OWNERS at the Fresh Apartments on Chapel Street are trying to obtain the right to manage their mucky black and white block after a new management agent was foisted on them.

I pay £1,400 a year in service charge for a building which has no extra amenities and feels more like student halls

The building has been managed by Revolution Property since December last year but when the freehold was sold the agents acting for the new owner decided to bring in a new team to the dismay of both Revolution and some of the owners, including Gagan Khurana. 

He owns twelve apartments in Fresh, including the one he lives in, and says Revolution was just starting to get to grips with some of the many maintenance issues.

“It is incredibly frustrating," Khurana tells me. "I pay £1,400 a year in service charge for each of my apartments which is outrageous for a building which has no extra amenities and feels more like student halls of residence than a prestigious city centre development. It is in a great location but is currently not a great living environment.

“Revolution had just started getting to grips with things, improving the lobby area, planning a programme of works and looking at the costs but are being forced out before they get chance to finish.

“People who own and live here find that wrong and we called a meeting and began the whole Right To Manage process," continued Khurana. "This is my investment and I need to protect it, it doesn't seem right that as an owner you have no control over who is going to maintain your primary asset.”

.Resident and owner Gagan Khurana

Khurana owns letting agency Kaytons in Piccadilly so knows most of the city centre blocks and has seen the standards that can be achieved by good management. He said: “I go into different schemes on a daily basis and I know what can be done. We want to pursue our Right To Manage.”

The stumbling block for his management bid is that the development was churned out at the top of the buy-to-let boom by the discredited Dylan Harvey and of the 141 apartments in Fresh only fourteen are owner occupied. Chasing freeholders all over the UK and abroad is not easy.

Revolution is backing the RTM and boss Lee Birkett said: “We have been involved at Fresh Apartments since last December acting as a subcontractor to the appointed managing agent. There were a number of owners who know us from other buildings who were really pleased to hear of our takeover. 

“We've been happy to assist leaseholders there in their drive to complete Right to Manage and we now have 65 leaseholders who are members and only need seven more to reach the magical 50% to take it forward.

“The landlord’s determination to replace Revolution with a different agent with only a few days notice does feel like a complete attempt at frustrating the leaseholders RTM. We have asked for a window of time to allow the RTM to complete and have offered a date in a few months where we will leave and hand over orderly to their new agent if the RTM is not successful - but that would not be agreed.

“The RTM has a great board of owner directors, they are passionate about the building and how it should look and feel for the future. They understand the key to increasing the value of the properties is to improve the building and its management."

.Fresh frontage looking sad

E&J Estates are acting for the new landlord and have appointed Macclesfield-based Premier Estates to take over from 1 May.

E&J’s Head of Estates Christopher Beamish said: “We do not automatically change agents when we acquire a building but at Fresh there was an anomaly where Revolution had been appointed by a third party and we felt uncomfortable with the situation.

“In our opinion that third party agent had no authority to have any dealings at Fresh apartments and was also in breach of Arma and Armaq regulations. 

“We are happy for the owners at Fresh to continue their RTM. Our aim is for the development to be managed in accordance with the consensus views of owners while at the same time complying with the terms of the leases in order to both maintain and enhance the values of individual apartments.”

Time will tell.

But a quick nosey inside the building shows that work really needs to be done, both inside and out to improve the look of the structure and the general air of the building. When you are paying £800 a month in rent you to want to walk into something better than a tiny lobby with a tatty old desk and gloomy corridors.

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