be independent of the TMO. It is nonsense for anyone, even someone as daft as Mr Black, to claim that any investigation by the TMO is anything other than an exercise in making sure that no sh*t lands on the TMO's carpet. Clearly this panel was partisan not independent. It was certainly biased if the Condon Simmonds woman was on it. Whitewash is far too polite a term for something so tainted.
It's important to let others know what has/not happened but we can get bogged down discussing such points which we can't change. The only way to avoid depression is to move forward and to bring down TMO for the benefit of the tenants. Everytime I read something about TMO makes me sick to my stomach.
We could ask genuine staff to stay though Mickey Mouse jobs and salary like Mr Black enjoyed must go IMO.
Cll. Condon-Simmonds is a non-executive director and Board member of the TMO. She cannot, by definition, be "independent".
As usual there are TMO double-standards at play - whenever TMO Board members take in active interest in residents' issues they are stomped on by Black and his Exec team who will promptly prattle on about their legal duties as directors of the company and the Board's "collective responsibility". But when they want to placate the plebs those same Board members can be portrayed as "independent". What a farce!
We at Grenfell Tower have had huge support from our Labour councillors. But Cllr Blakeman was not allowed to speak at the scrutiny committee because she is a TMO Board member and not allowed to criticise it (even though she does).
Doesn't the Council consult residents every five years on whether they want the TMO to continue to manage their homes? If so the next one is due soon given that 2016 is the TMO's 20th anniversary. Time for those who object to the TMO to encourage their neighbours to do just that and say NO to crap management!
This is a SERIOUS matter, it is about our HOMES and PERSONAL LIVES and the STRESS and STRAIN the KCTMO put on OUR LIVES through incompetence and mismanagement.
This affects our HEALTH, wellbeing, our working lives and recreation time. People have been so worn down by dealing with the KCTMO that their health has suffered or they have just got so fed up they have moved. That is never acceptable and must CHANGE.
A coherent PLAN is needed. Our properties MUST be managed by PROVEN COMPETENT, EXPERIENCED MANAGEMENT with integrity and good intentions. Standards and expertise come from the top down and a CEO's role is to pro-actively direct all departments and get involved. Any CEO should have the knowledge, EXPERTISE and a proven track record.
The following WILL help:
1. Create and keep up to date, a concise numbered list of problems/issues and poor performance of the KCTMO with names, reason and dates, to be printed for submission at a later date.
2. Log your personal time spent "working" on KCTMO problems, letters etc. (effectively doing their work), with dates to be submitted at a later date.
Agree everything 18:55 said apart from point No.2 which may not amount to anything. But any problems you had, be it repair, long-term void property, complaint department etc should be recorded with date, details and possibly reference number if any.
I thought about your point 2 and I am still uncertain though a worth try. Everyone works for Tesco these days if you use a self-checkout to scan your own shopping and pack the bag. Cashiers used to do it for us. How about utility meter reading? The difficulty is that if you were to try to out TMO in court, it is your words against them and hard to prove that you have spent 12 hrs per week on TMO matter.
Has anyone got the ear of the new Prime Minister Theresa May. It would take her having a word in Paget Brown's shell like to put these ghastly Tory councillors straight about the TMO.
pfft Pity if only Andrea Leadsom became the new PM. I did like the tone of her voice but obviously she was bought out. In fact everyone backed down and May had no competition. How could that be!??? lol On the other hand....Theresa May.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU66W9H-Y7w
Did anyone speak to the site manager and asked to stop? Stop them.I know I've been in that situation and you would want at least weekend of calm, don't you? The noice wears you out.
Councillor Nick Paget-Brown was told publicly at the "ASK NICK" q&a at Holy Trinity Church last Monday of Mr Black's only formal qualification (A PAINTING DIPLOMA, FROM ART COLLEGE) and his lack of relevant qualifications to be in the position of CEO of KCTMO.
RBKC own 100% share capital of KCTMO and Councillor Paget-Brown is now (if not before) fully aware of Mr Black's qualifications.
Robert Black is not only unqualified but not up to the job. Trust the Rawlings Board to appoint someone so inadequate; lumbering us with him for the last seven years.
This lack of qualifications on the part of Mr Black tends to explain why the written work of TMO Staffs is full of elementary spelling and grammatical errors - some of them do not know what a double negative is and others do not how to conjugate a verb.
One member of staff recently asked me, " Was you..."
In the old days an 'O' Level pass in English was required for a very routine clerical job in the Council. Nowadays asking for passes in anything is seen as unjustifiable in the interests of equality of opportunity. So to ensure equality of opportunity for ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, qualifications are consigned to the bin.
So we now have a Housing CEO with a Post Graduate Diploma in Painting. Can we assume that as TMO Final Service Charge Bills are full of numerous errors on each occasion they come in that those preparing them have a pass in cookery, woodwork or needlework ?
It seems that Robert Black did not get even Bachelor's Degree in Art or anything else. He was obviously such a gifted painter, a potential van Gogh, that he progressed straight to a post graduate diploma in painting.
Time to competency test everyone working in the TMO.
10:38 another one is 'Aks' (not a spelling mistake).
Now, you have eeked me 10:38. Does the person who is in charge of accounting/finance hold appropriate qualifications? Another example, George Osborne doesn't have a financial related qualification but he was a Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Anyway, may be that's why TMO had to hide money from the auditor because the figures didn't tally up?
The irony is that if you go to a supermarket and ask a staff something, you will notice that they are very eloquent and probably hold a university degree. *facepalm* The world is upside down.
19.02. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is an Economist, not an Accountant. His job is not accountancy but about making choices that an economy has to make. By contrast, the TMO figure work clerks who calculate leaseholders' service charge bills are engaged in accountancy related functions and it is clear that bills are sent out full of mistakes after being certified by the Council's Accountant. The Council's Accountant and the TMO's figure work clerks are less than diligent if residents can find the errors in their work. The mind boggles as to where would we be if the TMO managed to produce a clean set of accounts for leaseholders each year. I make no comment about the qualifications of the TMO figure work clerks or the way in which their work is checked and supervised by Mr Black and other TMO Executive Directors.
I believe that George Osborne holds an Oxford Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics which I think we can say is a relevant qualification. Black is an artist who hardly has the makings of a good Housing Officer. I would NOT mind his poor educational background if he had done a good job. The people working in supermarkets would be able to do much better, I am sure. They are at least resourceful and intelligent.
Given Mr Black's CV as it stands, would he be employed elsewhere as a CEO in business or in a non profit making organisation? It seems doubtful.
Perhaps a review of senior/CEO job specifications will evidence the qualifications and experience required to succeed and show he is not properly qualified to be employed by RBKC/KCTMO for us.
A list of Mr Black's achievements in the last 7.5 years should be requested.
Mr Blacks Linkedin profile shows he has NO training and NO qualifications pertaining to property management.
Most CEOs are expected to have a bachelor's or master's degree. In addition to this, extensive market knowledge is needed, as is a thorough understanding of the company. Awareness of all positions is essential and CEOs often work their way up through the ranks.
I think Janet was being ironic possibly sarcastic. Now do you get it Robert. if you had done better at school you would not have had to ask such a silly question.
If I found any good feedback about TMO from people, I would have mentioned those as well as the negative ones to give a balanced view but I did not find anyone praising TMO so I knew Janet was talking BS. If you don't believe me, try it yourself. A simple question "Are you happy with TMO?" will get you going. lol
The TMO rental and service charge bills have been messed up by the Council's failed Agresso management accounts system, like everything else in the borough.
No 09.14. The computer only does what people who use them instruct the computer to do. The innumerable errors in service charge final accounts are down to the people who process the invoices in Leaseholder Services and apportion the expenditure to blocks of flats and then apportion those charges to individual property owners. The Council's Accountant who certifies these accounts does not examine the vouchers and other documents before signing off on these accounts. Residents then have to spend hours going through these accounts, doing the TMO's job, to make sure they are not overcharged.
Unless all the good residents of RBKC are prepared to do more than blog, NOTHING will happen.
We must be PROACTIVE, work in a coordinated way in a form of group action. This is serious, the KCTMO impinge on all our lives in a very significant way.
KCTMO charge us what they want and tell us to go away when questioned, using all the red tape available, e.g. SECTION 20.
Robert Black after 7 years with TMO is in the same position that Gordon Perry was in after 7 years at TMO. The TMO is a mess today just like it was seven years ago.
Robert Black started off being decent and reasonable with tenants probably because he was supremely confident that he would improve things. As time dragged on, he found it impossible to change things and has subsequently resorted to the same sharp practices of his predecessors.
Is Robert looking for another job?
Is that why his CV is on Linkedin?
Can you imagine any decent headhunter being impressed with him?
An internet research would reveal this blog so we are stuck with him until he retires, resigns or is sacked.
IT IS A SCANDAL THAT ROBERT BLACK WAS APPOINTED CEO:
MR BLACK COMING FROM JUST A MIDDLE MANAGEMENT ASSISTANT POSITION "Who helped manage 45,000 homes across Surrey and Kent" HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO TURN THE KCTMO AROUND AS HE PROMISED BECAUSE HE DOES NOT LISTEN AND DOES NOT APPEAR TO HAVE THE COMPETENCY!
EMPTY PROMISES - NO TRUST AND NO CONFIDENCE IN ROBERT BLACK KCTMO
New Kensington and Chelsea TMO boss promises radical shake-up 13:59, 1 JUN 2009 UPDATED 12:25, 1 OCT 2013 BY GETWESTLONDON THE NEW chief executive of a housing body, racked by infighting and rebellion, has vowed to wipe the slate clean at Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation(TMO).
Chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation Robert BlackChief executive of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation Robert Black
THE NEW chief executive of a housing body, racked by infighting and rebellion, has vowed to wipe the slate clean at Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation(TMO).
In an exclusive interview with the Kensington and Chelsea News, Robert Black, incoming chief of the TMO, set out his agenda for the future of the troubled housing group – which controls the majority of council homes in the Royal Borough.
