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white, another year with white and orange panels, the most recent having green panels on white background]. No representation to ourselves re colour scheme whatsoever, but in truth I really didn’t mind so long it was quickly finished and the place looked clean and tidy. I was, like most, far too occupied with my life and work to concern myself with what our Agents wanted to do every 5 years with our internal décor. Neither was Mrs Hillgarth.
To be fair to Mrs Hillgarth we did liase somewhat during the last Internals/Externals proposals, in I think, 2008 or thereabouts [I can firm that up if required] but only as regards an interior contractor. Mrs Hillgarth insisted our Agents (KFH) get a quote from her preferred contractor, Stopps, subsequently renamed Wade [as she was more than entitled to under the S.20 rules]. This was sourced but was found to be far more expensive than the other [cheapest] quote [from agents] and that [cheapest] was adopted but not progressed as a) KFH advised we did not have sufficient funds yet available and b) Mrs Hillgarth stalled everything resulting in our Head Lease purchase some two years later in 2011.
I cannot tell you how pleased were KFH personnel to be rid of, not me nor other members of our Residents’ Association, but Mrs Hillgarth, to the extent that even though I begged them to continue representing us as Agents, they gave multiple reasons for not being able to oblige....but good luck and to keep in touch which I have done, regularly since.
Mrs Hillgarth was not well pleased with her Stopps (renamed Wade) being rejected and the sample letters I sent you are nothing compared to her complaining during the 2005 External works which were the only works progressed due to budgets and which the letters you hold give uncontestable evidence of complaints [scaffolding and such like – all of which we have suffered same in 2014].
Whilst Chairman of our Resident’s Association, which was used almost solely to complain to RBK&C about one thing or another in tandem with other local Associations, Mrs Hillgarth simply ignored us. This was despite prompting for her get in contact by our Agents, who we felt performed to our satisfaction, save for taking ages to respond, really never getting around to doing much, seemingly incapable of having one point of contact for more than 9 months [estate managers change jobs incredibly often] but so long as Quarterly Demands were paid on time, they didn’t trouble us, although as you can see in the letters, Mrs Hillgarth was on their backs constantly and remember she was then not resident, but sub- letting, to the detriment of many of her neighbours, and hence the letter of complaint from Mr Owen kick-started and resurrected her [abusive?] correspondence with poor Gavin Owen [for poor Gavin Owen, you can substitute my name since 2012].
How we decided and attempted to run Mitre House as the new Head Lessee was, I considered, to do as we had done so successfully with the Resident’s Association [in softer more neighbourly times with not so many sub-let flats and long standing live-in residents with whom we all got on famously]. I considered [along with my fellow co-directors including Mrs Hillgarth] we [the new Mitre House Management Limited] could run and manage the place with some transparency and dignity and not only would we receive plaudits for reducing Quarterly Demands by 25%, but gratitude for having two of us on site as residents to better keep an eye on things, get anything fixed almost overnight, and be available for almost any situation.
As such [and exactly as we did when considering the Head Lease purchase when all 9 lessees were invited to join in] I generously invited comments from all lessees as regards Internals as to any preferences/requests/ideas. Not only did I invite comment from resident lessees [ie