In this page, you read a report about WARA’s progress in 2024.
- Summary
- Overall report
- Mailing List Subscribers
- Committee
- Constitution
- Working with Rendall and Rittner
- Building Committees
- Finances
- New Committee Members
- Join Us
- Update with each WARA work stream:
- Service Charges Expenditure and Accounting
- Maintenance work stream
- Security work stream
- Communication work stream
Overall
We are a cross site association open to the Royal Arsenal leaseholders and tenants. We are currently organised around 4 work streams: Service Charges, Maintenance, Security, and Communication, and ad hoc issues coming in from time to time.
Our aim is to look at issues that affect the entire Royal Arsenal, or an entire estate (the development is split into 5 estates/phases) or a building as a whole. With over 4,000 flats and 6,000+ residents, it is not possible for us to act on any individual issues.
Mailing List Subscribers
So many have joined the WARA mailing list during 2024 that we are now 3x the size we were at the end of 2023 with 650+ subscribers in Dec 24. We will continue publicising the work we do with the aim of having over 1,000 joiners by the end of 2025 – please tell your neighbours about WARA. Together we can bring about positive change.
Committee
There are 17 members of the committee. We are all volunteers. We represent all Estates/Phases on the Royal Arsenal development and all committee members have been voted in by their respective Phases. Each year we hold separate phase/estate leaseholder meetings in order to identify and select potential committee members and to discuss estate specific queries. We also have a tenant representative in the committee. The members then work within their chosen work stream.
We have a Chair, a Deputy Chair, a Secretary and the post of Treasurer (please note we are currently unfunded).
Constitution
We have a written constitution which was agreed and voted on by the residents. Any changes are presented at our AGMs.
Working with Rendall and Rittner.
We hope to continue to foster good relations with Rendall and Rittner and our Chair has met with Simon Leech on 2 seperate occasions. We have explained our structure, approach and identity and shared our 4 work streams with them. The meetings have been broadly positive and Rendall and Rittner have agreed to support the committee when possible.
We have discussed formal recognition as a Residents’ Association but this has been refused by Rendall and Rittner at this stage. Their view is that we need to meet the following legal requirements.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/1043/regulation/4/made
Although meeting these requirements isn’t really feasible we are determined, in time to become the officially recognised association for the development. In the meantime our strength is in our growing numbers.
Building Committees
In time, it would be wonderful if buildings had their own committees that can feed into WARA and we can support each other, share knowledge and experience. Please get in touch if you’d like to develop one in your building.
Finances
We are currently unfunded. All the expenses incurred so far (printing, meeting rooms, website, etc.) have been met by the kind donation of one of the committee. In time we will need to revisit this with you the subscribers.
New Committee Members
Anyone interested to become a committee member or contribute to WARA activities should use the WARA website contact form to let WARA know.
Join Us
If you haven’t joined the WARA mailing list, please do so by clicking here and signing up to our mailing list.
There is strength in numbers- join us, together we can make a positive change.
Service Charges Expenditure and Accounting Work Stream
Current progress
A) Section 22 Reviews
Part of the law which gives leaseholders the right to see all invoices relating to a particular service charge year. During 2024 we have:
- Put on 2 courses on how to conduct a Section 22 review – over 50 attendees.
- Number of S.22 request has moved up from under 10 a year to over 50!
- Pushed Rendall and Rittner to respond to S.22s much more promptly and in full
- In 2022/2023 100% of S.22 requests were not responded to in time, now the majority are
- Written to Berkeley Homes (BH) (summer 2024) informing them that in 2024 they had broken the law in relation to S.22s on at least 11 occasions – (due to R&R not responding in time). The Committee member (CM) Informed BH that she (this was done personally by one of the CM’s in her own name) would look to bring a case through the magistrates court if this continued
- We are aware that off the back of this BH contacted R&R to discuss this issue
- Provided S.22 forms and information on serving them on WARA https://www.wara.london/section-22/
- Been instrumental in getting accruals (money set aside for expected bills) of £200,000 released back to RA leaseholders following a committee member’s (CM) S.22 review
- Had 15% of one buildings service charge demands (over 2 years) returned due to:
- R&R ignoring S.20 requirements
- Gross overcharging by contractors
- Invoices paid for without evidence of works being performed
- Currently raising concerns re expenditure on WARMC and The Warren Estates following S.22 reviews by one of our members
Please note committee members, like you, can only do S.22 reviews for Buildings/Estates where they are leaseholders.
Future Works
- More S.22 courses will be offered in Feb 25
- More support will be offered to leaseholders carrying them out
- More data will be gathered from S.22s to support future demand for change.