In the past two years, the organisation has been shook to its core after residents forced two Extraordinary General Meetings in a bid to reshape its management and improve performance.
Last month, former chief executive Helen Evans resigned early due to 'serious disquiet' within the elected board.
Mr Black, who helped manage 45,000 homes across Surrey and Kent, hopes that his appointment three weeks ago will mark a new era for the group.
Within the next six months he aims to:
* Sweep away the past and focus on improving repairs, not internal politics.
* Stamp out division to create 'cohesion' within the board.
* Work with the council, so that it trusts the TMO as a professional organisation able to run housing stock smoothly.
* Change residents perception of the TMO and get younger people involved.
Speaking in his office in St Charles House, high above bustling Kensington High Street, he said: "We need to rebuild that trust with people who are angry with us.
"I've got to get people to move on. We got to be honest and show people we are doing it. The onus is on the board to find some common ground.
"We have to try and focus on what we are here to do – deliver great services. Issues around repairs are fundamental in changing people's perception of the TMO."
The 49-year-old big wig added that the company can no longer rely on its much-touted 2006 three star audit status as proof of performance.
He also intends to reinvigorate his 190 staff members, who have been at the front line of, sometimes tumultuous, residential disquiet.
But Mr Black, who says he has a 'common sense' approach, has some tough challenges ahead.
Future funding for the TMO has been cut by the Government, leaving it with a multi-million pound gap to plug.
The council is also considering its options on how to deal with stock – which includes the World's End Estate in King's Road, and Trellick Tower in Golborne Road, North Kensington.
Mr Black said: "I don't have all the answers at the moment. In the short term we have to make repairs to be seen to better, in the future we have to work with the council for a longer term strategy.
"But tenant-led organisations can work. What we have to do is reach out to our membership and get more young people and more communities involved."
the TMO Board can call an Extraordinary General Meeting of the membership by acting on its own agency. No need for a petition with 500+ signatures.
If Robert Black wanted to resolve anything and answer to those whom he professes to serve, he could ask the Board to call an EGM. If he had any guts, he would do this and face down his critics and prove that the TMO is doing a good job.
Well we didn't know it was so easy to get going. If that's the case, people who are unhappy with the current predicament should write to the TMO Board and demand an EGM. In the interest of many mistreated tenants they should act.
I can assure you that the Constitution of every Company that I know of empowers its Board to call an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Membership. Of corse that shower of useless parasites on the TMO won't do it and just in case they were thinking about doing it, Mr Black would make sure that they did not not.
"Hands off" is a very accurate description of the current situation. Has anyone ever had a response to a written enquiry to Mr. Black responded to by Mr. Black? He does not respond to anything himself, however serious the issue being raised, and delegates everything, and I do mean everything, to his minions. Nothing appears to be sufficiently serious to merit his attention. His predecessors at least had the common courtesy and sufficient interest to respond to written enquiries from residents addressed to the CEO themselves. Mr. Black does not. He is so distant that he might as well be on the moon.
Black was educated in Scotland. I suppose he might have a few passes in the Scottish Ordinary and Higher Grade exams.
As his qualifications in Higher Education are not what one would expect for a CEO, I think he would have mentioned any passes he got from school on his scratchy CV. As has failed to mention these passes from school, we can only assume that he has no such passes and if he claims any such passes at this late stage, we should ask to see his certificates.
I can just imagine the poorly educated Juliet Rawlings being impressed if Black claimed that he is qualified by experience during his interview. What a joke.
We received one mistake email from him telling his side kick to look into a problem we raised!
We pay handsomely for Mr Black's mistake after mistake and we suffer stress, loss and a lot of work because of it. These are our homes and we all have one life!
It seems that every tenant I meet randomly says most awful thing about the cancerous organisation. Not one person praised the organisation and they are suffering health wise. Information came to me and one of the tactics they use is a black mail on vulnerable which makes me think they might just be like a mafia. It's been an interesting afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Please go out while sun is shining and talk to other random tenants other than your area. Many people never heard of FTHN yet. We need to come together because there may be hope for tenants and leaseholders even Mr Black tries to snuff our effort. I can't disclose what it is openly unfortunately. Need to think outside of the box everyone and do not lose faith that justice will be served if we carry on.
Please comment below. What would you like to happen apart from Mr Black's resignation? Jail term for some staff? Anything else? Be realistic but be greedy with the possibilities please.
A few years ago my Doctor put me on anti depressants to treat the anxiety and stress wrought on me by the TMO. Jail term- prison is too good for some working in the TMO.
BREAKING: Lambeth council to retake control of housing in the borough and end Lambeth Living Written by Tim Dickens on October 7, 2014 in Community, Council, Housing
lambeth livingLambeth council will retake direct control for all its social homes in the borough, it was announced today.
Lambeth Living, the arms length management organisation (ALMO) set up to manage housing stock and leaseholders in 2008, will be dissolved at the end of its current agreement.
It oversees 24,000 tenants and 9,000 leaseholders.
Cllr Matthew Bennett, Lambeth cabinet member for housing, said the council was now in a “good position” to reconsider how it best manages its housing stock for tenants.
In a press release he added: “We are investing a record £490m in housing to bring thousands of homes up to the Lambeth Housing Standard, have drastically reduced the number of empty properties and cut the average time to re-let empty council homes to just 12 days. Now is the time to build on these improvements and re-integrate housing with other council services.”
The Lambeth Green Oarty welcomed the move, but called on a cast iron guarantee that there would be no job losses, as well as a review of the benefits of ending the contracting out of privatised services such as repairs.
Last week Green Party leader Natalie Bennett visited Cressingham Gardens in Tulse Hill to highlight the issues of poor management there, and the Council’s proposals to demolish the housing rather than repair it properly.
Jonathan Bartley, Green Party parliamentary candidate for Streatham said: “The ALMO model was established by New Labour, and in the case of Lambeth Living has failed to improve the quality of housing services for residents – whilst contractors and consultants have profited.
“There is no guarantee that the consistently poor treatment of tenants will end. But the Council should guarantee no job losses when taking housing management staff back in house, and should now review the benefits of bringing privatised services such as repairs back in house.”
Chairman of Lambeth Living Board Keith Hill called the decision a “wise move”.
The council said it has written to Lambeth Living tenants, leaseholders and staff. A report will go to a meeting the council’s cabinet next month.
More to follow as we bring you reaction to this breaking news. What do you make of the move? Leave your comments below or email newsdesk@brixtonblog.com
Lambeth is doing a much better job with Housing compared to RBKC TMO. If this happened in K&C we don't want Black and his underling being transferred to the Council.
If RBKC implements the above yet continue to employ Mr Black and those that have failed, then RBKC would be considered complacent and irresponsible since so many failures have been identified so far. It would be a pointless exercise too.
22.50. How right you are. Despite overwhelming evidence that the TMO is a mess (and all is not well), the Council continues with the dreadful not fit for purpose Borough-Wide TMO. I am sure that Tory Councillors and Labour ones think, 'let the lower orders suffer if they cannot provide their own housing,why shouldn't they suffer.If Councillors did not think in this way the TMO would be consigned to the bin.
Labour councillors are being vilified and accused of lying whenever they try to represent us -see our Grenfell Tower situation. We went through hell, our councillors moved heaven and earth to get us heard and they and we were just told we should be grateful for what happened.
I have brought matters regarding the TMO to the attention of more than one Labour Councillor none of whom have done anything about the situation. Labour Councillors may have helped the Grenfall Tower people and I am pleased about that but be us be honest about Labour Councillors. Council Tenants are part of the Labour Party's empire and these Labour Councillors fear that if the TMO is disbanded, the housing stock may be transferred to an unaccountable Housing Association. Their ideological commitment to tenants being shackled to the state is paramount to them instead of improving the lot of those who suffer courtesy of the TMO. The theory that the Council is accountable for its decisions on housing management is, by and large, redundant in RBKC with Tory Councillors abrogating responsibility to the independent TMO with its independent Board; declining to intervene when disaster strikes.
I've told Labour Councillors about my TMO problems. They appear to be interested when I tell them. They give the impression they agree with me and they're going to do something. They don't come back to you
We would have to make sure that the housing stock won't be transferred to a Housing Association then. For this, Labour Councillors and WE need to have discussion and come up with a plane and demands.
Labour Councillors should not be exempt from criticism about the TMO. Emma Dent Coad was on the TMO for years. Judith Blakeman has now been on the TMO for a while. If this pair were any good, they with other Labour Councillors should be gunning for Black and demanding changes at the TMO from the Tory powers that be.
Why doesn't Cllr Blakeman take some meaningful action? As a Board Member can she not demand an Extraordinary Meeting to start the process of ridding us of the pox that is the TMO?
Blakeman and Dent Coad only care about The Labour Party. They both know that the TMO is a disaster but they are content for tenants to suffer. If this were not so, they would have done something about the TMO by now.
Don't hold your breath expecting the K&C Labour Group to do anything. They are as bad as the Tories and they look after themselves. They all claim the £ 10, 000 expenses allowance. Judith Blakeman and Emma Dent Coad have both taken the King's shilling by claiming the very generous allowance payable to the Leader of the Opposition Group.
What are Labour Councillors for?
To oppose and represent the interests of the oppressed. Don't make laugh!
If Black had any sense he'd get off his lazy highly paid arse and actually take a look at what his staff get up to each and every day.
Black did get rid of some pretty rotten apples after taking up the post of CEO. Unfortunately in many cases he replaced rotten apples with virulent ones. Some of the staff Black brought in are the most rude, anti-social and quite simply borderline psychotic individuals you could ever come across. They treat the residents like dirt whilst Black turns a blind eye and continues to sit in his little ivory chair in his little ivory office in Kensington High Street deluding himself that everything is perfectly fine.
