Thanks to everyone who joined us for our six-monthly Residents Association meeting with Savills.
In attendance from Savills was Lee Chapman (Head of Residential) and Aimee Wright (Building Manager).
A number of members from the Residents Association were in attendance, including Oliver Parsons (chair SGRA), Isabel Palmer (chair AHRA), Rhys Fowler, Rhys Jones, Philip Brassington, Dan Cowdrill, Lizzie Creek, Mark Easton.
Total attendance of the meeting: 20 in-person and 25 online.
Key issues raised have been summarised below. You can read the full minutes at the bottom of this article.
Overall South Gardens landscaping
Lee Chapman says they have worked with the landscaping contractors Willerby to reduce the scope of the landscaping in South Gardens and save some money. This includes, for example, alternating the years in which the gardens are mulched. He says this should save money whilst complying with the landscaping masterplan.
Wansey Street landscaping
RA member Rhys F raised the ongoing issue of landscaping on Wansey Street not meeting the standards seen elsewhere in South Gardens.
Lee Chapman said:
“There’s some pathways that I think were naturally there that they’re looking to reincorporate, where people were looking at cutting corners before. So we’re looking at making those natural walk-throughs. We’re utilising other plants from the estate as a cost saving exercise. Instead of putting new planting down.”
He also said this wasn’t working in all areas and that Willerby would quote for replanting in certain areas.
Parcel Safe system
RA member Isabel notes that couriers are still not always scanning in individual parcels, leading to no notifications for residents. She says 50% of her parcels are not being scanned.
Aimee Wright (building manager) says she has been in contact with couriers to try and improve this.
Lee Chapman encourages residents to email Aimee or concierge when parcels are not correctly scanned so that they can understand the scope of the problem.
Isabel suggested that the concierge should ask couriers how many parcels they have on arrival and then check they have all been scanned on departure.
Fire door survey
Lee Chapman says the survey inspecting all the apartment front doors for fire safety is now complete.
RA member Philip asks who is liable if a door does not pass the safety requirements. Lee says the responsibility lies with the leaseholder (eg. resident) who must pay for remedial work.
Lee Chapman says Savills cannot enforce compliance with repair but must show a ‘best effort’ attempt to encourage residents to fix this health and safety issue by issuing a number of notices and reminders to residents whose doors have failed.
Security update
Lee Chapman says the Section 20 tender for a three year contract for estate-wide security continues.
Savills are currently surveying the existing CCTV system with the goal of integrating and potentially upgrading this to future proof it and enable enhanced technology to reduce the overall cost of the tender.
Savills want to get a full understanding of what the options are before they go out to tender.
Residents will be able to submit comments as the Section 20 progresses.
Pest control
Pest control was raised as an issue at the meeting in January.
Lee Chapman confirms that South Gardens has since moved to a new contractor to manage the issue, and believes it has had an impact.
A resident agrees, although notes that a non-Elephant Park resident on Wansey Street continues to feed pigeons. She also says she has a family of foxes living under her decking in the communal gardens.
Lee Chapman says they will continue to manage the situation in accordance with their legal obligations.
Gym equipment and theft
A resident raises a question about the gym equipment and the investigation into missing weights.
Lee Chapman confirms this investigation is ongoing and suggests it may be from within the development rather than an external visitor. Says there is no CCTV camera in the gym and will look into why this is and if it’s possible to install one for the future.
Aimee Wright confirms they have asked Technogym for a quote to replace stolen items. She also confirms they may move to renting gym equipment as this is seen as a cost-effective solution for the gym.
Decking warping on balconies
Resident Derek raised the ongoing issue of balcony decking warping.
Lee Chapman says that as the balconies do not form part of the fabric of the buildings they are outside of the NHBC building warranty.
Lendlease claim it is not their problem as the installation and material are out of warranty and is therefore a wear and tear issue.
