COUNTY ESTATE MANAGEMENT 1

BLOG RATIONALE.
As the only person with any sense reading this would be someone already with an interest in this area I will assume some knowldege of the problems that have traditionally blighted the landlord/lessee relationship.
There are a number of nightmare scenarios for lessees- 1. The landlord ( usually vicariously through the managing agent) who does little or no work on the property 2. The landlord who does too much work 3. The landlord who charges unreasonable amounts for works done or indeed not done 4. Lack of communication by way of unanswered letters/phonecalls/ lack of consultation on proposed works or services /failure to deal with complaints/etc.
The very worst scenario concerns the problem that lessees have if their leases typically state that any costs borne by the landlord in executing the service charge account are repayable by the lessees, thus making them vulnerable to pressure by landlords to pay fees whether they be justified or not.
Characteristic of all the above is that the landlord increases its profit by managing too many properties with too few staff to give enough time individually to each property to manage it professionally- leading to problems such as poor communication (good communication taking time), standardized fees and services that take no account of different properties' particularities, etc . The corollary of these scenarios is the opposite of the above- simply, works done and services provided as required by the lease to a reasonable standard at a reasonable cost, and communication with lessees at a level accepted as professional across the board throughout society.
This blog will simply record the communications between myself and any body that has anything to do with the running of the lease- the landlord ( Reality Estate Management) , managing agents, etc. such that will become clear where on the sliding scale between Perfection and Nightmare the management of this property resides.
The blog is entitled 'countyestate-files' as it is envisaged it will have most to do with the new managing agents, County Estate Management, who are a company that, it would seem at least from its website www.countyestate.co.uk, takes some pride in claiming the highest professional standards for its activities, including its dealings with lessees. Hopefully therefore its actions will be if not perfect at least reasonable and consistent with its rhetoric and any encouragement this blog might provide for CEM to maintain a favourable public profile prove to be unnecessary.
So as far as I am concerned , therefore, I would like to start this blog with a blank sheet with no prejudice either way as to what impression CEM and other relevant bodies might give of themselves. With this in mind, therefore, I wrote to Mr Paul Rayden, the managing director of CEM, last month informing him of my intention to open this blog, and inviting him to sort out various 'teething problems' with regard to the management of the property since CEM.'s taking over recently, before the blog started. Unfortunately Mr. Rayden has not replied to my invitation. My next post therefore will be a copy of the letter I intend to write to Mr. Rayden in response to his nonresponse.

BACKGROUND .
This property is over an hundred years old, has 6 flats, I live in the studio flat of a converted attic, no work was done to the property for many years by the previous agents although due to pressure from lessees a structural engineers' report was produced (but not acted on) nearly four years ago, the freehold was transferred last Dec mber to Reality Estate Management (REM) who appointed CEM in May this year. I contacted the particular property manager within CEM dealing with the property, a Mr Laurence Freilich, and informed him of the engineers report indicating the need for major works one of which was an emergency, sent him a copy, went to see Mr Freilich in his offices in J ne to discuss the report in detail, agreed a plan of action.
So far so good, but then from my perspective as a lessee some problems began, which I have been trying to sort out with CEM since.

Note to anyone referring to CEM or other relevant bodies in Comments-you are very welcome, but please nothing defamatory- for this reason comments will be moderated. I intend to pass no judgements myself in this blog on the management of the property, as I feel a record of the various communications should speak for itself, and intend anyway to have the blog filtered by a libel lawyer.
Also I will need to be satisfied any comments from CEM lessees are bona fide before publishing.