B) Accounting Anomalies
During 2024, we have:
- Investigated a large creditor (monies owed out) on the WARMC Estate (this is all numbered buildings apart from Building 10). Creditor has been there since 2018/2019
- After 7 months of asking we have now found out from R&R who this money belongs to: WARMC buildings, The Warren, Imperial and Canon Sq estates- https://www.wara.london/ra-buildings/ List of which Building belongs to which estate.
- Next – Fighting to get this money returned at today’s value – ie. After being increased for inflation
- Corrected an error on B20 accounts when R&R had incorrectly recognised the income which came in as £29K received income instead of £35K.
- This would have meant each individual Leaseholder was charged an additional £600 on average in the following year to fill the “non existent hole”.
- Investigated a potential over charging of £110,000 on the WARMC accounts- all fine. R&R had not made a mistake
- Ran a course in Dec 23 on Understanding Accounts and Service Charges
C) Other Works
During 2024, we have:
Collected accounts across 95% of buildings from March 23 Service Charge (SC) year and 85% of March 24 SC year. This will allow us to look at:
- R&R fees across the whole development
- Obvious errors on the accounts
- Areas of expenditure that require further investigation
| As with all things regarding service charges, individual leaseholders (or groups within a building) must look at the Accounts and the Invoices themselves. Only the leaseholders of each building can see the details. We don’t have the right to see the details of each buildings expenditure. Things will change when many people review their expenditure of their building and question things. Read more about Section 22. |
D) Work on one Estate/Phase, The Warren
During 2024, we have:
written to Rendall and Rittner to question:
- the Freehold element,
- the justification for the inclusion of certain areas of expenditure items including large staffing costs what area is being included in landscaping,
- unexplained reductions in Utility costs or actual refunds,
- electricity consumption figures.
This work is ongoing
- Out of Date Leases
Taking one block (West Carriage House) as an example, we have pressurised Berkeley Home to revise the out-of-date and therefore potentially illegal leases. One of the Committee members started this in 2022. Berkeley have finally produced new wording and plans, but these only further confuse the issue and, if implemented, would actually reduce lease-holders’ liability! Thus, we expect Berkeley Homes to eventually go back to this issue and re look at getting the leases for the earlier phases up to date. This work is ongoing.
GOING INTO 2025
Ongoing Investigations– Look out for emails from us on the following
- Potential Missing money – B22
- Potential Missing money – The Warren Estate
- Potential Missing Money – Canon Square
- Potential Missing Money – Imperial
- Significant expenditure in Warehouse Court (WHC) – £105,000 spent to clean the building, £42,000 spent to replace the lighting
- Landscaping expenditure- across the development
- Some WARMC expenditure
- R&R Recruitment fees and Uniform costs- across the development
https://www.wara.london/ra-buildings/ Which Buildings make up which Estates
Future Ambitions- These are on top of the ongoing Investigations
- Collecting database of Service Charge expenditure, communication, accounting etc issues to drive through future improvements
- Additional courses on Section 22s.
- Analysing site wide expenditure and R&R fees
- Demand drastic improvement in the quality of the auditors
- Work with R&R to agree that all jobs +£700 have 2 quotes and that all jobs £2,000+ have 3 quotes (R&R marketing states they get multiple quotes but this only happens when the law (S. 20) forces them to do it.)
- Work with R&R to ensure all quotes are kept with the Invoice data and can easily be provided upon demand
- Helping leaseholders question Under collections (where Rendall and Rittner did not invoice the amount the said they were going to which then leads to a deficit and a higher bill in the following years)
- Helping Leaseholders recognise errors on their accounts
- Ongoing work on some leases
Maintenance Work Stream
As a group of volunteers we are not in the position to look at the many individual issues of maintenance. Our focus is on site wide and estate wide issues.
A) Major Works- Section 20. (S.20).
If Rendall and Rittner are going to do significant works on your building (definition: where the share of the cost for any ONE leaseholders’ is £250 or more) then they must issue a notice of Intention under S.20 of the relevant law. This allows you to:
- Propose a Contractor
- Submit questions regarding the works in question.
WARA can help you with the above- please contact us via the website.
During 2024, we have:
Progress so Far:
- Detailed the various steps of S.20- Major works notices. The information Includes documents you need in order to get involved and find out how your money is being spent. https://www.wara.london/section-20/
- Detailed information on how to report a maintenance issue to Rendall and Rittner https://www.wara.london/reporting-property-and-estate-maintenance-enquiries/
- Detailed information on various contacts within Rendall and Rittner
- Met with Rendall & Rittner to discuss a potentially useful maintenance reporting database for them and us- to be continued.
Ongoing Section 20 Work
During 2024, we have:
Major Works – S. 20
- Helping numerous leaseholders with upcoming Major Roofing works in B50. We have:
- Suggested Contractors to propose (R&R need a very good reason not to ask them to quote)
- Asked questions of the works including seeking information on the full scope of the works required.
