Property People
Published: 8th February 2002. (Issue 322).
Letters to the Editor.
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Dear Editor,
Your headline "RSL to sell off assets to clear debt millions", (Property People, issue 321) begs several further urgent questions. If the mysterious hidden £5M in debt was always there but concealed, are Genesis/PCHA saying that HACAS Chapman Hendy's accountant, who had been in office for six months, simply didn't happen upon it? That many angry debtors can make a lot of noise. Where were they? If it is Genesis/PCHA's policy not to get houses empty to sell on the open market, why are they wasting our rent money pursuing expensive legal cases against two tenants living in prime target houses to attempt to establish that they are Assured, and therefore vulnerable, tenants as opposed to secure (1977 Act) tenants as they claim? Why has the statement that only naturally voided properties would be sold come from an anonymous spokesperson rather than from the Chief Executive, Mr. Anu Vedi? How can they sell their estimate of a necessary 20 - 35 houses when the void level on this type of tenure is almost nil, and when the sale of the only non residential premises will leave a short fall of around £5M? It can't be done. PCHA and WHHA tenants have a right to wonder if their landlord is basically competent. Then we get on to the Housing Corporation. Why did Mr. Derek King, Director of Regulation for London, fail to address Camden's three urgent enquiries, namely, what happened to WHHA, could it have been predicted and what can be done to prevent further occurrences? Why did he hide behind an imagined need not to pre-empt the HACAS Chapman Hendy report? That report will be their report. Camden wanted to know now what Mr. King's views were there and then. Genesis/PCHA have called an AGM for WHHA for February 21. The minutes of the previous Special Meeting are secret and the AGM is to be closed. What are they worried about? Are they running social housing or a new anti-missile missile system? In the end, it is Corporation who are the regulators. Did they regulate? The cost of the damage is going up weekly. They must admit to what they have done, and to make restitution without delay. Just how hard is it for them to say the're sorry?
Yours sincerely,
Peter Rutherford, Chair, WHHA Tenants' Association (in exile).
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