At this 12 August 2020 meeting both the Armour Hart staff and the HHGE Directors claimed repeatedly that internal repairs were not included in the agreed contract price despite the fact that there is clear documentary evidence to the contrary. In the interests of transparency this evidence is published below;
The original reason for calling the meeting was to discuss the problems with the Armour Hart contract and in particular the refusal of the Armour Hart workmen to carryout internal repairs to the windows at the same time that the exterior half of the windows were being repaired and redecorated.
Notes on a Meeting organized by Ian Collier HHGE Chairman to discuss problems with the Armour Hart Contract. Location: Outside Essex House on 12 August 2020 Wednesday 11.00am-2.30 pm. Notes prepared by Quentin Phillipps.
PRESENT AT THE MEETING
3 Armour Hart Representatives: Oscar Cullinane, Phil Long Stephen Pennington.
2 Repair Care Reps: Ian Mossop and Stuart Misslebrook.
Akzo Nobel (Dulux) Paints: David Morgan
Surveyor for HHGE: John Chandler JFC Associates.
Surveyor for Leaseholders: Stuart Clarke
2 HHGE Directors: Ian Collier Chairman, Azad Ali Director.
8 Leaseholders: 7 Essex, 4 Essex,10 Fife, 9 Fife, 3 Fife, 3 Perth, 1 Hereford and Quentin Phillipps (QP) of 9 Gloucester Court.
*Ian Collier, Stephen Pennington and John Chandler all stated that internal works to repair interior rotten interior woodwork were not included in the Armour Hart Contract and that is why no internal repairs were being carried out.
*QP then said that the Schedule of Works Part 3 which is part of the contract specification clearly mentions that repairs to the wooden window frames are included in the contract.
According to the HHGE lease the wooden frames are owned by HHGE Ltd. not the individual flat owners.
* Azad Ali then stated that under the lease the HHGE Board can charge individual flat owners for interior wood repairs but on this occasion the HHGE management are going to pay for them out of the service charge as stated in the HHGE Newsletter dated 26 June 2019.
* QP: then said that this was not correct. The June 2019 HHGE Newsletter (See below #01) clearly states that internal repairs due to condensation damage are included in the contract and therefore the contractor has to pay fror the repairs.
* QP then asked if these internal repairs would ever be carried out. Chandler said that there was no agreement to carry out the repairs as yet and that is why there were no internal repairs.
* Oscar Cullinane said that he was estimating for the cost of interior repairs so they could be carried out at the cost of HHGE.
* Ian Collier then said that in the contract Armour Hart could claim £75 per window for repairs.
*QP refuted this and pointed out that he been informed by an email from the HHGE solicitor Cherraine Williams of DMH Stallard that Armour Hart had agreed to absorb the cost of all the internal window repairs. (See below #02 and (#03)
* John Chandler said that he had relied on the contractor to estimate the cost of the works and he had not carried out a detailed inspection of the work before the contract price was agreed.
* QP said that he had requested a full survey of the woodwork prior to the start of the contract but when this was rejected, he had proposed that he personally pay for a full survey of the HHGE costing £3,500 but this had also been rejected by Ian Collier. The current problems were evidence of negligence by John Chandler, Armour Hart and the HHGE Board.
#01 HHGE External Decorating Newsletter 28 June 2019
#02 QP requests survey & queries £75 extra for internal window repairs 10 June 2019
#03 Cheraine Williams to QP Internal Repairs responsibility of contractor 27 June 2019