The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership is delighted to welcome managing agents HML Holdings plc, which has today joined the accreditation service.
The AIM-listed company, which comprises HML Anderton, HML Hathaway, HML Hawksworth and HML Shaw, has 33,500 units under management, predominantly in London and the South East.
The largest element of the group, HML Anderton, joined LKP at the beginning of the year and has already won renown among leaseholders for taking over the management of Charter Quay in Kingston.
In May, HML Anderton, the court-appointed managing agent, helped secure another £90,000 in repayments from the landlord and his out-going managing agents. This brought the total re-payments to leaseholders at Charter Quay to more than £500,000.
The other three companies applied to join LKP last month, providing details of open and regular accounting. A random selection of references from among the residents was also taken up to gauge their views of the service.
“The accreditation of HML Holdings is a game-changer for LKP,” said Sebastian O’Kelly, director of Leasehold Knowledge. “To have a company of the stature of HML sign up to the elementary, consumer-oriented ethos that we advocate is a hugely positive step for leasehold management.
“It is a call for other large managing agents to do the same. The old gig of back-stratching trade bodies, with their omertà vows of silence in the face of persistent and inexcusable conduct by their members, is busted.
“HML Holdings, under its chief executive Robert Plumb, has an excellent record of speaking out against this (more here), helping initiatives such as the London Assembly’s Highly Charged report and the forthcoming leasehold study by the centrist political think tank, CentreForum, which comes out next month.”
Commenting on the accreditation, Robert Plumb said: “We at HML have always practised an open, honest and transparent approach to property management and are fully supportive of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership’s drive to make our industry more accountable.
“We recognise that leaseholders have a right to know how their money is being spent and to be treated with respect. Sadly, residential management has received negative publicity and harsh criticism, some of it fair and appropriate, and some of it as a result of misunderstandings that arise from poor transparency.
“We welcome LKP’s initiative to encourage openness and accountability.”
For more information about HML Holdings see www.hmlholdings.com or contact 020 8439 8529.
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