Complaint Review: Trust Properties - Benjamin Mire

From Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, LKP:

Mire 52, a chartered surveyor and managing director of trust property based on Colindale, North London, resigned while the complaints were being considered by the Judicial Conduct Investigation Office(which untill earlier this year was the office of Judical Complaints).

BEN! WHY YOU HAVE NO SYMPATHY. HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU LOOK AT BROKEN BUILDINGS AS WELL AS BROKEN  HEARTS BY YOUR COMPANY. DO YOU HAVE ANY CONSCIENCE. WHAT IF THIS HAPPENS TO YOUR OWN HOME? WHY YOU FORCE PEOPLE , VULNERABLE PEOPLE TO GO TO MORTGAGE COMPANIES AND PAY UNFAIRLY TO YOU.

I agree with the original report. I have 100 pages of evidence to prove my points. well done. Benjamin Mire has ruined our block purposely for money.

Just a quick note ..

Benjamin Mire is on the southern leasehold valuation tribunal panel,a very open and credit worthy guy ....to let's say the people who love immoral values.

Why would he be on the panel ?

Why is Cyril Freedman and Spalter Fisher (there a one man band ) a quote from the lovely barrister who represented them at court recently ,Julian Spalter was obviously to busy for such a hearing lol,,even though the lady in question was on the phone to him quite abit ,u never hear from the directors Mr Finegold or Ms glass ...Dave Glass signed a letter from Cyril Freedman from basic land registrars...he was there secretary!

Ms glass ....David Glass ...purely not related !!

Lakeside Developments....directors are ....won't tell you ...do some research lol ...u won't be surprised lol Dis-ingenious that's all ..its okay to make money ..but hey some people are not blinkered to the corporate giants and how they fleece the smaller people to profit hugely , Once bitten twice shy ...not these guys ..that's females to lol ....

Looks like you copy and paste the same text quite a bit, Ben.

I've read your complaints handling procedure and it's basically says that as leaseholders are not 'clients' you just deal with the complaint internally. What is the point in taking a complaint to a Company where you know that it will not be resolved appropriately?

For anyone else reading this, feel free to Google leasehold valuation tribunal rulings on property managed by Trust Property Management - There is lots to read about and all very consistant with the two reports filed here.

I would suggest any disgruntled leaseholders raise their concerns at the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal.  It is the forum to settle such matters and not the internet.  If any leaseholder in any property we manage wish me to investigate any of their concerns they should email me at bmire@trustplc.com and I will investigate and respond.

I have just stumbled across this report and I wholly agree with the original report.

I had the misfortunate in having to deal with Trust Property Management (TPM) for three years before we exercised our right to manage.

During this time, we had nothing but trouble: Unnecessary and incomplete work, excessive charges, incomplete answers, incompetent employees, incompetent and very expensive third parties.

Aside from the really poor - and I mean REALLY POOR - property management, the issue that really stinks is how TPM and its sister company, Benjamin Mire Chartered Surveyors (BMCS), go about the consultation process for external works.

TPM, as manager is required to carry out certain tasks, as detailed in the lease. This is fine. However, in doing so, it is acting in a fiduciary capacity and should spend leaseholder money prudently. This is where the whole rip off begins:

Firstly, TPM instruct their "surveying department" (thinnly guised as another company operating on an arms length basis) to carry out a survey. Appointment is automatic - they do not shop around. Even though it's an internal company, TPM still charge a fee to "instruct" BMCS - instructing themselves!?

Next step is the survey - BMCS uses RICS old scale of fees. These fees were withdrawn in 2000 after a Monopolies and Mergers Commission report considered RICS fee-setting to be anti-competitive and operating against the public interest. Having a fee scale is always nice as it's clear. However, the fact is was removed mean that it is possible to obtain more competitive costings - TPM don't worry about that though.

Next is the tender process. The work required to our building was relatively minor. BMCS however suggested that, as a few cracked tiles needed replacing on the roof, that the entire roof should be replaced, just in case! The roof was not inspected internally and, when we asked another surveyor to take a look (to get an independent view), he said that they were just bumping up the costs to maximise their fees (15% of the total contract sum - nice little earner!).

The choice of builder was also questionable - most chosen builders were used to dealing with major works. The work that was required on our building could have been carried out by a small local company. When the building firms came around to quote, a couple actually quoted on how excessive some of the required items were.

When BMCS analysed the various tender documents (no real analysis took place, believe me!), BMCS decided to add a few thousand to each tender as a contingiency, just in case - no logic, just another opportunity to increase the 15% fee.

We disputed the proposed amounts and, in true TPM style, we were threatened with court action etc (yawn). Fortunately, we didn't have to wait too long before the right to manage kicked in and the whole process stopped.

BMCS did however still want to be paid for remainder of the surveyor's fees - i.e. the bits they hadn't done (dealing with builders, onsite inspections, snagging etc) - how does that work?

The worrying thing is that these companies continues to get away with this - there are no real laws protecting people. There is the leaseholder valuation tribunal. However, leaseholder property is such a minefield, I suspect most people just pay, moan and then pay again. In the interim, cowboy companies like TPM and BMCS continue to get away with murder.

I am Benjamin Mire of London, UK.  I have no connection whatsover with BLR Property Management also of London, UK.  The allegations made in this report are defamatory.  In the UK all disputes between residential Landlords and Tenants are determined by a Judicial Tribunal called the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal.  The allegations made in this report have been debated at the LVT on occassions and they have found that it is quite in order for two companies with common Directors to provide services to long leaseholders provided the cost is no more than would have been incurred by using independant companies.  Indeed it has been found that the closeness of the companies actually reduces the cost to leaseholders and provides for a better service as it keeps the function under one roof and in-house.  I am always willing to hear and deal with complaints and attempt to resolve them.  We have an approved Complainst Handling Procedure.  Anyone should email me at bmire@trustplc.com with their concerns.