Wake up and smell the coffee! Your staff are rude and arrogant, are happy to lie and cheat on a daily basis, pick on and abuse the sick and vulnerable whilst simultaneously blackening the name of those residents trying to ensure that their neighbours get a half decent service from your third-rate housing organisation. Everything is not right in the world and you would be well advised to try to sort it out before the brown stuff hits the fan and the result blows you and your gold-plated pension sky high and leaves you and the Council well and truly covered in shit.
14:34 The house of cards is coming down. Nothing ever lasts. It's pointless counting Mr Black to put things right. We just need to concentrate on improvement and go get it. If it means crushing those who enjoyed easy life at TMO...so be it. It's about time. I'm sure you don't mind. lol
I hope Mr Black and his corrupt staff enjoyed as much as and more than they could chew. From here onwards, downwards dive starts. Enjoy the ride.
The higher and more arrogant they come the harder they fall. Black and his rubbishy staff have ruined my life and from what I have read on here, the lives of many others. 16.29 I hope Black suffers on the "downward dive" as much as I have.
Did someone mention about back scratching between Robert Black and Laura Johnson? I can't remember where so I'll put it here. Nice photo of them (see page 13). http://www.kctmo.org.uk/files/103913_link_autumn_2014_final.pdf
Another thing people might be interested, on page 2, it says that over 300 members (a record number apparently) attended the 2014 Residents' conference, yet on page 9 it says that 70 members attended the AGM. Does this mean 230 left before AGM?
Anyway, can we top the attendance record this year? I hope everyone will vote NO so that TMO will not be allowed to manage the homes.
I suspect turn-out at the TMO's AGM peaked under Perry. I attended the last couple of AGMs under his watch (2005-08) and they were reasonably well attended with much of the Great Hall full of engaged TMO members. Even the one where Cockell decided to show up and take questions from the floor (or not).
Since then attendance has plummeted. An attendance of 300 for an organisation that claims 5000 members all of whom live within a couple of miles of the Town Hall is poor. An attendance of 70 would be a disgrace. In particular as many of those 70 will be the infirm and elderly the TMO insist on bussing to the AGM from the various Sheltered Housing schemes across the borough (a farcical exercise initiated under Evans to bolster the number of compliant members sat in the audience).
Why have attendances fallen? For the very obvious reason that members have finally "got the message" and realised that the AGM is not the venue at which they can hold the Board and Executive to account for their company's performance and direction but rather little more than an exercise in hot air from a Board that is simply not fit for purpose and an Executive who really couldn't give a shit what the members think. The members are the TMO's shareholders. The TMO treats them like every other resident - dirt.
The Residents Conference is part of the reason many have stopped turning up at the AGM. That and holding it on a Saturday. Many members are happy to give up a weekday evening but letting the TMO ruin their weekend is another matter entirely.
The AGM has been moved from the end of the afternoon to become the first item. There is a crèche so, unlike an evening meeting, all members of the family can attend and vote - so long as they are TMO members. You do not need to stay for the all day residents' conference. If you can't be bothered, then don't complain.
The figures should speak for themselves. The Company Secretary should be reviewing the attendance/participation and voting rates after each and every AGM to determine whether any changes made that year to the date/time/format have had a positive or negative effect.
As someone who has attended the TMO AGM over many years, including at weekends, I suspect they don't. Why? Because my impression is that numbers have been pretty steady for several years and significantly down in comparison to where they were under Mr. Perry back. Mr. Perry's AGM filled the Great Hall. The current ones do not and have not for some time.
What happened? Well the EGMs in 2007/8/9 probably did no end of harm to members' perception of the company. Merging the AGM with the Residents Conference has served only to belittle the AGM's importance. And whilst an argument could be made that holding it at the weekend may have been an attempt to address those issues it clearly hasn't worked if current attendance levels are anything to go by.
I suspect part of the problem is that the staff who ran the AGMs that managed to pack the Great Hall are long gone, and the secret to holding a moderately successful AGM has gone with them. To make matters worse the TMO has been doing a pretty good job of pissing off much of that audience in the intervening years.
As 11:53 says: the TMO are now regularly bussing elderly residents to the AGM. I am sure they rationalise this in some way, "ensuring older residents can attend" or some such. But when those older residents make up a large chunk of the audience you know there's something more to it than that.
Ideally the TMO need to re-engage with its membership. In practice the Exec and Board fear the membership. Too many formerly active members are quite simply far too opinionated and far too knowledgeable, and thus more trouble than their worth. It's far safer to preach to a room of the docile and uninterested instead.
Re: 09:20 - "all members of the family can attend and vote". No they can't. Only those whose name is on the tenancy agreement or lease are allowed to be members of the TMO. That pretty much guarantees that at most only two members of the family can attend and vote, and that's assuming they were wise enough to ensure that both of their names were on their tenancy agreement or lease!
Well said 14:07. Evans disenfranchised a vast section of the resident population back in 2008 with her changes to the company's rules. And Black and co have done absolutely nothing about it. Which means they're perfectly happy with an arrangement where less than half of those living in TMO-managed property can even join the TMO let alone meaningfully participate.
Please come with me to the TMO AGM and waste a day of your life you'll never get back watching me vote at the AGM of an organisation that considers you a second class citizen.
However long you live in our home, however old you get, I'll be able to vote and you won't.
Why are we not lobbying the tenant and leaseholder representatives on the Board to call an EGM and put an end to all this disgrace? One Labour councillor won't get very far on her own, whether it is Dent Coad or Blakeman - believe me, both of them have tried very hard. The latest bit of corruption is that one of the Residents' Associations in Chelsea asked the TMO to oppose a planning application to extend a local pub that causes huge problems for them further into their estate. Although they were told that an objection had gone in, there was no TMO objection by the closing date. Instead, the TMO colluded behind the scenes with Cllr Simmonds to support the proposal!
Cllr. Simmonds has been bragging about this for weeks. The Pub's owner is "her friend" and she is making sure that the application is approved, because that's what she does for her "friends" and the application is also "a brilliant idea", although many of those unlucky to live next to it think otherwise. It has the potential to go very, very wrong. And given the pub's long track record of not dealing with problems as they arise, that potential could well become a certainty. We are starting to wonder just exactly whose side Cllr. Simmonds is on. Clearly not that of her constituents. As more and more of us realise the truth the local Conservative Party might be wise to consider deselecting what could well become a serious liability come 2018.
At the end of the day the only political party that can bring an end to the long running joke that is the TMO is the one running the Council - the Conservative Party. Rather than moan about what the opposition can/cannot do perhaps we should all be writing to as many Tories as possible instead?
I would like to hear from leaseholders who know TMO has been invoicing leaseholders with wrong amount. So far I consider such claim nothing more than ranting. Just because the leaseholders THINK the invoice amount should be lower is not a credible evidence. If I am wrong on this, could you please email me with fact so that such information can be communicated together with other issues at the upcoming AGM?
I would also like to hear from anyone who has been affected by Data Protection breaches. This seems to be ongoing for years and it must end. Can you email me your story, what happened and when (month/year) it happened?
One more thing, do you suspect TMO is giving money to their friends in the trade by creating extra check ups like multiple gas checks per year? If so what are they? A good example is probably Keepmoat so any other example would be much appreciated.
There's plenty of evidence of poor accounting and incorrect invoicing at the TMO. Anyone who's ever asked for a break down of their service charge will have been able to identify a worryingly large number of questionable items to call into question the entire thing's accuracy.
The problem is one of scale: on a large estate the number of errors will be large, and so will the corresponding error in the rechargeable total. But the error in the sum recharged to an individual leaseholder will often too small to be worth pursuing legally. For example on a large estate like Lancaster West, Silchester or World's End the leaseholder of a 2-bed property will be paying approx. 0.1% of the estate's total rechargeable expenditure in service charges. Given that it costs an absolute minimum of £50 to take any issue to an LVT it is quite simply not worth pursuing an error in the estate's accounts smaller than £50,000. You can hide a hell of a lot of questionable stuff in £50,000. And that's the problem.
Exactly. I live on Lancaster West. If I find two dozen dodgy orders included in my service charge totalling £25,000 I can ask the TMO to amend the accounts and my invoice. But if they choose not to they know I'm not going to pursue it. My share of that £25,000 is about £30. Who is going to spend at least £50 (plus time and effort) recovering £30? No one. And they know it.
And in the meantime £25,000 of dodgy orders fly under the radar. And that's on one estate of about 800 properties. And then multiply that out across the Council's housing stock of 10,000.
It's an absolutely brilliant scam and allows God knows how many dodgy deals between staff and "friendly" contractors to take place.
And to top it all it's all facilitated by the Council and the likes of Holgate, who has proved quite happy to repeatedly sign off service charge final accounts as correct with no meaningful scrutiny even when leaseholders have repeatedly point out the problems.
Given that only about 20% of Council properties are leasehold and that 80% of this questionable expenditure falls on the public purse as a result, it is all a complete disgrace.
Hi, it's 15:11 here. I hope I haven't offended leaseholders. I simply don't know ins and outs of the rumours that have been flying around but I needed some kind of frame/overview to be included in the list I am hoping to create. I appreciate your examples. I understand that £30 per household may not be enough amount for the time and effort but if you multiply that with the number of leaseholders, the number gets big. If we ask Mr Black to leave TMO, his salary of £150K should cover the refundable cost without denting the Council's budget.
One of the problems with having TMO is that it's a limited company and they hide behind that. We cannot do FoI whereas if the housing was managed by the Council, they will have to provide all the information we need to know.
If you all (leaseholders) stop paying the service charge, TMO/the Council will have to listen to you. First you must write a letter to them why you are doing it. But it will have to be with a group effort and not just by the few keen leaseholders. I think it's a reasonable request for the account to be investigated. This is how people across the country are not paying their Council tax for the time being because there are questions to be answered for. Having said this, they are more than happy to start paying for it once everything is explained.
PS, It's up to you leaseholders, keep on moaning and leave the situation as is till you sell your property or do something about it once and for all. I would love to do something about this invoice situation but I can't help you since I don't have precise figures at hand which I'm sure solicitor would want to see when one explains the problem.
Mr Black if you are reading this, you can sit back and enjoy your riches and pretend you have an important role in KCTMO. As I suspected, this is nothing more than a lot of hot air. No leaseholders have so far contacted me via email about their stories so I will not be able to prove the inaccuracy of accounting at the AGM so it is to remain hearsay. Happy day for KCTMO!
A word of warning to those that are just complaining. No matter how much you hate TMO/Mr Black for whatever reason, if you can't present evidence to prove your points, it is considered as 'allegation' and you could get done for it if contested and this good blog site may be shut down. So make sure whatever you are claiming to be, you can stand on it. I know I can.
There have been numerous instances where the TMO has had to correct service charge final accounts after issuing them to fix glaringly obvious errors in recording and accounting. Errors that should have been picked by both the TMO and the Council during the preparation, review and eventual sign-off of the accounts in question but weren't.
Were I to suggest a reason as to why those errors were made I would be making an allegation. But pointing out that there were errors which the Council/TMO had to correct is merely a statement of fact.
Anyone looking for a smoking gun amongst the leaseholder account errors won't find one. The Council are well aware of the complete mess the TMO make of leaseholder service charge accounts. That they haven't stepped in to have any of these accounts audited, even where errors have occurred repeatedly, suggests they simply don't care.
14:40, Accounting errors and defrauding the leaseholders to line their pockets are two different thing though the latter could be made to look like they had many errors. I was lead to believe, because the staff were asked to hide the money, it was on the side of defrauding. I am not an expert on money laudering so I stay away from such subject. It takes an expert e.g. accountant/financial fraud investigator to comb through such thing to find out whether they are simply errors that have been allowed to occur multiple times and nobody was bothered to correct it or intentional fiddle on the figure.
One could ask HMRC inspector to check the company's account but you'd have to be able to explain, with figures, why you suspect KCTMO's account is false. When there is no money incentive involved for the leaseholders, nobody is going to make that call, are they? Back to square one....I thought so.
The TMO's accounts, the ones presented at the AGM, are of little interest and largely irrelevant. All those accounts describe is how the TMO spends its management fee (all 12 million quid's worth). And most of that goes on its directly employed staff.
The accounts of concern actually belong to the Council. The Council is not daft enough to simply hand over its housing budget to the TMO. As a result the accounts are merely "managed" by the TMO and the Council still retains ownership and the ability to inspect them at will. It's those accounts where some people suspect there is foul play afoot.
I would personally suggest mismanagement and poor spending decisions are much more likely that sheer malice but given the sums involved there's plenty of scope for a bit of skimming where some of the smaller contracts are concerned.
The main problem with Keepmoat is simply one of management. The TMO aren't managing or supervising them properly. Keepmoat know it. So they do what they like. The end result is utter chaos, poor workmanship and trouble for years to come.
Financially, the problem is the "framework agreement" used. The Council and TMO are particularly fond of these for some reason even though they have failed to prove they save anyone any money or that the resulting work is any better than if it had been procured in the usual manner. The truth of the matter that everyone at both the Council and TMO deny is that these framework agreements have a universally poor track record in delivering anything other than loads of public money to large contractors who promptly sub-contract the work to cheap and cheerful cowboys.
I tell you how corrupt KCTMO/Council is. Watch the video below. They are quite happy to evict a person illegally. The police is not doingn the right thing either. Whenever I called police for civil matter, quite rightly they won't come. But they do for the Council no matter what! This is why you have one law for the poor, another for the rich. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0i9i1G6uA4
They make up their own rules to suit them. Just because you are not having a problem now, don't think it's 'THEIR' problem, this applies for leaseholders too. The point is, if they can do this to a person, they will certainly do this to you. I am not fearful but my blood remains boiling.
More dirt. The bit it said about mental illness and twinning with their staff made me laugh. We suspected their obsession to collect phone numbers, email address etc anyway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoXrYgu5I_o
After finding this...I feel there is no point in attending AGM. Hear it from ex-Council auditor. http://www.barrymcqueen.com/crkc/assets/audiocheat.swf
Looking on the positive side, I am glad I no longer have to waste my time attending the meeting. My instinct to go along with plan B was right.
What is Plan B? The best plan is to go to the AGM and try and get an explanation. When this is refused, then get the 500 signatures for an EGM. This should be relatively easy - 100 from every large estate. You can then point out that TMO members tried and failed at the AGM, hence the popular need for an EGM.
Did you not listen to the above link 08:15? Twice they've been caught. Do you think they cleaned up their act?!? I am not counting on AGM/EGM anymore. It's like going to TMO asking them to sort it out. We've been there umpteen times and you know how far we've got! If you keep on doing the same thing, of course, you'd get the same result. It's time we took for a different approach. A drastic one.
There is also Plan C as well. However, Plan B cannot be disclosed at this time since nobody is interested in taking the matters in their own hands. It's always somebody else we need to rely on. That's the problem. Shame on you KCTMO residents. Other boroughs are doing much much better. If people were affected by TMO truly, I should have received many complaints to my email by now.
Let me say this... If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem too. It looks that way to me clearly. Not participating means you are on the side of TMO by allowing them to be. Think about that.
You know how TMO will be safe and sound in 2017? Everyone, including those that are appears to be actively seeking justice don't even reply an email. So everyone is blowing hot air. Nothing to see, move along now. I'm outta here.
Comments are your responsibility. Anyone posting inappropriate comments shall have their comment removed and will be banned from posting in future. Your IP address may also be recorded and reported. Persistent abuse shall mean comments will be severely restricted in future.
When the Council is asked, we are told that it is a matter for the TMO board. When we ask the TMO Board, they all back the actions of the TMO. So they self-police.
ReplyDeleteSack Him !
ReplyDelete11.29 is right.
ReplyDeleteThe TMO is fire proof. People complain to the Council and are told that the TMO is independent of the Council. People only go to the Council after exhausting the TMO's Complaints' Procedure. The majority of the Resident Non- Executive Directors on the TMO Board are on social security and have less education than Robert Black.
Juse because you are on social security doesn't mean you don't have intellect. Donut !
Delete13.53 We can safely say that the people on the TMO Board who have not held down employment for some time are completely devoid of intellect. These untalented people need recourse to social security just to survive otherwise they would be making it in the labour market. The go on the TMO Board and receive generous expenses allowances to top up their social.
DeleteIntellectuals believe that REASON will disclose answers to everything. That's what an intellectual is and the term is often used incorrectly. Conversely, Intelligent people know that there are limits to reason solving anything because "reason is and only ought to be the slave of the passions and never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them"
13.53 should perhaps go on the TMO and join the other doughnuts you would do well there.
13.53 above is similar to the email style of Robert Black.
DeleteWe need people of high ability on the TMO Board. Since the creation of the TMO, people of low ability who happen to be on Social Security have been attracted to joining the TMO Board,not so they can do good work and develop policy and practice but in order to claim the very generous TMO Expenses' Allowance which is nothing to do with reimbursing out of pocket expenses but to giving these Tenant Non Executive Directors money to top up their Social Security. That's why policy and practice is so bad at the TMO. Black does not want intellectuals on the Board to stop him doing what he wants to do.
DeleteDo you remember Miss Rawlings and Mr Beverley no one would say that they were intellectuals but the pair of them were on Social Security whilst on the TMO.
Tenant Non Executive Directors go on the Board to get a Social Security top up.
So Black condones scrounging.
Delete09.08. It is unbelievable that the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, a first class Tory Council, would allow its housing management agency to devise a scheme whereby the TMO has intentionally deceived Social Security Officers in to believing that its Non Executive Directors incur out of pocket expenses in excess of £100 a month. You would have to do a lot of journeys on the bus to run up fares in excess of £ 100 a month. TMO Board Members only pay a few bus fares each YEAR because they now only attend a few meetings every YEAR.
DeleteThis so called expenses' scheme was devised Gordon Perry so that all those Board members drawing means tested benefits did not have their Social Security reduced. However, Robert Black has done nothing to tell Social Security the truth.
Aiding and abetting a fraud?
Bringing about fraud by one's endeavours?
Can the Council discipline Black ?
IF the 650 people who have visited this website sign the petition for an EGM we will well be on the way to getting rid of the TMO.
ReplyDelete650 residents read the blog and not even one came to praise TMO? Oh dear.
ReplyDeleteAnon 11:29, there is a term for that, Pen-pushing, hot potato! It's always somebody else who deals with it and it keeps going round and round like a revolving door.
It is not what one would call a success story.
ReplyDeleteWe in Grenfell Tower sent a petition and spoke to the council Scrutiny Committee about the way we were treated during our refurbishment. The Scrutiny committee said they would investigate. Instead they asked the TMO to investigate. the TMO set up a so called "independent" panel including Condon-Simonds - and they came up with a whitewash report without speaking to a single resident.
ReplyDeleteHow can any TMO panel be independent of the TMO. It is nonsense for anyone, even someone as daft as Mr Black, to claim that any investigation by the TMO is anything other than an exercise in making sure that no sh*t lands on the TMO's carpet. Clearly this panel was partisan not independent. It was certainly biased if the Condon Simmonds woman was on it. Whitewash is far too polite a term for something so tainted.
DeleteIt's important to let others know what has/not happened but we can get bogged down discussing such points which we can't change. The only way to avoid depression is to move forward and to bring down TMO for the benefit of the tenants. Everytime I read something about TMO makes me sick to my stomach.
DeleteWe could ask genuine staff to stay though Mickey Mouse jobs and salary like Mr Black enjoyed must go IMO.
Cll. Condon-Simmonds is a non-executive director and Board member of the TMO. She cannot, by definition, be "independent".
DeleteAs usual there are TMO double-standards at play - whenever TMO Board members take in active interest in residents' issues they are stomped on by Black and his Exec team who will promptly prattle on about their legal duties as directors of the company and the Board's "collective responsibility". But when they want to placate the plebs those same Board members can be portrayed as "independent". What a farce!
17.35, I agree with you. The only solution is to smash the TMO. Black and Simmonds will, by default, be reduced to a frazzle.
Delete16.20. What did your Labour Councillors do about Black's Officers bullying tenants?
ReplyDeleteWe at Grenfell Tower have had huge support from our Labour councillors. But Cllr Blakeman was not allowed to speak at the scrutiny committee because she is a TMO Board member and not allowed to criticise it (even though she does).
DeleteDoesn't the Council consult residents every five years on whether they want the TMO to continue to manage their homes? If so the next one is due soon given that 2016 is the TMO's 20th anniversary. Time for those who object to the TMO to encourage their neighbours to do just that and say NO to crap management!
ReplyDelete17:58, Never heard of such thing before. Anyone else?
DeleteIt's true that there is a test of opinion on the TMO coming up.
DeleteThis is a SERIOUS matter, it is about our HOMES and PERSONAL LIVES and the STRESS and STRAIN the KCTMO put on OUR LIVES through incompetence and mismanagement.
ReplyDeleteThis affects our HEALTH, wellbeing, our working lives and recreation time. People have been so worn down by dealing with the KCTMO that their health has suffered or they have just got so fed up they have moved. That is never acceptable and must CHANGE.
A coherent PLAN is needed. Our properties MUST be managed by PROVEN COMPETENT, EXPERIENCED MANAGEMENT with integrity and good intentions. Standards and expertise come from the top down and a CEO's role is to pro-actively direct all departments and get involved. Any CEO should have the knowledge, EXPERTISE and a proven track record.
The following WILL help:
1. Create and keep up to date, a concise numbered list of problems/issues and poor performance of the KCTMO with names, reason and dates, to be printed for submission at a later date.
2. Log your personal time spent "working" on KCTMO problems, letters etc. (effectively doing their work), with dates to be submitted at a later date.
3. Register as a member of KCTMO
We should arrange a meeting soon.
Agree everything 18:55 said apart from point No.2 which may not amount to anything. But any problems you had, be it repair, long-term void property, complaint department etc should be recorded with date, details and possibly reference number if any.
DeletePoint 2. log personal time at a your working rate and put an invoice in to KCTMO. Do they want us to do their work for nothing?
ReplyDeleteI thought about your point 2 and I am still uncertain though a worth try. Everyone works for Tesco these days if you use a self-checkout to scan your own shopping and pack the bag. Cashiers used to do it for us. How about utility meter reading? The difficulty is that if you were to try to out TMO in court, it is your words against them and hard to prove that you have spent 12 hrs per week on TMO matter.
DeleteRobert Black has caused us to be blunt.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone got the ear of the new Prime Minister Theresa May. It would take her having a word in Paget Brown's shell like to put these ghastly Tory councillors straight about the TMO.
ReplyDeletepfft
DeletePity if only Andrea Leadsom became the new PM. I did like the tone of her voice but obviously she was bought out. In fact everyone backed down and May had no competition. How could that be!??? lol On the other hand....Theresa May....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU66W9H-Y7w
Not very hopeful.
Why are Keltbray allowed to disturb Earls Court residents on Saturday morning? Does the Code of Construction Practice mean anything.
ReplyDeleteBorwick and Paget-Brownn promised residents NO Saturday work then why are Keltbray using heavy drills to the detriment of residents?
Is it because Keltbray donate hundreds of thousands of pounds to Conservative party?
Tories will now lose Earls Court in 2018 thanks to all their Saturday noise, toadying to Keltbray.
More than a 1,000 people surround the site.
Did anyone speak to the site manager and asked to stop? Stop them.I know I've been in that situation and you would want at least weekend of calm, don't you? The noice wears you out.
DeleteCouncillor Nick Paget-Brown was told publicly at the "ASK NICK" q&a at Holy Trinity Church last Monday of Mr Black's only formal qualification (A PAINTING DIPLOMA, FROM ART COLLEGE) and his lack of relevant qualifications to be in the position of CEO of KCTMO.
ReplyDeleteRBKC own 100% share capital of KCTMO and Councillor Paget-Brown is now (if not before) fully aware of Mr Black's qualifications.
Robert Black is not only unqualified but not up to the job. Trust the Rawlings Board to appoint someone so inadequate; lumbering us with him for the last seven years.
DeleteThis lack of qualifications on the part of Mr Black tends to explain why the written work of TMO Staffs is full of elementary spelling and grammatical errors - some of them do not know what a double negative is and others do not how to conjugate a verb.
One member of staff recently asked me, " Was you..."
In the old days an 'O' Level pass in English was required for a very routine clerical job in the Council. Nowadays asking for passes in anything is seen as unjustifiable in the interests of equality of opportunity. So to ensure equality of opportunity for ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians,
qualifications are consigned to the bin.
So we now have a Housing CEO with a Post Graduate Diploma in Painting. Can we assume that as TMO Final Service Charge Bills are full of numerous errors on each occasion they come in that those preparing them have a pass in cookery, woodwork or needlework ?
It seems that Robert Black did not get even Bachelor's Degree in Art or anything else. He was obviously such a gifted painter, a potential van Gogh, that he progressed straight to a post graduate diploma in painting.
Time to competency test everyone working in the TMO.
10:38 another one is 'Aks' (not a spelling mistake).
DeleteNow, you have eeked me 10:38.
Does the person who is in charge of accounting/finance hold appropriate qualifications? Another example, George Osborne doesn't have a financial related qualification but he was a Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Anyway, may be that's why TMO had to hide money from the auditor because the figures didn't tally up?
The irony is that if you go to a supermarket and ask a staff something, you will notice that they are very eloquent and probably hold a university degree. *facepalm* The world is upside down.
19.02. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is an Economist, not an Accountant. His job is not accountancy but about making choices that an economy has to make. By contrast, the TMO figure work clerks who calculate leaseholders' service charge bills are engaged in accountancy related functions and it is clear that bills are sent out full of mistakes after being certified by the Council's Accountant. The Council's Accountant and the TMO's figure work clerks are less than diligent if residents can find the errors in their work. The mind boggles as to where would we be if the TMO managed to produce a clean set of accounts for leaseholders each year. I make no comment about the qualifications of the TMO figure work clerks or the way in which their work is checked and supervised by Mr Black and other TMO Executive Directors.
DeleteI believe that George Osborne holds an Oxford Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics which I think we can say is a relevant qualification. Black is an artist who hardly has the makings of a good Housing Officer. I would NOT mind his poor educational background if he had done a good job. The people working in supermarkets would be able to do much better, I am sure. They are at least resourceful and intelligent.
Figure work clerks don't make me laugh. They are number crunchers and poor ones at that
DeleteQUESTION:
ReplyDeleteGiven Mr Black's CV as it stands, would he be employed elsewhere as a CEO in business or in a non profit making organisation? It seems doubtful.
Perhaps a review of senior/CEO job specifications will evidence the qualifications and experience required to succeed and show he is not properly qualified to be employed by RBKC/KCTMO for us.
A list of Mr Black's achievements in the last 7.5 years should be requested.
Mr Blacks Linkedin profile shows he has NO training and NO qualifications pertaining to property management.
QUALIFICATIONS
ReplyDeleteIs there study involved?
Most CEOs are expected to have a bachelor's or master's degree. In addition to this, extensive market knowledge is needed, as is a thorough understanding of the company. Awareness of all positions is essential and CEOs often work their way up through the ranks.
Mr Black has been a big hit with TMO tenants and leaseholders.
ReplyDeleteAre you serious, Janet. I am very pleased to hear it.
DeleteI think Janet was being ironic possibly sarcastic. Now do you get it Robert. if you had done better at school you would not have had to ask such a silly question.
DeleteIf I found any good feedback about TMO from people, I would have mentioned those as well as the negative ones to give a balanced view but I did not find anyone praising TMO so I knew Janet was talking BS. If you don't believe me, try it yourself. A simple question "Are you happy with TMO?" will get you going. lol
DeleteDon't get upset 11.42. We are all on the same side. Excuse the cliche but more unites us (TMO rebels) than divides us.
DeletePoint taken.
OK, so shill has arrived. LOL!
DeleteMy goodness me, the TMO ALWAYS brings out the bloggers. In force.
ReplyDeleteCllr the sensitive Paget-Brown needs to wake up and take note. There is a problem here.
The TMO rental and service charge bills have been messed up by the Council's failed Agresso management accounts system, like everything else in the borough.
ReplyDeleteNo 09.14. The computer only does what people who use them instruct the computer to do. The innumerable errors in service charge final accounts are down to the people who process the invoices in Leaseholder Services and apportion the expenditure to blocks of flats and then apportion those charges to individual property owners. The Council's Accountant who certifies these accounts does not examine the vouchers and other documents before signing off on these accounts. Residents then have to spend hours going through these accounts, doing the TMO's job, to make sure they are not overcharged.
DeleteUnless all the good residents of RBKC are prepared to do more than blog, NOTHING will happen.
ReplyDeleteWe must be PROACTIVE, work in a coordinated way in a form of group action. This is serious, the KCTMO impinge on all our lives in a very significant way.
KCTMO charge us what they want and tell us to go away when questioned, using all the red tape available, e.g. SECTION 20.
Things go in cycles.
ReplyDeleteRobert Black after 7 years with TMO is in the same position that Gordon Perry was in after 7 years at TMO. The TMO is a mess today just like it was seven years ago.
Robert Black started off being decent and reasonable with tenants probably because he was supremely confident that he would improve things. As time dragged on, he found it impossible to change things and has subsequently resorted to the same sharp practices of his predecessors.
Is Robert looking for another job?
Is that why his CV is on Linkedin?
Can you imagine any decent headhunter being impressed with him?
An internet research would reveal this blog so we are stuck with him until he retires, resigns or is sacked.
Let him be sacked ASAP. TMO is a tenant-lead organisation and many tenants are very unhappy.
