Mention has been made of the Peverel/Firstport complaints procedure that must be gone through before a referral to the Ombudsman.
For the record (and it has been upheld at the tribunal) no fees can be charged to residents for membership of an ombudsman service.
The membership is a requirement of admission to a trade body and is nothing to do with the lease.
Some years ago in order to improve Peverel/Firstport accountability, Janet Entwistle set up a Governance Committe. Great store was set by the formation of this committee, but without actually doing anything (notably before it could do anything) orders went out to disband it without publicity.
So customers (though residents are not customers) are reliant on the Peverel/Firstport complaints procedure.
The complaints committee is led by Chris Owens. A man mired in controversy.
A man who saw nothing improper in hounding a serving soldier whilst on active service.
A man who was "Mystified by a complaint that had no basis" before paying out thousands of pounds in court ordered refunds.
A man who professed himself "satisfied" by a vote in favour of a contractor's bid to carry out decorations, despite no evidence of the voting papers being produced and crucially he was "satisfied" even though the original tender document did not even contain the name and address of the contractor.
A man who sends letters threatening legal action to residents who may dare to challenge the honesty of Peverel/Firstport and some of their staff.
One of the most extraordinary decisions the Committe took under Chris Owens leadership was the complaint concerning Mere Court.
The then Regional Manager Peter Whalley wrote to the residents at Mere Court informing them that Peverel/Firstport had come to the conclusion that tey could save money if they voted for the removal of a live in house manager., which meant the house manager's flat could be sold. The residents were offered an incentive of 10,000 pounds to agree.
Sarah Whitehouse wrote that the owner of the House Manager's flat was Proxima who had given Peverel/Firstport permission to act in any sale.
This was not true.
Peverel/Firstport had in fact held a lease (granted by Proxima) since 2009 and had even taken out a mortgage secured against the house manager's flat in 2012.
And yet, the true ownership was kept hidden from residents.
When voting residents had no idea that Peverel/Firstport, Peter Whalley and Sarah Whitehouse had a direct financial interest in persuading residents to allow a sale.
Subsequently a leaked email showed that managers were being put under pressure to sell more house manager's flats as "targets had been missed". Incentives were dramatically increased.
Nearby Ash Court was also offered the same deal a Mere Court, but this time they had been alerted as to the true owners and challenged Peverel/Firstport.
The Peverel/Firstport response was to withdraw rather than own up!
The redoubtable Alex Ellison took Peverel/Firstport through their complaints procedure.
Chairing the committe was Chris Owens, assisted by Sandra Barton (now with McCarthy & Stone) Stepen Howarth and Tim Fry.
Faced with such compelling evidence of fraud and deception the verdict was that:
The panel feels that the ultimate ownership of the house manager's apartment's leae would have had no material bearing on a decision by residents as to whether or not to adopt a visiting house manager.
The panel did feel that the "communication was not a clear as it could have been"
