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ESTMANCO (UNION ROAD) LTD
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 28 May 2002 at the Age Concern building on the Smith’s Farm Estate, Northolt.
The meeting opened at 7:40pm and was chaired by Company Secretary, Brian Devoil (BD) who introduced the Directors and Bob Smedley (BS) from Sweeting and Smedley, the Company’s Auditors. The Board consists of 3 Directors – Alison Madley (AM), Chris O’Connor (CO) and Wesley Dewitt (WD), and the Company Secretary.
The meeting then proceeded as per the Agenda.
1)Approval of the Minutes of the last AGM held on 24 May 2001
Approval was proposed by Ann Dewitt (AD) and seconded by Elizabeth Parminter (EP). Passed unanimously.
2)Receiving the Accounts for the year ending 24 December 2001
BD explained that the accompanying report had been re-titled this year as the ‘Accountant’s Report’ (last year it was called the ‘Management Report’).
There were no questions asked regarding the accounts.
Approval was proposed by Paul Darnley (PD), seconded by Chris Souris (CS). Passed without opposition.
3)Re-appointment of Sweeting and Smedley as Company Auditors
Proposed by Arnold Sachedina (AS) and seconded by Colin Field (CF).
Passed unanimously.
[For information: The auditing part of Sweeting & Smedley is being transferred to a newly set-up company (called Symingtons Associates Ltd.) run by Bob Smedley, so he will remain the company’s auditor. Sweeting & Smedley will continue to operate the company’s payroll and advise on taxation issues.]
4)Election of a Director
As ChrisO’Connor’s term of office is coming to an end in December 2002, BD called for nominations for a new Director.
Julie Haines (JH) expressed her willingness to stand, and was nominated by CS, and seconded by EP.
As there were no other candidates, Julie Haines was duly elected.
5)Motions
a)That the ‘Licence to Sublet’ Fees introduced in 1997, previously called ‘Landlords Fees’, be maintained at £ 40 per year for the year commencing January 2003.
BD said the change of title from “Landlords Fees” to “Licence to Sublet” fee, reflected the lease requirement to seek permission first before subletting.
Proposed by Rob Driver (RD) and seconded by Margaret Smith (MS).
Passed unanimously.
b)That the current fees paid to all the Board members are reduced by £ 100 pa, with immediate effect, to assist with funding an ‘on-site administrator’.
BD explained that this was linked to the proposal to pay an ‘on-site administrator’ – see Management Meeting motions.
Proposed by the Board and seconded by AS. Passed without opposition.
c)That the shareholders approve delaying the external redecorations programme whilst the uPVC project is running (providing all essential repairs are carried out), and re-affirm their support for the offering of interest-free loans to individual shareholders for improvement works, and grants where it is uneconomic to effect repairs.
MS asked how long the delay would be. BD replied that hopefully it would be ‘forever’, as we hoped to get everyone to have UPVC eventually.
RD asked how many owners were currently not interested, and was told that: - in the 1st phase only 1 property hadn’t been done in both Blocks 1 and 8, and in the 2nd phase 1 flat in Block 9 had been left out, and 2 in Block 5. (Although invited to take part in Phase 2, most of Block 3 had not asked to be included).
BD said that at the moment the Board were inviting people to ‘opt in’, however, in future, may need to insist that those people who hadn’t yet been ‘uPVC’d’ -had their doors and windows replaced. He added that the Board understood that it would legally be able to insist on such works being done, though would, of course, prefer not to have to force anyone unless it absolutely necessary.
It was noted that a total of £80,000 would have been spent by July this year.
MS said scaffolders had trampled on her garden, and left dust on her windows and chunks of masonry on the ground. WD apologised for these problems and suggested that the Board take steps to prevent this happening to the people on the ground floor in the 2nd phase.
The motion was proposed by AD andseconded by RD. Passed unanimously.
d)That the shareholders support the investigation into the provision of individual heating systems for Block One, and the variations to the leases that would be required to put this into effect, should the five lessees involved wish to install such systems.
The meeting was told that the Board was considering this because of the disproportionately high gas consumption from using the communal boilers, however not all the householders involved had yet confirmed their interest.
BD advised that there should be sufficient funds in the Block 1 Heating Reserve (contributed by those 5 leaseholders over the last 20 years or so) to cover most (if not all) of the cost of installing such systems.
Proposed by the Board and seconded by Bill Bobinski (BB). Passed.
6)Any other business
There was then a discussion about the proposed Telecommunications Mast which some residents had been notified about by Ealing Council Planning Committee. Those present voiced their concerns and objections to the scheme.
Beth Robertson (BR) said she had been to the Planning Department and had brought back copies of the drawings of the proposed mast.
It was decided to send a letter of objection from ‘Estmanco’, and also to draft a template letter that individual shareholders could sign and send to Ealing Council too. BD said that both letters would be written without delay.
MS then proposed a vote of thanks to the Directors for ‘all their hard work’, and
WD proposed a similar vote of thanks to Company Secretary, Brian Devoil.
As there was no further business the meeting closed at 8.40pm