19 Harper Road Flats 1-7

Flat 2 has been placing the bins back into position on their own. Since this benefits all of us I think we should all help out. A way of doing this would be to place a tick next to your flat number when you have moved/tidied up the bins and surroundings. A clean clear walkway benefits all of us and keeps the rodents down.

Thank you for your email. Please accept our apologies for the slight delay in replying. Please be aware that we are not involved in the management of the commercial units. We have, therefore, written to the freeholders with a request that the matter of the bins is resolved to your satisfaction. I ought to say that I do not have too much hope of an immediate outcome. Please be aware that the land on the side of the building is not demised to anybody in particular. It belongs to the freeholder but all tenants of the building can use it for access for their respective properties. You could park your car in front of the restaurant and the restaurant owner could not object even though they pretend that the ground on the side of the building in front of the restaurant is their car park. It is not. I will keep you informed. As we do not have email addresses for any other resident, I will be sending out a circular to all residents.

As mentioned in my phone call on Friday 13th June , since the rebuilding of the wall, the large blue wheelie bin which is for the restaurants use keeps being placed in the space where the residents bins normally are, and the residents bins are being put in the walkway.

As a result the residents have to put up with a commercial bin being at the entrance to the access to the flats, and reduced access from having the residents bins in the walkway and close to the flat door. I have spoken to other residents and request two things.

1.Please ask the freeholder to write to the restaurant to remind them that their bin should be kept on their side of the building.

2. That RMC write to the restaurant requesting them to keep their bin on their side.

If the council refuse collectors are sometimes responsible for the bins being put in the wrong place I am quite willing to take this up directly with Southwark Council. It does not stop individuals ensuring the bins are in the correct place.

Firstly, please appreciate that your proposals relate to the surrounding land and commercial premises retained by our client hence it was necessary for me to consult them in the first instance.

Secondly, it appears to me that you have slightly misunderstood my previous correspondence. What I meant to say is that the improvement works, such as altering the layout of the courtyards and providing new features, will have to be consented by all flat owners and such expenditure should be treated separately. There is no doubt in my mind, however, that when it comes to the maintenance of the existing pathway, this job is properly recoverable from each flat owner under the terms of their leases.

Thirdly, I would like to spell out my doubts again. In your previous correspondence you commented on your meeting you held with the residents. You quoted names which were unknown to me. This indicates to me that you had a meeting with sub-letting people who are not Service Charges payers but rent payers and as such do not have any authority to decide whether they wish to have improvements carried out at the property or not.

I shall revert to you as soon as I have had the opportunity to discuss the matters raised with our client.

It is not quite correct what you say in your first paragraph. Mr David Taylor is not a landlord. Mr David Taylor is the lessee of flat 7 and he sub-lets his flat. The Freehold interest for this property is vested in Grantglen Limited, who is our client and on behalf of whom we act.

1 Rubbish Collection.
Indeed your idea is applaudible. I believe that the property would greatly benefit, however, there is a slight problem. Please be aware that under the terms of the lease, our client is entitled and obligated to carry out maintenance works rather than improvements to the property. It means, for example, if the door to the existing rubbish cupboard falls off, it is our client's obligation to put it back and then recover the cost from all flat owners. The proposal you outline of creating new concrete paved patio area could be seen by certain argumentative tenants of the building not as mere maintenance but as an improvement. I would be delighted to comply with your wishes and have the existing rubbish cupboards removed, concrete the area to provide you with wider access to the building, however, I would require the written agreement by all seven flat owners. If you are unable to obtain the consent of one or two flat owners, I would require the written undertaking by the remaining flat owners that they would cover the cost of the works. Further the cost of these works would not form part of the annual building's runnng costs and would be seen as additional expenditure. I am sorry to appear to be difficult. This is not my intention. I am adopting this very cautious stance as I am frightened to spend the building's money on yet more litigation.

Referring now to the matter of the dustbins. I was in touch with this Council a while ago, they stated that there would be no problem in providing wheelie bins for the property, however, there is the matter of placing them at present.
Referring now to the `boundary'. There is not one between the curry house and 19 Harper Road. All that land is vested in Grantglen Limited. I do not believe that the employees of the curry house have exclusive usage of this part of the land, situated directly in front of the side entrance of the restaurant, as they seem to assume.

