Please click the link below to see the full agenda for the meeting on Saturday 23rd May.

2015 SGM agenda

The link below shows how to find your way to the Wood Green Social Club.

Map

In the weeks leading up to the SGM the HLA is undertaking an extensive door-knocking campaign with the target of getting 1,000 people to sign up to our membership campaign.

The Decent Homes programme is still on-going – and many leaseholders are getting unacceptably high bills – but it is in its final phase and there won’t be further central government money doled out in future years. Homes for Haringey, the Arms-Length-Management-Organisation set up by Haringey Council as a vehicle for applying for that funding, therefore faces inevitable questions about its future, particularly as its contract with the Council is up for renegotiation next year.

Under the Resident Involvement Agreement any derecognised group has the right to appeal to the Board of Homes for Haringey against that decision. The rules governing this procedure are quite detailed and they are not optional. The present crisis in relations between leaseholders and the Board has its origins in the Board’s refusal to adhere to those procedures the first time the HLA made an appeal against the first time it was derecognised in 2011. It has now however been made worse by the Board’s refusal once again to hear the appeal duly submitted by the HLA following the petition agreed at the last General Meeting held in October.

The HLA has been carrying on with the programme of outreach to leaseholders who have been hit with big Section 20 bills for major works. This year is year 7 of the Decent Homes programme and it is one of the busiest of all. What’s more it seems that some of the surveys have been done very casually and that there are huge disparities between the costs estimated on the basis of the stock condition survey done in 2013 and what is now coming through the system.

One of the consequences of the Board’s rushed and ill-considered decision to de-recognise the HLA was that they are now left this time round (because we’ve been here before) with no alternative umbrella group to put forward. So all umbrella group representation is apparently to cease. Henceforth leaseholders will be invited to form themselves into smaller, disparate, groups. Board members chipped in cheerily saying ‘Well we could have a group for high-rise flats, a group for landlord leaseholders and another for large estates etc etc’.

• The HLA General Meeting on October 25th was comfortably quorate and accomplished some important leaseholder business. The meeting voted on a response to the consultation that was just finishing about the Spurs redevelopment and highlighted some key concerns over the compensation package for leaseholders. There was also good news for leaseholders about our new website hosting. We are delighted that a fellow-leaseholder with expertise in IT is now willing to provide us with this service for free thus saving the Association over £300 a year.

As Homes for Haringey have closed down our office following their decision to 'derecognise' us again we will henceforth be offering the same service from 92 Gloucester Rd, N17 on Fridays between 10 and 1 in the morning. This has proved popular with those leaseholders who have used it and there is clearly a need for leaseholders to have a place where they can get help with their individual concerns. The HLA will not be deterred from doing its best to provide leaseholders with services they need.

The HLA has settled its court case against its former Treasurer for pragmatic reasons. Subsequent to a mediation the parties came to a compromise agreed upon in a consent order. The terms of that order are contained in a confidential schedule but the parties also agreed a joint public statement as follows: