Ryan

Nov 9, 2022

Unprecedented Bad Service

Property management companies are not regulated in Northern Ireland, this gives CSM the opportunity to do whatever they want, or so they think. David Carlisle is our "senior block manager". David has never set foot in our apartment block, he does not know when the last site visit was, he has no reports of these visits, but "he's getting back to me" on it, maybe the "senior senior block manager" organised the site visits and David makes the tea and coffee. When I asked why it took the yearly annual meeting over 18 months to take place,he put me on hold for approx 10 seconds and came back with "Errrr Covid". He advised me not to use my allocated parking spot resulting in me paying extra for my car insurance for parking on a public street, as we have a problem with tree roots breaking through a concrete wall, and concrete sheets falling from the wall, and long sharp nails exposed from the wall. David booked a 'roofing specialist' to carry out diagnosing the tree roots problem, where a man gets out of a van, kicks the wall with his steel toe cap and quotes thousands of pounds to build a wooden fence... Yes, a wooden fence to block tree roots which have been making its way through concrete. When I questioned the contractor giving the work to carry out this, he said "they do other work other than roofing" A roofing tree doctor folks, what a unique profession and credit to David on sourcing this gem. The yearly annual meeting happens eventually, 18 months later and the quote from the roofer is giving to leaseholders to vote on. I would tell you how the vote went but I don't know how I have not heard anything about the vote or anything to do with the annual meeting for that matter, as I didnt attend due to work commitments. No vote giving to me as of yet, no summary of the meeting giving to me. But be patient folks, it's probably due to Covid. They also hit leaseholders with two annual end of year charges. Let me explain, It took them 17 months to complete 2021 accounts (one month away from leaseholders being legally no obliged to pay) And the 2022 accounts 6 months late. So they just do both together and hit the leaseholders with 2 bills at once, in the most notoriously challenging times for families in modern history due to the cost of living crisis. When CSM become your block management company, you will receive a sales pack which gives you rules such as, no painting the outside unless it's through CSM. But they don't hold up to these rules themselves and my fellow leaseholders have resulted in painting their own apartments. I asked David to get a quote for the painting 9 months ago, but he forgot and he's going to bring it up at the next annual meeting, or the next 18-24 month meeting should i say. There is a Property Ombudsman Redress scheme in Northern Ireland, which it is expected that these companies sign up to this scheme. Of course, CSM are not. The advise on the scheme website if your property management company is not listed is, it should be reported to trading standards, which I have done. I am constantly gathering information, evidence of broken terms, evidence of unacceptable service, photographs of health hazards which have yet to be addressed and building a case, while keeping my side of the terms by continuing to pay my service charges etc. I would advise anyone having problems with CSM to do the same, if anyone would like to discuss legal options, please leave a review with an email.