Ashleigh Residents Horsham

Below is the content of a letter sent recently to all owners

25 June 2021

Dear owner

Management of the Estate

We are writing to let you know that Erika and Tony wish to withdraw from work involving the day to day running of the Estate – that is the actual management of the Estate. 

For this reason we are approaching various management companies to discuss taking on this rôle and have started to meet with candidate companies.  The Board will assess the tenders and will submit its recommendation to shareholders of ARHL who will make a decision on which company we should use.   The Board will work closely with the management company until it is clear that there are no problems.

At the time of writing it is looking like the extra costs associated with the management of the Estate will be in the order of £160-£270 per annum for flat owners, and £80-£120 per annum for house owners.  This means the total costs would be up to £1250 per annum for flat owners and up to £440 per annum for owners of houses.  The extra cost will be offset very slightly when we hand over as we will no longer need to pay for services such as Quickbooks to manage invoices and payments.  We hope that a new management company would be able to take over completely by the start of the third quarter i.e. 1 October 2021.

We think there will be positive benefits for the Estate in having professional rather than volunteer managers.  Volunteers are not always immediately available to look into problems as quickly as owners might like and in addition we would expect a professional manager to be quicker and more efficient in following up deviations from the Estate Management Scheme and in chasing debtors.  Also companies use web-based portals that enable owners to see expenditures and their own accounts as well as providing the means to report problems online.  We think this will increase the efficiency of the management of the Estate.

In the last year or more we have asked for volunteers/potential board members to help run the company but no one has offered their help.  In the last few months several properties have changed hands and maybe 2-3 new owners are interested – if so please let us know as soon as possible. The work is not particularly onerous and structures are in place to help record financial transactions and the running of the Company in general.  A volunteer would need some basic computer skills and especially to be familiar with the use of spreadsheets.  We would help with the use of QuickBooks and we would continue to offer support for as long as it takes them to become confident.

The Board of AR[H]L

It had become apparent that the server, sited on the Estate, was becoming too old to handle a web server; it was also becoming a nightmare to administer. (The server was bought in 2013.) For this reason we have now transferred the web files to a commercial server.

Hopefully you will find the site much faster and responsive.

Emails: We want to be able to send out as much information as possible using email. Over the last year we have tried various methods to send out bulk emails, each with varying degrees of success. Not all intended recipients receive the email and some end up in spam and junk folders. Please do add info@ashleighresidents.info to your address book to try to reduce the chance of emails from us going astray. Also it is good practice to check your spam and junk folders occasionally.

Electronic communication would clearly be more efficient and less wasteful

… and residents have their windows open.

Please do not leave vehicle engines idling. The noise and fumes disturb residents and potentially constitutes an offence.

In general please do not make excessive noise and be considerate towards your neighbours.

If anyone knows of prospective buyers and we can introduce you to a prospective seller of a flat on the Estate