It is most disappointing in that nothing less than a computer glitch has resulted in a good number of advisory letters from the new managing agent - R H Seel & Co. - erroneously quoting 1st June as being the effective handover date.

The good news is that - as previously advised on this site - it is still the 1st May that is the much awaited day of transfer.!

A full copy of the Tokio Marine building insurance policy has today been added to the Info page.

(This is further to the copy of the Insurance Certificate previously appended.)

N.B: Leaseholders should bear in mind that it is the Lessor that has responsibility for insuring the building, their chosen agent being none other than Mainstay - ditto collection of the ground rents...

We can advise that the Chair of our Residents' Management Company today signed off the substantive management agreement with Seel & Co., a full copy of which will be added to this site in the very near future.

We can additionally advise that the information letters referred to in our previous News entry are now scheduled to reach leaseholders on Thursday, the delay solely being due to technical problems with the spreadsheet details recently supplied by Mainstay - the outgoing managing agent.

Irrespective of the above, the 1st May "handover" date is still a given, with substantial funds having this week been transfered from Mainstay to Seel & Co. in order to ensure continuity of business...

Work continues apace on the imminent transfer of the managing agent duties from Mainstay to R H Seel & Co., with a welcome completion of the process anticipated to be on schedule for the end of this month as previously reported.

It is only fair to say that Mainstay has continued to disappoint in its co-operation (or lack of) in facilitating the transfer, but that was hardly unexpected given their previous performance when actually employed by us.!

It is known that our management company directors today agreed the final form of letter and questionnaire to be dispatched by Seel's to all leaseholders, such documentation likely being sent out this coming Monday afternoon...

It is to be presumed that most responsible individuals or organisations would likely feel deeply embarrassed and naturally obliged to rectify the situation were they to have been served with a Fire Safety Enforcement Notice by the regulatory authority responsible for the property they were supposedly managing.

Not so the Mainstay Group, apparently award winning property professionals, for despite having been served with such a notice all but six months ago, it now transpires that they failed to act on it for most of that time. The result.? All but blind panic on their part as they belatedly realised that non-rectification of the required works contained within the notice would likely lead to their prosecution.

We can now report that that all-but-criminal non-compliance on their part then resulted in a desperate eleventh hour attempt by them to force through remedial works to the value of over £35,000; those works mainly necessitating a complete rewiring of the car park fire alarm system and the replacement of 273 emergency landlord lighting units.

Fortunately, it was at this very point that our management company directors themselves became fully aware of the situation and took what can probably be best described as executive action; including precipative communication with the South Wales Fire Service and approaches to various alternative contractors.

As a result of their direct action / intervention, the South Wales Fire Service (very generously in the circumstances) agreed to a one month extension of the Enforcement Notice in order to enable the directors to obtain alternative prices for the work and thereby ensure the financial interests of Landmark Place leaseholders.

(In case you hadn't already guessed, Mainstay had only obtained one quotation for the required works.)

At of today, it can be reported that our directors have already sourced an alternative contractor to carry out the car park fire alarm system related work at a much reduced price and are still actively seeking alternatives for the emergency lighting works.

(The Fire Service are being kept fully informed of progress.)

More on this to follow shortly...