DeleteIT IS A SCANDAL THAT ROBERT BLACK WAS APPOINTED CEO:
ReplyDeleteMR BLACK COMING FROM JUST A MIDDLE MANAGEMENT ASSISTANT POSITION "Who helped manage 45,000 homes across Surrey and Kent" HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO TURN THE KCTMO AROUND AS HE PROMISED BECAUSE HE DOES NOT LISTEN AND DOES NOT APPEAR TO HAVE THE COMPETENCY!
EMPTY PROMISES - NO TRUST AND NO CONFIDENCE IN ROBERT BLACK KCTMO
New Kensington and Chelsea TMO boss promises radical shake-up
13:59, 1 JUN 2009 UPDATED 12:25, 1 OCT 2013
BY GETWESTLONDON
THE NEW chief executive of a housing body, racked by infighting and rebellion, has vowed to wipe the slate clean at Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation(TMO).
Chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation Robert BlackChief executive of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation Robert Black
THE NEW chief executive of a housing body, racked by infighting and rebellion, has vowed to wipe the slate clean at Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation(TMO).
In an exclusive interview with the Kensington and Chelsea News, Robert Black, incoming chief of the TMO, set out his agenda for the future of the troubled housing group – which controls the majority of council homes in the Royal Borough.
In the past two years, the organisation has been shook to its core after residents forced two Extraordinary General Meetings in a bid to reshape its management and improve performance.
Last month, former chief executive Helen Evans resigned early due to 'serious disquiet' within the elected board.
Mr Black, who helped manage 45,000 homes across Surrey and Kent, hopes that his appointment three weeks ago will mark a new era for the group.
Within the next six months he aims to:
* Sweep away the past and focus on improving repairs, not internal politics.
* Stamp out division to create 'cohesion' within the board.
* Work with the council, so that it trusts the TMO as a professional organisation able to run housing stock smoothly.
* Change residents perception of the TMO and get younger people involved.
Speaking in his office in St Charles House, high above bustling Kensington High Street, he said: "We need to rebuild that trust with people who are angry with us.
"I've got to get people to move on. We got to be honest and show people we are doing it. The onus is on the board to find some common ground.
"We have to try and focus on what we are here to do – deliver great services. Issues around repairs are fundamental in changing people's perception of the TMO."
The 49-year-old big wig added that the company can no longer rely on its much-touted 2006 three star audit status as proof of performance.
He also intends to reinvigorate his 190 staff members, who have been at the front line of, sometimes tumultuous, residential disquiet.
But Mr Black, who says he has a 'common sense' approach, has some tough challenges ahead.
Future funding for the TMO has been cut by the Government, leaving it with a multi-million pound gap to plug.
The council is also considering its options on how to deal with stock – which includes the World's End Estate in King's Road, and Trellick Tower in Golborne Road, North Kensington.
Mr Black said: "I don't have all the answers at the moment. In the short term we have to make repairs to be seen to better, in the future we have to work with the council for a longer term strategy.
"But tenant-led organisations can work. What we have to do is reach out to our membership and get more young people and more communities involved."
Amazing. Mr Black practically failed to achieve all of the points he talked about.
DeleteFailure and broken promise - a disgrace
ReplyDeleteNEW KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA TMO BOSS PROMISES RADICAL SHAKE-UP
Do you know what,
ReplyDeletethe TMO Board can call an Extraordinary General Meeting of the membership by acting on its own agency. No need for a petition with 500+ signatures.
If Robert Black wanted to resolve anything and answer to those whom he professes to serve, he could ask the Board to call an EGM. If he had any guts, he would do this and face down his critics and prove that the TMO is doing a good job.
Well we didn't know it was so easy to get going. If that's the case, people who are unhappy with the current predicament should write to the TMO Board and demand an EGM. In the interest of many mistreated tenants they should act.
DeleteI can assure you that the Constitution of every Company that I know of empowers its Board to call an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Membership. Of corse that shower of useless parasites on the TMO won't do it and just in case they were thinking about doing it, Mr Black would make sure that they did not not.
DeleteSurprise, surprise. I received a letter regarding the nomination of board members so I called the number on the letter but nobody is there. lol
DeleteCould/should a KCTMO board member put this to him at our request?
ReplyDeleteYes please! As Mr Black says in the above article, TMO was meant to be a tenant-lead organisation.
DeletePublic Survey for North Kensingston Library ends 30th July 2016
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rbkc.gov.uk/libraries/news-and-events/new-north-kensington-library
Black started well at the TMO but has become complacent and very hands off.
ReplyDelete"Hands off" is a very accurate description of the current situation. Has anyone ever had a response to a written enquiry to Mr. Black responded to by Mr. Black? He does not respond to anything himself, however serious the issue being raised, and delegates everything, and I do mean everything, to his minions. Nothing appears to be sufficiently serious to merit his attention. His predecessors at least had the common courtesy and sufficient interest to respond to written enquiries from residents addressed to the CEO themselves. Mr. Black does not. He is so distant that he might as well be on the moon.
DeleteOn the moon....
DeleteHe must have a fear of writing letters?
I am thinking he'd better add his 'O' and 'A' level qualifications to beef up his CV.
Black was educated in Scotland. I suppose he might have a few passes in the Scottish Ordinary and Higher Grade exams.
DeleteAs his qualifications in Higher Education are not what one would expect for a CEO, I think he would have mentioned any passes he got from school on his scratchy CV. As has failed to mention these passes from school, we can only assume that he has no such passes and if he claims any such passes at this late stage, we should ask to see his certificates.
I can just imagine the poorly educated Juliet Rawlings being impressed if Black claimed that he is qualified by experience during his interview. What a joke.
We received one mistake email from him telling his side kick to look into a problem we raised!
ReplyDeleteWe pay handsomely for Mr Black's mistake after mistake and we suffer stress, loss and a lot of work because of it. These are our homes and we all have one life!
It seems that every tenant I meet randomly says most awful thing about the cancerous organisation. Not one person praised the organisation and they are suffering health wise. Information came to me and one of the tactics they use is a black mail on vulnerable which makes me think they might just be like a mafia. It's been an interesting afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Please go out while sun is shining and talk to other random tenants other than your area. Many people never heard of FTHN yet. We need to come together because there may be hope for tenants and leaseholders even Mr Black tries to snuff our effort. I can't disclose what it is openly unfortunately. Need to think outside of the box everyone and do not lose faith that justice will be served if we carry on.
DeletePlease comment below. What would you like to happen apart from Mr Black's resignation? Jail term for some staff? Anything else? Be realistic but be greedy with the possibilities please.
A few years ago my Doctor put me on anti depressants to treat the anxiety and stress wrought on me by the TMO. Jail term- prison is too good for some working in the TMO.
DeleteDISSOLVE KCTMO AS OTHER COUNCILS HAVE DONE!
ReplyDeleteBREAKING: Lambeth council to retake control of housing in the borough and end Lambeth Living Written by Tim Dickens on October 7, 2014 in Community, Council, Housing
lambeth livingLambeth council will retake direct control for all its social homes in the borough, it was announced today.
Lambeth Living, the arms length management organisation (ALMO) set up to manage housing stock and leaseholders in 2008, will be dissolved at the end of its current agreement.
It oversees 24,000 tenants and 9,000 leaseholders.
Cllr Matthew Bennett, Lambeth cabinet member for housing, said the council was now in a “good position” to reconsider how it best manages its housing stock for tenants.
In a press release he added: “We are investing a record £490m in housing to bring thousands of homes up to the Lambeth Housing Standard, have drastically reduced the number of empty properties and cut the average time to re-let empty council homes to just 12 days. Now is the time to build on these improvements and re-integrate housing with other council services.”
The Lambeth Green Oarty welcomed the move, but called on a cast iron guarantee that there would be no job losses, as well as a review of the benefits of ending the contracting out of privatised services such as repairs.
Last week Green Party leader Natalie Bennett visited Cressingham Gardens in Tulse Hill to highlight the issues of poor management there, and the Council’s proposals to demolish the housing rather than repair it properly.
Jonathan Bartley, Green Party parliamentary candidate for Streatham said: “The ALMO model was established by New Labour, and in the case of Lambeth Living has failed to improve the quality of housing services for residents – whilst contractors and consultants have profited.
“There is no guarantee that the consistently poor treatment of tenants will end. But the Council should guarantee no job losses when taking housing management staff back in house, and should now review the benefits of bringing privatised services such as repairs back in house.”
Chairman of Lambeth Living Board Keith Hill called the decision a “wise move”.
The council said it has written to Lambeth Living tenants, leaseholders and staff. A report will go to a meeting the council’s cabinet next month.
More to follow as we bring you reaction to this breaking news. What do you make of the move? Leave your comments below or email newsdesk@brixtonblog.com
Lambeth is doing a much better job with Housing compared to RBKC TMO.
DeleteIf this happened in K&C we don't want Black and his underling being transferred to the Council.
If RBKC implements the above yet continue to employ Mr Black and those that have failed, then RBKC would be considered complacent and irresponsible since so many failures have been identified so far. It would be a pointless exercise too.
DeleteLambeth is a marginal Labour council. They have to listen to their social housing residents. K+C doesn't! Geddit?
Delete22.50. How right you are. Despite overwhelming evidence that the TMO is a mess (and all is not well), the Council continues with the dreadful not fit for purpose Borough-Wide TMO. I am sure that Tory Councillors and Labour ones think, 'let the lower orders suffer if they cannot provide their own housing,why shouldn't they suffer.If Councillors did not think in this way the TMO would be consigned to the bin.
DeleteLabour councillors are being vilified and accused of lying whenever they try to represent us -see our Grenfell Tower situation. We went through hell, our councillors moved heaven and earth to get us heard and they and we were just told we should be grateful for what happened.
Delete10.42 I don't think you can say that
Delete"Our Labour Councillors are being vilified."