Savills had an independent survey done which stated that the warping could potentially be due to installation error due to not creating a large enough gap between the composite decking and the edge of the building which it butts up against, but it could be inconclusive.
Because the balconies form part of the communal area of South Gardens, it wouldn’t be a cost attributed to the landlord (Lendlease) but would be borne by leaseholders (residents) under the service charge.
Garden gates and auto-closers
The issue of communal garden security was once again raised with gates not being closed.
Lee Chapman says that Savills looked into a lot of different auto-closing solutions but that none were suitable as they closed the gates too firmly, leading to wear and tear issues on the magnetic locking mechanism which would result in additional costs. They are currently in discussion with a number of contractors what options are available.
Lee reiterated that residents have to take responsibility for closing these gates themselves and that signage has been installed on the interior of all gates to encourage this behaviour.
South Gardens building and estate-wide cleaning
Savills have also issued a Section 20 notice to tender a new cleaning contract across the wider Elephant Park estate.
Lee Chapman says the current provider of the estate (ie. Park) cleaning was nearly £700,000. Savills are exploring ways to reduce this. At present, they are trialling use of block cleaners (who clean the South Gardens buildings) to also clean the wider estate. This allows more flexible allocation of hours across South Gardens and other developments in the estate and he hopes reduces the overall cost. He says the trial is currently working well and they have saved “nearly £200,000”.
They are also looking to economise on future cleaning contracts without compromising overall cleanliness in South Gardens.
Budget vs actual expenditure for 2024/2025
Lee Chapman explained how the budget is calculated. Savills are currently finalising the actual expenditure for the year 2024/2025 which is now complete.
Lee Chapman says he currently believes they will achieve a surplus of around £126,000. However, a stack survey of drains has been delayed and will happen in the next few months and be charged back to the 2024/2025 budget. This will cost approximately £15,000.
He hopes that there will nevertheless be a three-figure surplus in the 2024/2025 budget from what was forecast.
Final accounts for previous years
Lee Chapman says that Savills hopes to be able to issue final accounts for previous years, including for years when Mainstay was the managing agent, soon.
He doesn’t know if these accounts will be in surplus or deficit.
Budget for 2025/2026
The overall budget for South Gardens, including its portion of the wider estate, has increased by only 1.1%.
Lee Chapman says that residents should receive their individual service charge invoices in the next two weeks.
Lee Chapman noted the high increase in the electrical costs for South Gardens for the incoming budget. He clarified this was because Savills are finding it hard to predict how energy prices will change in the coming year and so have factored in a large provisional buffer. This helps to reduce the changes of a deficit at the end of the next budgetary period.
The reserve fund has also seen a large percentage increase. Lee Chapman says that this is because it has historically been below the expected expenditure and that this will increase to make up for the shortfall. The reserve fund is used to ‘level out’ charges for planned maintenance so that residents are not surprised with a big bill from one year to the next.
When asked why the wider estate budget had increased by 7.7%. Lee Chapman says this is largely down to estate cleaning, which required more hours than expected, and the raise in wages to the London Living Wage. (More on how above.)
Commissions from brokers
A resident raised the recent scandal of a managing agent and landlord on another development taking commissions for brokering insurance and other essential services.
Lee Chapman confirmed that neither Savills nor Lendlease take commissions. However, he said that they do use a broker for things such as insurance and he was not sure if there was commission between the insurer and the broker.
Future projects
Lee Chapman discussed a number of ongoing and future projects:
- EV charger installation within the car parks. A second survey has revealed that the existing cabling is not future-proofed for EV charging needs which may require more substantial rewiring. Savills is in discussions with the landlord, Lendlease, about financing this work. Lee is confident this will be covered by Lendlease; if it isn’t, he believes it will only be charged to those with car parking spots under the parking schedule of the budget.
- Savills will also conduct a survey of the in-flat intercoms to find out if these need any maintenance or replacement.
- Likewise, the emergency lighting within buildings will also be surveyed to see if any work needs to be done.
South Gardens Residents' Association 