Page 9 - 80_Michele Stmt FINAL USE THIS (20pp)
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34 In his e-mail of 21 September 2014 Mr Brown-Constable went on to say that four items which had been approved and which were within the planned and budgeted works (including the specialist terrazzo floor renovation) would be cancelled because of a shortage of money: "this affair is far too time consuming on Management to rearrange" .... On his MHML website under the heading "Quotes and Costs" he subse- quently informed leaseholders that "due to the non-payment by some lessees of the previously agreed £2,000 to properly fund the A. R. Lawrence quote, certain works have been cancelled, namely the Ter- razzo specialist floor attention, now only one colour internal communal areas and no attention to main front door and furniture".
(comment/reply) all comprehensively covered in previous correspondence - Mrs Hillgarth neglects to point out that had she and those lessees she advised NOT to pay their £2000 contributions, actually paid on schedule when demanded, all was in place to fund a £105,019 schedule. But it was not, and MHML had to make reductions in the workings. Mrs Hillgarth had originally agreed at a board meeting 23 May 2014 to the £2000 and it was stated on the 22 June 2014 agreed s.20.....she then reneged and advised other lessees to do same. So, no money, no works, and those lessees who had paid were offered a refund - the exact same thing happened with the Water Tank and TV/Sky install - some paid and they, too, were offered a refund if Mrs Hillgarth and a few other lessees were refusing to pay having initially all agreed to.
That’s probably where the accusation of blackmail arises!!!!
The question of fraud
35While it is true that some of the leaseholders had temporarily withheld payment (as he had not given us sufficient detail as to why this was necessary), the fact is that they did all pay the £2,000, so Mr Brown- Constable now had an additional £18,000 from the nine flats in addition to the reserves at his disposal. We had known this was a likely demand since 22 June 2014 when we agreed on the contractors, al- though with Mr BrownConstable's initial talk of the savings he was making we did not think it would be as much as this.
(comment/reply) no savings were made until the works started - the £2000 was agreed on 23 May 36 2014 at the board meeting of which you have the minutes - and thankfully so will the Tribunal.
I understand that all the leaseholders also paid the voluntary contributions for the water tank and the communal TV installation. Therefore I think it was dishonest of Mr BrownConstable to suggest he did not have the money to pay for this work. Attention to the Terrazzo specialist floor was an important item which a majority of the lessees had voted for and which we understood to be part of the agreed specifi- cation - at least it was part of the "internals" specification which ultimately appeared on the MHML web- site. Nevertheless Mr Brown-Constable cancelled this and other work, but so far as I can tell he appears to have kept the money paid by the leaseholders to have the work done.
(comment/reply) this is rubbish - no internals works were cancelled but added to...and accusation of having kept money is exactly what we have totally disproved and you know it! all comprehen- sively covered in previous correspondence
37 Not only did the lessees actually pay the £2,000 Mr Brown-Constable had requested for the reserve (£18,000 in total for the nine flats), but they also paid in addition £867.87 each for the water tank re- placement (£7,810 in total), and £593 each for the communal TV installation (£5,337 in total). Which begs the question what has happened to these funds which were paid to MHML on a false premise (ie on the assumption that all the scheduled work would be done) and which have not been refunded? Again this appears, in the absence of a proper explanation, to be fraudulent.
(comment/reply) this is rubbish - is there a communal TV/Sky and new Water Tank - yes - was it free to install, no - what false premise? total rubbish.
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