I have brought matters regarding the TMO to the attention of more than one Labour Councillor none of whom have done anything about the situation. Labour Councillors may have helped the Grenfall Tower people and I am pleased about that but be us be honest about Labour Councillors. Council Tenants are part of the Labour Party's empire and these Labour Councillors fear that if the TMO is disbanded, the housing stock may be transferred to an unaccountable Housing Association. Their ideological commitment to tenants being shackled to the state is paramount to them instead of improving the lot of those who suffer courtesy of the TMO. The theory that the Council is accountable for its decisions on housing management is, by and large, redundant in RBKC with Tory Councillors abrogating responsibility to the independent TMO with its independent Board; declining to intervene when disaster strikes.
Pragmatism is not the stuff of Labour Councillors
DeleteI've told Labour Councillors about my TMO problems. They appear to be interested when I tell them. They give the impression they agree with me and they're going to do something. They don't come back to you
DeleteWe would have to make sure that the housing stock won't be transferred to a Housing Association then. For this, Labour Councillors and WE need to have discussion and come up with a plane and demands.
DeleteLabour Councillors should not be exempt from criticism about the TMO. Emma Dent Coad was on the TMO for years. Judith Blakeman has now been on the TMO for a while. If this pair were any good, they with other Labour Councillors should be gunning for Black and demanding changes at the TMO from the Tory powers that be.
DeleteWhy doesn't Cllr Blakeman take some meaningful action? As a Board Member can she not demand an Extraordinary Meeting to start the process of ridding us of the pox that is the TMO?
DeleteBlakeman and Dent Coad only care about The Labour Party. They both know that the TMO is a disaster but they are content for tenants to suffer. If this were not so, they would have done something about the TMO by now.
DeleteDon't hold your breath expecting the K&C Labour Group to do anything. They are as bad as the Tories and they look after themselves. They all claim the £ 10, 000 expenses allowance. Judith Blakeman and Emma Dent Coad have both taken the King's shilling by claiming the very generous allowance payable to the Leader of the Opposition Group.
DeleteWhat are Labour Councillors for?
To oppose and represent the interests of the oppressed. Don't make laugh!
If Black had any sense he'd get off his lazy highly paid arse and actually take a look at what his staff get up to each and every day.
ReplyDeleteBlack did get rid of some pretty rotten apples after taking up the post of CEO. Unfortunately in many cases he replaced rotten apples with virulent ones. Some of the staff Black brought in are the most rude, anti-social and quite simply borderline psychotic individuals you could ever come across. They treat the residents like dirt whilst Black turns a blind eye and continues to sit in his little ivory chair in his little ivory office in Kensington High Street deluding himself that everything is perfectly fine.
Wake up and smell the coffee! Your staff are rude and arrogant, are happy to lie and cheat on a daily basis, pick on and abuse the sick and vulnerable whilst simultaneously blackening the name of those residents trying to ensure that their neighbours get a half decent service from your third-rate housing organisation. Everything is not right in the world and you would be well advised to try to sort it out before the brown stuff hits the fan and the result blows you and your gold-plated pension sky high and leaves you and the Council well and truly covered in shit.
14.34. You have the guts to say what I have thought for years.
DeleteGo, go, go 14.34.
14:34 The house of cards is coming down. Nothing ever lasts. It's pointless counting Mr Black to put things right. We just need to concentrate on improvement and go get it. If it means crushing those who enjoyed easy life at TMO...so be it. It's about time. I'm sure you don't mind. lol
ReplyDeleteI hope Mr Black and his corrupt staff enjoyed as much as and more than they could chew. From here onwards, downwards dive starts. Enjoy the ride.
The higher and more arrogant they come the harder they fall. Black and his rubbishy staff have ruined my life and from what I have read on here, the lives of many others. 16.29 I hope Black suffers on the "downward dive" as much as I have.
DeleteThat is appalling 05:31, he should leave and we all hope soon.
DeleteThe boy has been a disaster
ReplyDeleteWe have been downtrodden and ignored by KCTMO management for a very long time, that cannot be allowed to continue.
ReplyDeleteThe TMO is toxic
ReplyDeleteDid someone mention about back scratching between Robert Black and Laura Johnson? I can't remember where so I'll put it here. Nice photo of them (see page 13).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kctmo.org.uk/files/103913_link_autumn_2014_final.pdf
Another thing people might be interested, on page 2, it says that over 300 members (a record number apparently) attended the 2014 Residents' conference, yet on page 9 it says that 70 members attended the AGM. Does this mean 230 left before AGM?
Anyway, can we top the attendance record this year?
I hope everyone will vote NO so that TMO will not be allowed to manage the homes.
I suspect turn-out at the TMO's AGM peaked under Perry. I attended the last couple of AGMs under his watch (2005-08) and they were reasonably well attended with much of the Great Hall full of engaged TMO members. Even the one where Cockell decided to show up and take questions from the floor (or not).
DeleteSince then attendance has plummeted. An attendance of 300 for an organisation that claims 5000 members all of whom live within a couple of miles of the Town Hall is poor. An attendance of 70 would be a disgrace. In particular as many of those 70 will be the infirm and elderly the TMO insist on bussing to the AGM from the various Sheltered Housing schemes across the borough (a farcical exercise initiated under Evans to bolster the number of compliant members sat in the audience).
Why have attendances fallen? For the very obvious reason that members have finally "got the message" and realised that the AGM is not the venue at which they can hold the Board and Executive to account for their company's performance and direction but rather little more than an exercise in hot air from a Board that is simply not fit for purpose and an Executive who really couldn't give a shit what the members think. The members are the TMO's shareholders. The TMO treats them like every other resident - dirt.
The Residents Conference is part of the reason many have stopped turning up at the AGM. That and holding it on a Saturday. Many members are happy to give up a weekday evening but letting the TMO ruin their weekend is another matter entirely.
DeleteThe AGM has been moved from the end of the afternoon to become the first item. There is a crèche so, unlike an evening meeting, all members of the family can attend and vote - so long as they are TMO members. You do not need to stay for the all day residents' conference. If you can't be bothered, then don't complain.
DeleteThe figures should speak for themselves. The Company Secretary should be reviewing the attendance/participation and voting rates after each and every AGM to determine whether any changes made that year to the date/time/format have had a positive or negative effect.
DeleteAs someone who has attended the TMO AGM over many years, including at weekends, I suspect they don't. Why? Because my impression is that numbers have been pretty steady for several years and significantly down in comparison to where they were under Mr. Perry back. Mr. Perry's AGM filled the Great Hall. The current ones do not and have not for some time.
What happened? Well the EGMs in 2007/8/9 probably did no end of harm to members' perception of the company. Merging the AGM with the Residents Conference has served only to belittle the AGM's importance. And whilst an argument could be made that holding it at the weekend may have been an attempt to address those issues it clearly hasn't worked if current attendance levels are anything to go by.
Someone needs to go back to the drawing board.
I suspect part of the problem is that the staff who ran the AGMs that managed to pack the Great Hall are long gone, and the secret to holding a moderately successful AGM has gone with them. To make matters worse the TMO has been doing a pretty good job of pissing off much of that audience in the intervening years.
DeleteAs 11:53 says: the TMO are now regularly bussing elderly residents to the AGM. I am sure they rationalise this in some way, "ensuring older residents can attend" or some such. But when those older residents make up a large chunk of the audience you know there's something more to it than that.
Ideally the TMO need to re-engage with its membership. In practice the Exec and Board fear the membership. Too many formerly active members are quite simply far too opinionated and far too knowledgeable, and thus more trouble than their worth. It's far safer to preach to a room of the docile and uninterested instead.
Re: 09:20 - "all members of the family can attend and vote". No they can't. Only those whose name is on the tenancy agreement or lease are allowed to be members of the TMO. That pretty much guarantees that at most only two members of the family can attend and vote, and that's assuming they were wise enough to ensure that both of their names were on their tenancy agreement or lease!
DeleteWell said 14:07. Evans disenfranchised a vast section of the resident population back in 2008 with her changes to the company's rules. And Black and co have done absolutely nothing about it. Which means they're perfectly happy with an arrangement where less than half of those living in TMO-managed property can even join the TMO let alone meaningfully participate.
DeleteDear Son or Daughter,
DeletePlease come with me to the TMO AGM and waste a day of your life you'll never get back watching me vote at the AGM of an organisation that considers you a second class citizen.
However long you live in our home, however old you get, I'll be able to vote and you won't.
And the TMO like it that way.
Signed:
Your father/mother, the TMO member.
Black is a joke but an expensive one. His salary and pension package is £ 150K.
ReplyDeleteSo Sir Paget Brown has been informed about the problem with Mr Black and he's not doing anything about it? That says a lot.
DeleteThe TMO has taken us all to the back of beyond
ReplyDeleteWhy are we not lobbying the tenant and leaseholder representatives on the Board to call an EGM and put an end to all this disgrace? One Labour councillor won't get very far on her own, whether it is Dent Coad or Blakeman - believe me, both of them have tried very hard. The latest bit of corruption is that one of the Residents' Associations in Chelsea asked the TMO to oppose a planning application to extend a local pub that causes huge problems for them further into their estate. Although they were told that an objection had gone in, there was no TMO objection by the closing date. Instead, the TMO colluded behind the scenes with Cllr Simmonds to support the proposal!
ReplyDeleteCllr. Simmonds has been bragging about this for weeks. The Pub's owner is "her friend" and she is making sure that the application is approved, because that's what she does for her "friends" and the application is also "a brilliant idea", although many of those unlucky to live next to it think otherwise. It has the potential to go very, very wrong. And given the pub's long track record of not dealing with problems as they arise, that potential could well become a certainty. We are starting to wonder just exactly whose side Cllr. Simmonds is on. Clearly not that of her constituents. As more and more of us realise the truth the local Conservative Party might be wise to consider deselecting what could well become a serious liability come 2018.
DeleteAt the end of the day the only political party that can bring an end to the long running joke that is the TMO is the one running the Council - the Conservative Party. Rather than moan about what the opposition can/cannot do perhaps we should all be writing to as many Tories as possible instead?
