Thank you, leaseholder64, for your help yet again with starting a new topic.
I hope I'm not going to sound hysterical, but I am really scared. We have a weird situation in our share-of-freehold set-up: A very intellectually limited real-estate agent, uncouth and ugly to boot, was put in place as manager when the outgoing director retired. We had never had a manager before. This new manager soon surrounded himself with four directors, all of whom eat out of his hand. They are totally uninformed about the structure of our governance.
All of us, including yours truly, had much better things to do in the past ten years than keep an eye on what's happening in our company. I, however, woke up suddenly when I found that the manager had decided to institute cash calls, slush funds and reserve funds, and to insist that we are governed by the Landlord and Tenat Act 1987. I managed to head off the cash calls, etc.
Then, just recently, it began to worry me that I had not seen a full company account in years, and that there has not been an audit in all that time, although our Lease specifies that there must be an annual one. Two other members and I immediately applied for a section 476 (Companies Act) audit, which makes it compulsory to hold one.
Now this is where things turn very odd: The furious manager told everyone that I'm a fool, and that the audit will cost £3,000. Quite by accident, I came upon the chartered accountant who had told him that. I immediately challenged the latter, who said in a lengthy but primitive 'blind you with law' email text that section 476 audits cost much more than ordinary audits. I had some fun writing back to him, and sending him a little image of people rolling on the floor with laughter.
Then I reflected: our membership includes four investors in property, some with a sizeable portfolio. Two of them are directors. The manager has reduced their annual maintenance charges. (He manages their other properties too.) The above-mention chartered accountant (who advertises his services wildly, has no working company, but lists a dormant and a non-trading one) is very much one of them. Of out 20 flats, only three of us are owner occupiers. So there is not much cohension in the company to speak of. Having at first thought contemptuously of them as creeps and fools, I am now very soberly contemplating the possibility that the manager and the chartered accountant have in place a scheme to acquire our company's freehold, and to set themselves up as landlords. Or they are employed to do that by one or more of the property investor members of a company.
I might be mad, of course. But does any of you think the scenario I outlined can be brought off by a gang of small-time crooks like the ones I described? What would you do in my position? (I shall take on the chin whatever anyone thinks fit to say.
I hope I'm not going to sound hysterical, but I am really scared. We have a weird situation in our share-of-freehold set-up: A very intellectually limited real-estate agent, uncouth and ugly to boot, was put in place as manager when the outgoing director retired. We had never had a manager before. This new manager soon surrounded himself with four directors, all of whom eat out of his hand. They are totally uninformed about the structure of our governance.
All of us, including yours truly, had much better things to do in the past ten years than keep an eye on what's happening in our company. I, however, woke up suddenly when I found that the manager had decided to institute cash calls, slush funds and reserve funds, and to insist that we are governed by the Landlord and Tenat Act 1987. I managed to head off the cash calls, etc.
Then, just recently, it began to worry me that I had not seen a full company account in years, and that there has not been an audit in all that time, although our Lease specifies that there must be an annual one. Two other members and I immediately applied for a section 476 (Companies Act) audit, which makes it compulsory to hold one.
Now this is where things turn very odd: The furious manager told everyone that I'm a fool, and that the audit will cost £3,000. Quite by accident, I came upon the chartered accountant who had told him that. I immediately challenged the latter, who said in a lengthy but primitive 'blind you with law' email text that section 476 audits cost much more than ordinary audits. I had some fun writing back to him, and sending him a little image of people rolling on the floor with laughter.
Then I reflected: our membership includes four investors in property, some with a sizeable portfolio. Two of them are directors. The manager has reduced their annual maintenance charges. (He manages their other properties too.) The above-mention chartered accountant (who advertises his services wildly, has no working company, but lists a dormant and a non-trading one) is very much one of them. Of out 20 flats, only three of us are owner occupiers. So there is not much cohension in the company to speak of. Having at first thought contemptuously of them as creeps and fools, I am now very soberly contemplating the possibility that the manager and the chartered accountant have in place a scheme to acquire our company's freehold, and to set themselves up as landlords. Or they are employed to do that by one or more of the property investor members of a company.
I might be mad, of course. But does any of you think the scenario I outlined can be brought off by a gang of small-time crooks like the ones I described? What would you do in my position? (I shall take on the chin whatever anyone thinks fit to say.
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