Category: Service charge & accounts

We have re-tendered the gas contract and have accepted Southern Electric at 1.966 p/kWh for a one year contract commencing 1st November 2007. This represents are unit price reduction of 23%. The annual gas bill, of course, depends on both the price we pay and the volume we use. Let’s hope for a mild Winter. 

At the residents’ general meeting in October last year a draft long term plan for the maintenance and management of Ashworth Mansions was discussed. We now intend to further flesh out the plan to provide a solid foundation for management over the next few years. The Directors are holding a long term planning meeting on 27^th February and it would be most helpful to have lessees’ and residents’ feedback, comments, suggestions etc prior to that meeting.  We therefore invite you to contact us with any ideas, general or specific, which you would like incorporated into future plans. Please address your comments to the directors via the website email address, by speaking to, emailing or writing to the managing agents or by letter handed to Daron. If you would rather have a one to one meeting with a director to discuss your suggestions, please let us know and we shall do our best to arrange a mutually convenient time. We are also planning to circulate a survey/questionnaire. After the meeting on 27^th February the Directors will compile a further written plan for consideration by the lessees/residents and for further discussion at the residents’ general meeting on 24^th April.

John Sutcliffe Chairman

AML’s costs in performing its obligations under the lease are recoverable from leaseholders by way of the service charge. An independent firm of accountants audits the service charge accounts, which are made up to the end of September, and leaseholders are provided with a copy of those accounts annually.

I have in the past felt that circulation of service charge accounts which are over a year old is unsatisfactory and we should be prompter in getting the accounts completed. Unfortunately this wasn’t possible in the year to Sept 05, as we had great difficulty in getting all the information necessary from the previous managing agents. Their computer system in fact failed completely at one point and we have our auditor to thank for doing a very thorough job.

The directors have discussed the timely production of service charge accounts with the current managing agents and the auditors, and it is intended that the accounts to Sept 06 will be available to circulate within six months of the year end i.e. by end March 07 at the latest.

John Sutcliffe

Chairman