DeleteI would like to hear from leaseholders who know TMO has been invoicing leaseholders with wrong amount. So far I consider such claim nothing more than ranting. Just because the leaseholders THINK the invoice amount should be lower is not a credible evidence. If I am wrong on this, could you please email me with fact so that such information can be communicated together with other issues at the upcoming AGM?
ReplyDeleteI would also like to hear from anyone who has been affected by Data Protection breaches. This seems to be ongoing for years and it must end. Can you email me your story, what happened and when (month/year) it happened?
One more thing, do you suspect TMO is giving money to their friends in the trade by creating extra check ups like multiple gas checks per year? If so what are they? A good example is probably Keepmoat so any other example would be much appreciated.
endtmo@riseup.net Thanks.
There's plenty of evidence of poor accounting and incorrect invoicing at the TMO. Anyone who's ever asked for a break down of their service charge will have been able to identify a worryingly large number of questionable items to call into question the entire thing's accuracy.
DeleteThe problem is one of scale: on a large estate the number of errors will be large, and so will the corresponding error in the rechargeable total. But the error in the sum recharged to an individual leaseholder will often too small to be worth pursuing legally. For example on a large estate like Lancaster West, Silchester or World's End the leaseholder of a 2-bed property will be paying approx. 0.1% of the estate's total rechargeable expenditure in service charges. Given that it costs an absolute minimum of £50 to take any issue to an LVT it is quite simply not worth pursuing an error in the estate's accounts smaller than £50,000. You can hide a hell of a lot of questionable stuff in £50,000. And that's the problem.
Apologies, make that 0.3% and £17,000. Still plenty off room for "errors".
DeleteExactly. I live on Lancaster West. If I find two dozen dodgy orders included in my service charge totalling £25,000 I can ask the TMO to amend the accounts and my invoice. But if they choose not to they know I'm not going to pursue it. My share of that £25,000 is about £30. Who is going to spend at least £50 (plus time and effort) recovering £30? No one. And they know it.
DeleteAnd in the meantime £25,000 of dodgy orders fly under the radar. And that's on one estate of about 800 properties. And then multiply that out across the Council's housing stock of 10,000.
DeleteIt's an absolutely brilliant scam and allows God knows how many dodgy deals between staff and "friendly" contractors to take place.
And to top it all it's all facilitated by the Council and the likes of Holgate, who has proved quite happy to repeatedly sign off service charge final accounts as correct with no meaningful scrutiny even when leaseholders have repeatedly point out the problems.
Given that only about 20% of Council properties are leasehold and that 80% of this questionable expenditure falls on the public purse as a result, it is all a complete disgrace.
Hi, it's 15:11 here.
DeleteI hope I haven't offended leaseholders. I simply don't know ins and outs of the rumours that have been flying around but I needed some kind of frame/overview to be included in the list I am hoping to create. I appreciate your examples. I understand that £30 per household may not be enough amount for the time and effort but if you multiply that with the number of leaseholders, the number gets big. If we ask Mr Black to leave TMO, his salary of £150K should cover the refundable cost without denting the Council's budget.
One of the problems with having TMO is that it's a limited company and they hide behind that. We cannot do FoI whereas if the housing was managed by the Council, they will have to provide all the information we need to know.
If you all (leaseholders) stop paying the service charge, TMO/the Council will have to listen to you. First you must write a letter to them why you are doing it. But it will have to be with a group effort and not just by the few keen leaseholders. I think it's a reasonable request for the account to be investigated. This is how people across the country are not paying their Council tax for the time being because there are questions to be answered for. Having said this, they are more than happy to start paying for it once everything is explained.
PS, It's up to you leaseholders, keep on moaning and leave the situation as is till you sell your property or do something about it once and for all. I would love to do something about this invoice situation but I can't help you since I don't have precise figures at hand which I'm sure solicitor would want to see when one explains the problem.
DeleteMr Black if you are reading this, you can sit back and enjoy your riches and pretend you have an important role in KCTMO. As I suspected, this is nothing more than a lot of hot air. No leaseholders have so far contacted me via email about their stories so I will not be able to prove the inaccuracy of accounting at the AGM so it is to remain hearsay. Happy day for KCTMO!
DeleteA word of warning to those that are just complaining. No matter how much you hate TMO/Mr Black for whatever reason, if you can't present evidence to prove your points, it is considered as 'allegation' and you could get done for it if contested and this good blog site may be shut down. So make sure whatever you are claiming to be, you can stand on it. I know I can.
DeleteThere have been numerous instances where the TMO has had to correct service charge final accounts after issuing them to fix glaringly obvious errors in recording and accounting. Errors that should have been picked by both the TMO and the Council during the preparation, review and eventual sign-off of the accounts in question but weren't.
DeleteWere I to suggest a reason as to why those errors were made I would be making an allegation. But pointing out that there were errors which the Council/TMO had to correct is merely a statement of fact.
Anyone looking for a smoking gun amongst the leaseholder account errors won't find one. The Council are well aware of the complete mess the TMO make of leaseholder service charge accounts. That they haven't stepped in to have any of these accounts audited, even where errors have occurred repeatedly, suggests they simply don't care.
Delete14:40, Accounting errors and defrauding the leaseholders to line their pockets are two different thing though the latter could be made to look like they had many errors. I was lead to believe, because the staff were asked to hide the money, it was on the side of defrauding. I am not an expert on money laudering so I stay away from such subject. It takes an expert e.g. accountant/financial fraud investigator to comb through such thing to find out whether they are simply errors that have been allowed to occur multiple times and nobody was bothered to correct it or intentional fiddle on the figure.
DeleteOne could ask HMRC inspector to check the company's account but you'd have to be able to explain, with figures, why you suspect KCTMO's account is false. When there is no money incentive involved for the leaseholders, nobody is going to make that call, are they? Back to square one....I thought so.
DeleteThe TMO's accounts, the ones presented at the AGM, are of little interest and largely irrelevant. All those accounts describe is how the TMO spends its management fee (all 12 million quid's worth). And most of that goes on its directly employed staff.
DeleteThe accounts of concern actually belong to the Council. The Council is not daft enough to simply hand over its housing budget to the TMO. As a result the accounts are merely "managed" by the TMO and the Council still retains ownership and the ability to inspect them at will. It's those accounts where some people suspect there is foul play afoot.
I would personally suggest mismanagement and poor spending decisions are much more likely that sheer malice but given the sums involved there's plenty of scope for a bit of skimming where some of the smaller contracts are concerned.
The main problem with Keepmoat is simply one of management. The TMO aren't managing or supervising them properly. Keepmoat know it. So they do what they like. The end result is utter chaos, poor workmanship and trouble for years to come.
ReplyDeleteFinancially, the problem is the "framework agreement" used. The Council and TMO are particularly fond of these for some reason even though they have failed to prove they save anyone any money or that the resulting work is any better than if it had been procured in the usual manner. The truth of the matter that everyone at both the Council and TMO deny is that these framework agreements have a universally poor track record in delivering anything other than loads of public money to large contractors who promptly sub-contract the work to cheap and cheerful cowboys.
I tell you how corrupt KCTMO/Council is. Watch the video below. They are quite happy to evict a person illegally.
ReplyDeleteThe police is not doingn the right thing either. Whenever I called police for civil matter, quite rightly they won't come. But they do for the Council no matter what! This is why you have one law for the poor, another for the rich.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0i9i1G6uA4
They make up their own rules to suit them. Just because you are not having a problem now, don't think it's 'THEIR' problem, this applies for leaseholders too. The point is, if they can do this to a person, they will certainly do this to you. I am not fearful but my blood remains boiling.
More dirt. The bit it said about mental illness and twinning with their staff made me laugh. We suspected their obsession to collect phone numbers, email address etc anyway.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoXrYgu5I_o
After finding this...I feel there is no point in attending AGM. Hear it from ex-Council auditor.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.barrymcqueen.com/crkc/assets/audiocheat.swf
Looking on the positive side, I am glad I no longer have to waste my time attending the meeting. My instinct to go along with plan B was right.
What is Plan B? The best plan is to go to the AGM and try and get an explanation. When this is refused, then get the 500 signatures for an EGM. This should be relatively easy - 100 from every large estate. You can then point out that TMO members tried and failed at the AGM, hence the popular need for an EGM.
ReplyDeleteDid you not listen to the above link 08:15?
DeleteTwice they've been caught. Do you think they cleaned up their act?!? I am not counting on AGM/EGM anymore. It's like going to TMO asking them to sort it out. We've been there umpteen times and you know how far we've got! If you keep on doing the same thing, of course, you'd get the same result. It's time we took for a different approach. A drastic one.
There is also Plan C as well. However, Plan B cannot be disclosed at this time since nobody is interested in taking the matters in their own hands. It's always somebody else we need to rely on. That's the problem. Shame on you KCTMO residents. Other boroughs are doing much much better. If people were affected by TMO truly, I should have received many complaints to my email by now.
Let me say this...
DeleteIf you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem too. It looks that way to me clearly. Not participating means you are on the side of TMO by allowing them to be. Think about that.
You know how TMO will be safe and sound in 2017?
ReplyDeleteEveryone, including those that are appears to be actively seeking justice don't even reply an email. So everyone is blowing hot air. Nothing to see, move along now. I'm outta here.
See you in Bradford or Peterborough whichever town I/YOU get shipped to.
DeleteFOI Request made to KCTMO
ReplyDeletePlease will you investigate the following questions for me.
I would be thankful for an e-mail and posted response.
Yours sincerely,
Name withheld
1. The total number of KCTMO members at each Annual KCTMO AGM for the past 10 years?
2. The total number of votes cast at each Annual KCTMO AGM for the past 10 years?
3. The total cost to transport KCTMO members and residents to the Annual KCTMO AGM for each AGM for the past 10 years?
4. The total number KCTMO members and residents who have been transported by means paid for by the KCTMO to each AGM for the past 10 years?
5. The total number KCTMO votes cast in favour of Robert Black since he has been CEO of KCTMO at each AGM where he has been up for election?
6. Please disclose the procedure and qualifications for applying for funding to transport people to the AGM from TMO properties?