- A number of leaseholders have submitted the above to R&R
- Helping Leaseholders with upcoming Internal redecoration works in Warehouse Court (WHC). We have:
- Suggested contractors to propose to R&R
- Suggested questions for the Observations document including seeking information on the full scope of the works required.
- A handful of leaseholders have submitted the above to R&R
These actions:
- Give leaseholders complete visibility into the works being done
- Ensure the works are carried out at the correct market price
R&R are obliged to
- Ask all competent contractors (with the correct insurance and expertise) to quote
- Consider the leaseholder proposed contractor if they have the relevant competences to carry out the work
B) Ongoing Fire Doors Work
We have written to Berkeley Homes regarding Fire Door issues, in particular we are seeking clarity on lease-holders’ liability, the apparent muddle over inspections and re-inspections, and the Resident Engagement policy. –
This is ongoing
Non Compliant Fire Doors
If you have received notification of noncompliance regarding the tolerance of gaps between the door and frame of your apartment door please click here to visit a WARA webpage for how you can challenge the ownership of this reported fault. Please note this challenge can only be used for issues regarding gap tolerances any other issues relating to a report i.e. damaged smoke seals door closers etc have to be addressed separately. WARA are more than happy to assist with these types of issues on request. (Please use WARA contact form on WARA website).
C) Other Initiatives and Policy Implementation
• Advocating for R&R to enforce their policy of obtaining:
• 2 quotes for jobs valued at £600–£2,000.
• 3 quotes for jobs exceeding £2,000.
Proposing that these quotes be:
• Retained on file.
• Shared with leaseholders upon request under Section 22 reviews.
Security Work Stream
This is naturally an issue that concerns all residents.
One of the most important things that residents can do is to report all crime to the police. This summer saw a record number of complaints on Social Media regarding anti social behaviour and crime. Unfortunately posts on social media do not give us increased police resources. The more incidents that are reported to the police then the more resources are allocated to the development. Visit this WARA webpage for methods of reporting crime.
During 2024, we have:
Ongoing Actions
- Created a section on the WARA website detailing how to report a crime to police as well as how to contact security. There is a lot of useful information here. https://www.wara.london/security/
- Regular attendance at the Safer Neighbourhood meetings where RA is bought up by WARA
- Regular publication of Safer Neighbourhood meetings to residents
- Developed a reporting tool to improve the collection of information from residents regarding any security/crime/anti social behaviour issues the see on site. Reporting the incident to WARA. Visit WARA Website to Report Security Issues.
- By residents completing this document then the Security work stream is able to build up a picture of hot spots/areas of vulnerability etc which they can then share with those that can help to make a difference.
- Spoken individually to residents over specific anti social and crime issues
- Meetings with Abu, the developments own PCSO – special police officer
Future Work
- 2 members of the sub group will be working with Southern Housing in 2025 to look at measures to improve current issues.
- Arranged a meeting with Berkeley Home and other key stakeholders for Jan 2025, again to look at measures to improve issues on the site
- Collating data from the residents reporting form (GDPR compliant) to share with local partners.
Communication and IT Platforms Work Stream
During 2024, we have:
- WARA Website: we have developed and published www.WARA.London
- Numerous pages have been added over time and we will continue to add useful information, information on regulations, updates on our work etc etc.
- WARA Mailing List created with ability to subscribe to the Association and receive updates. https://www.wara.london/mailinglist/
- We’ve slowly refined this so that we can offer much more targeted updates by asking people which building and estate they belong to and whether they are leaseholder or tenants. Please go in and update your info if you joined prior to summer 24.
- Built a facility to send out emails to all people concerned by an update, investigation, course on offer, etc. This is currently being paid for by a member of the committee. In time we will need to come back to our subscribers to discuss a sustainable funding model.
- Created advertising “posters” for Facebook, leaflet delivery etc.
Future works
- Build on the above
- Create work stream emails so issues can go directly to the correct WS within the committee.
- Post more frequent updates on our work to relevant audience
- Find new ways to publicise our existence and work so everyone who lives or owns a flat here has the opportunity to join.
- Find ways to reach landlords to inform them about WARA
Ad Hoc Work
Ropeyards Planning Consent
Residents voted for WARA to support the filing of objections and concerns to the proposed planning application for additional building within the vicinity of Moribor park.
Several committee members submitted objections as did some residents. A committee member attended the Planning Board and spoke, not to oppose the application (because WARA never agreed that as policy) but to use the Objection process to raise issues of failure to consult, loss of green space, and the impact of an increased population on public services.
The Board approved the application, but criticised Berkeley for trying to “gag” the residents, especially when Berkeley admitted that our leases forbid us objecting to their Planning applications. None of our Ward Councillors were present.
Our strength is in our numbers, so, if there is more than one leaseholder on your lease, please can you BOTH join WARA.
We will update you with more progress during the course of 2025.