A HOUSING development in Abingdon has been criticised by a property management company for having ‘significant management issues’.

Quaker’s Court in Abingdon is a mixed development of 74 leasehold and freehold properties.

Common Ground, a property management company, was appointed as managing agent in December 2011.

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At the time of appointment, there were a number of significant management issues reported by the company.

These included a number of snagging items had not been completed by the developer, a number of outstanding maintenance items had not been attended to, and little cost control and the reserves had been depleted.

Additional, the company reported that the site, which is complex with several cost centres, had a lease which did not ‘define how to apportion costs and many leaseholders were withholding payment of service charges’.

Common Ground worked closely with a newly appointed board of directors to create a plan to resolve these issues.

In a statement released on its website, it said: “Firstly, we applied to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to gain a judgement on the budget and service charge dispute. The budget created by Common Ground was approved and the judgement allowed us to collect the withheld service charges.

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“Secondly, we met with the developer and gained agreement to rectify a number of outstanding issues including £55,000 of roof modifications (all funded by the developer).

“Thirdly, we agreed an action plan to manage the outstanding maintenance items and ensure that these were done within the agreed budgets.

“Finally, we conducted a review of all expenditure at the site and we were able to reduce expenditure by 20 per cent in 2012, compared to 2011 expenditure.

“At the time of writing, Common Ground has maintained this level of cost control.”

In July 2020, Common Ground also had the fire safety survey fully updated followed up with a type two fire safety assessment by a specialist contractor.

The works required were substantial with quotes as high as £750,000 to rectify known issues. The situation was further exacerbated by the revelation that National House Building Council (NHBC) had issued the building compliance certificate so a dispute between NHBC and the developer ensued as to which party should pay.

One of the directors engaged the MP Layla Moran and finally a date to commence works was agreed.

In October 2022, the building was finally granted a fire safety certificate based on the fire safety compliance of the building.

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Common Ground has previously approached both Persimmon Homes and NHBC to establish who signed off the original building compliance certificate when the building was 'quite clearly not fire safe but neither party would reveal this'.

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This story was written by Gee Harland. She joined the team in 2022 as a senior multimedia reporter.

Gee covers Abingdon, Didcot, Wallingford and Wantage.

Get in touch with her by emailing: gee.harland@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @geeharland