Property Guardians' Act

MARCH 2021 - SHOCKING UPDATES

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We recently found 2015 September Building Survey of this property that was submitted recently with a planning application by Hackney Council.

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You can read it on this link; there are remarks about asbestos , rot, structural issues. Hackney Council signed the agreement with Global Guardians Management on August 2015 so they were aware about the true state of the property which does not look safe in the 2015 Building Survey. But they went ahead with it and prioritize financial income over Health & Safety. And they hid the true state of the property from us. Why did the Council consciously choose to go into an agreement with Global Guardians Management although they had the 2015 September Building Survey? It was reported on the news - published on The Guardian- that the tender was awarded to Global Guardians Management.

 

So far several surveyor told us; The property fails PAT Testing, has asbestos. Also besides the faulty signal on the screen of the fire alarm panel, the fire extinguishers were outdated. The property has never had a fire assembly point although this was brought up with Global Guardians Management.

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We requested the copy of the recent Building Survey which was done by Mr. Strange from Mobius Building Consultancy on 22 September 2021 for Hackney Council. Chris Pritchard from Hackney Council told us, on 3rd December 2021, that he will ask his team to share the survey with us but they are still not sharing it although we made several requests. After the heavy flooding of the property, Gurpaje Singh sent the joists for checking but still they have not shared the outcome with us. 

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On the first week of March 2021, we learned that the Global Guardians Management has not been paying the electricity bill since March 2020. We learned when British Gas representative came in the property to disconnect/cut the electricity ( they did not disconnect as we live here and our housemate still recovering from COVID)

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As Hackney Council did not provide a response to our Freedom of Information Requests which included our requests to see the Health& Safety survey and documents from 2015 and on. We shared our concerns with ICO. Hackney Council still did provided response in allowed time by ICO; a decision notice was published that Hackney Council breached section 10 of FOIA.

The council still did not answer our Health and Safety related questions ( which were requested in August)

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Q4-) I want to receive a copy of all the survey reports that were done before this property was let for dwelling purposes in 2015 including FSRA( fire Safety Risk Assessment) for HMO, Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR), Portable Appliances Testing (PAT), Gas Safety Certificate, Emergency Lighting Testing, AFD Automatic Fire Detection Testing, HMO Compliance Report. 

 

The information you have requested above is stored on different systems.  The Council holds a significant amount of data relating to the property and extracting the information requested from the various systems is a time intensive exercise. We would therefore welcome the opportunity to invite you to attend a video meeting with a council representative, so they can show you the various records you have requested to see for the building. An officer will be in contact with you before 19th February to arrange an appropriate date and time. 

 

Please note: The gas at the property has been capped off. As such, there will have been no requirement for a Gas Safety certificate. 

 

Please note: There is no HMO compliance report.  

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If the cannot provide those documents in 6 months. Are they inviting us for a video meeting that will last over 6 months? The Council representative's name and department was not even provided. We responded by requesting the copies the documents and surveys. No one contacted us on 19th February or after.