september 2010
GNTOWER UPDATE AGM and Residents Meeting 7pm Monday 13th September 2010 @Rain Bar, 80 Gt Bridgewater Street, M1 5JG ALL WELCOME Both a Residents Meeting and the Annual General Meeting of the Great Northern Tower Management Company Limited will be held in the upstairs function room of Rain Bar, on Great Bridgewater Street, from 7pm on Monday 13th September 2010. All residents and leaseholders are most welcome to attend.
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The Residents Meeting will give an opportunity to hear a presentation from Greater Manchester Police about the security arrangements for the Party Conference at Manchester Central later this month, and how they will affect residents and visitors. We will also discuss management and maintenance of the Great Northern Tower. At the AGM, leaseholders can decide on the people they’d like to run the company in the future. The resident directors have prepared a report on what’s happened since they took over from the developers in spring last year - this has been sent to all leaseholders and is also on the notice board in the foyer and on the website - www.gntower.com If you’d like a copy emailed to you, please contact Matt Kirk at Rendall & Rittner on matt.kirk@rendallandrittner.co.uk or by telephone on 0161 638 9301. The management company, GNTMC Ltd, is owned by the leaseholders of the 257 apartments. The first residents moved into the Tower in autumn 2006, and the last apartment was sold in 2008. The developers, Taylor Wimpey City (TWC), ran the company until 30 March 2009. TWC set the service charge budget from 2005 and employed Stevens Scanlan as managing agents. After some months of discussion, and to avoid “management from a distance” continuing, three resident leaseholders agreed to step forward as directors in spring 2009 and replace the TWC directors, and a fourth joined them in the autumn. Working with a wider group of residents and leaseholders, many of whom have taken responsibility for particular areas, we’ve made efforts to understand the issues and problems facing the Tower. Together, we’ve prepared the first ‘stakeholder’ Director’s Report, and while the accounts for the AGM deal with the period to end December 2009, the report looks more broadly at the period since handover by the TWC directors on 30 April 2009.
This update has been produced by a group of leaseholders and residents who have a positive commitment to the Great Northern Tower; four of them act as the initial Directors of GNTMC Ltd, the GNT management company, following takeover from the developers in spring 2009.
GNT TOWER SEPTEMBER 2010
So what did we do? And whatʼs next? Inheritance from the developers: It was quickly clear that big changes were needed. While we had limited information and many misgivings, we immediately addressed security, cash-flow, arrears and water charging, and began a review of resourcing, to ensure that we put the GNT “house” in order for the medium to long-term including accessing technical and professional services, and improving management of the concierge and caretaking team, service providers and contractors. We were very concerned that the Tower was not put into a vulnerable position; we were keen to protect our individual and collective assets, and to avoid far greater liabilities in future. A handful of major issues took the lion’s share of resource, requiring high-quality technical and legal advice - and a lot of time. The parties involved in the commercial sub-leases had been making alterations without consent, as had two residential leaseholders who wanted to occupy communal spaces; all three were bringing fire safety and the structural integrity of the entire block into question. GNTMC Ltd has legal, technical and safety responsibilities it must discharge, and so we took action so to do, despite all three parties being unhappy that we were ‘interfering’ with them doing what suited them. Directors: Three of us (Lesley, Christian and Ian) took on the initial task of becoming directors; others in the group were happy to help but preferred not to join the board formally; though this hasn’t meant they haven’t taken an active role or come to meetings. We had to meet weekly for many months during 2009 - we even had a Board meeting on Bank Holiday Monday last year - but we were able to reduce to more-or-less monthly from February 2010. The 20th floor leaseholder, mentioned in the Directors Report, submitted 4 Directors application forms last autumn: one for himself plus three others. Only one applicant, Felipe, was not in arrears; we invited him to come along to Board meetings, initially as an observer, to see what was going on, and he later joined the Board formally. Another leaseholder, Robert, who expressed interest this spring has come to meetings since on a similar basis. Progress: Much progress has been made:- particularly, new managing agents appointed, access to appropriate legal and technical advice, and a realistic budget set for 2010. Appointment of R&R was an important step: they acted immediately on service charge collection, and worked closely with Stevens Scanlan to achieve full handover by mid-February 2010. We appreciated that once these basics were achieved, we’d need a steady review of issues, including improvements in services and efficiency, security, operation of the parking areas, waste management and recycling, and relationships with neighbours. The Directors’ Report sets out more detail. It will come as no surprise that it has at times been a rough and unpleasant road, and that we’ve taken the brunt of some very aggressive and abusive language and behaviour. It has helped to have been able to work constructively with a wider group of group of leaseholders and residents who have a positive commitment to the Great Northern Tower. We all hope that at these meetings in September we’ll be able to widen the base of involvement and support from constructive individuals who have the interests of the Tower and its stakeholders at heart - not just their own. Special Resolution: At an open meeting last September of leaseholders and residents we discussed the Company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association, which are a pretty simple “off-the-shelf” model. Without exception, all present agreed that they should be amended; to formally provide for the use of email and the website for communications; to address the size of the Board, and to make clear that leaseholders in breach of their lease and/or or in dispute with the company should neither be eligible to stand as directors of the company, nor to vote. We then widened the consultation, proposing those points to all leaseholders; only one query was received. Our solicitors then drafted the Special Resolution now on the AGM agenda. Leaseholders will have the opportunity to discuss and vote on those points at the meeting - so if you have a view, please do come along and make it heard. All four current directors will stand down at the meeting. We all saw the unsigned, poisonous “notice” pushed under doors last month. If you’d prefer NOT to have that sort of approach to managing and maintaining the Great Northern Tower - our homes - please do attend and make your views known. All leaseholders have a vote - please use it by either attending the meeting or completing your proxy form and sending it to R&R before the meeting. Thank you!