2 Parking spaces.
It is not exactly correct what you say in your item 2. There are not 'parking spaces attached to the property'. Indeed, there is a concreted area at the side of the property but as I said before, this land belongs to Grantglen. We do recall being approached for the usage of this particular area of land for residential parking, however, none of the residents who approached me were prepared to pay for the privilege. If you or your neighbours wish to acquire the car parking spaces, we shall be pleased to take the matter up with the landlords again.

You refer again to the plans, even though I do not have the plans on file, I do recall seeing them. It is clear that the property boundary stretches up to the line of the fence parallel to the wall with the advertising hoarding and continues to the next property in Harper Road (including the car park used by the curry house staff).

3 Rendering the Walkway.
I am aware of the problem. Please appreciate that I was holding back with the work as I was concerned with the already significant building maintenance bill in previous years as well as the high litigation costs. Simply, I do not wish to put any additional financial burden on the flat owners. If, however, the general consensus is that the works must go ahead, then I shall pleased to put them to hand. However, please bear in mind that there is no point of re-concreting the existing walkway if the residents will opt for action dealt with in our item 1.
Finally, I note you have sent a copy of your e mail to the residents. I regret but I do not recognise the names of the recipients. It appears to me that you have had a meeting with the sub-letting tenants rather than the actual flat owners. I hope that you will forgive me for copying your e mail and sending it with a copy this letter to all flat owners.

As I explained yesterday, all the tenants of 19 Harper Road met up last night and formed a committee, to discuss any issues that they may have with their tenancies, either rented or leased. The following issues were raised and we would like these to be discussed between RMC and David Taylor, the landlord:

It has long been an issue for everyone that the current placing or rubbish bags in the black 'cupboards' at the front of the block is messy and unsanitary. Rats were actually present during the summer, and having the bags in containers that are not tight excerbates this problem. What we would like to do, as I mentioned to you yesterday, is to remove those cupboards, thus creating a slightly wider walkway to the block, and have one large bin instead at the front, near the gateway. It would useful if RMC could find out from Southwark Council how these are acquired, as I do know that the landlord rather than the tenants has to get in touch with them as I have already tried myself. Once we have acquired this bin, we would like to put posts up directly in front of the gateway so that no one can park there and perhaps have a contract with a tow away company so that the general public cannot park there and block our entrance. This is something that we would like RMC to consider and get back to us on. Please could you send me the file plans for this area so that I can see where the boundary lies between the curry house and 19 Harper Road to see if the walkway can be widened.

It was discussed last night that there are parking spaces attached to the property. The block has a large concrete area at it's front, which at present is used for parking by the curry house staff next door. I think that the Landlord owns both the curry house and 19 Harper Road. What is not clear is whether the concrete parking area is meant to be for the use of the curry house staff, or whether it is meant to be for the use of the tenants at 19 Harper Road. I would really appreciate this matter being clarified. Please could you also send me the file plans for this area and for the whole block of 19 Harper Road itself. 3. Rendering the walkway: The walkway to the block is at present very unsatisfactory and needs to be changed. It is very uneven, and therefore unsafe. It's uneveness also means that whenever it rains (which of course it does a lot!) that area is flooded, up to about an inch of water. Not only does this create mess, but also means that tenants get very wet whenever they try to leave the block! It would be appreciated if RMC also look into either concreting or tarmacing this walkway. Presumably it is a 'common area' to which they are under a duty of care to the tenants to keep in a reasonable state. I have copied this email to the other tenants and given a copy to Chris Dobson in Flat 1, who is not on email.

Signs labeling each Flat's bin space
Place a large "Wheely" bin out front for communal rubbish
Determine how many parking spaces are for use of residents
Investigate the Rodent Problem
Put a sign up reminding everyone to slam the front door shut
Install a lock to control front parking for the use of residents
Ask the cleaners to periodically clean the area in front of the bins
Loose tiles present a safety hazard, Chris (flat 1) has offered to fix this
investigate removing current individual rubbish spaces in favour of communal bin

Based on how it goes we plan to put up a guest book so that comments may be made.
In the meantime time please email any comments/suggestions to [email protected]

19 Harper Road Flats 1 -7