He added felt like residents of the tower were being "abused" by the KCTMO. [14] At a meeting in January 2016, the residents association presented the findings of a survey which found that 68% of residents had felt harassed or intimidated by the KCTMO or its contractors, and that 90% were dissatisfied with the manner in which improvement works had been carried out. /F1 16 0 R An ALMO is a government-approved public structure, wholly owned and controlled by the Council, which separates the Councils landlord services from other Council functions such as schools, libraries, and swimming pools. /F5 20 0 R Grenfell The residents were also alarmed by the findings of a fire risk assessment which they obtained after repeated emails. Contact. The choices made at Grenfell suggest that residents were not the core priority of decision makers, for example, in opting for slightly cheaper but less fire-resistant cladding in the refurbishment. This would have been done in conjunction with the contract management team and any other advice that was needed, she added. This blog post discusses the conditions of corporate governance failure within the network of stakeholders in the context of the management and refurbishment of Grenfell Tower. I have yet to see any rebuttal here. /Resources << /F2 17 0 R KCTMO is a tenant controlled TMO and the great majority of its board are resident members.. OToole, who also lives in Burnham House, said he was reassuring tenants that the building is safe because there was a fire in a 10th-storey flat in a neighbouring block two years ago which was contained. The public inquiry will take many months to reveal the truth; prosecutions may take even longer. /F4 19 0 R /F11 12 0 R Following the tragic fire in June 2017, changes were made which ultimately led to the KCTMO handing back delivery of all day-to-day housing and related support services to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea at the end of February 2018. All queries about housing services should be directed to the Council. (2019). /XObject << Seventy-two people died in the Grenfell fire on 14 June 2017. /F1 16 0 R >> On Monday, the inquiry saw chains of email between Mr Chapman and KCTMO, in which residents were refused an independent fire safety inspection of the building. Shirley Phillips, 72, who lives on the second floor in a neighbouring block, said: I am worried, but is worrying going to help? She had read on Facebook that one of the tenants wants everyone to rally around and call for the cladding to be removed. The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. This means taking in house the ALMO that can no longer masquerade as a TMO, but all Senior Officers in the Council are under legal orders to say nothing; this includes the Kensington and Chelsea TMO, now with a new chief executive. /F12 15 0 R Artelia replied with three options including that fully cassette-fixed cladding would save 293,368. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, Grenfell residents looked down on by housing chiefs, inquiry hears, Grenfell manager binned notes on refurbishment after fire, Grenfell contractor misrepresented cladding price to pocket savings, Firms in Grenfell Tower inquiry given immunity from prosecution, Grenfell report must criticise authorities, say survivors and bereaved, List of Grenfell's vulnerable tenants 'was 15 years out of date', Grenfell Tower manager confronted over 'cheap' refurbishment. /Im49 35 0 R Yet overall, TMOs have outperformed their local council landlords on rent arrears, re-letting flats, speed of repair, cost and tenant satisfaction. Tap above to watch video coverage of the Grenfell Inquiry. Home News. Explore in 3D: The dazzling crown that makes a king. A key complaint raised by Edward Daffarn in the blog related to concerns that contractors were parking in emergency bays at the base of the tower, preventing fire service vehicles from getting access in the event of a blaze. The fire started in a faulty fridge freezer on the 4th floor of the 24-storey, 120-flat residential block in West London, rapidly spreading throughout most of the building and engulfing the outside cladding within 45 minutes. It stated: We do not see it necessary to instruct or fund an independent adjudicator at this time.. Grenfell Tower Inquiry. /F3 18 0 R Not according to Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_and_Chelsea_TMO which states that in 2017 it had a huge total of EIGHT residents on its board of thirteen (the other seven being non-residents), representing nearly TEN THOUSAND properties. >> The justification for the doctrine of effectiveness is that member states cannot protect Convention rights simply by inactivity but under certain circumstances are required to undertake positive actions to protect rights, even if this requires expenditure. WebWelcome to DARA. /Parent 2 0 R Mr Collins was one of a number of people who joined a residents group called Grenfell Community Unite, but staff at KCTMO refused to meet them. The Business of Real Estate | GK Real Estate In the email to LFB he said: "We believe that the TMO and the council have never acknowledged the possible consequences of this catastrophic power surge and its associated fire risk. It was not a TMO, because the tenants could not take on the complex task of running the whole of the boroughs near 10,000 unit housing stock. Required fields are marked *. WebKensington and Chelsea TMO ( KCTMO) was the largest tenant management organisation (TMO) in England, managing nearly 10,000 properties on behalf of They negotiate a management agreement with their council landlord to take on limited, local responsibilities, paid for out of an allowance from their rents. Without this threat its doubtful KCTMO would ever have been established. >> Grenfell Tower, covered up after the tragic fire in June 2017, Loz Pycock, shared under the CC BY-SA 2.0 licence. WebThe Kensington and Chelsea borough-wide TMO, formed in the 1990s, is known by tenants locally around Grenfell Tower as a fake TMO. /F9 13 0 R I got my elderly neighbour out of his flat and we walked all the way down the 189 steps. This changed in 1995 when Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) was established to manage 10,000 local council properties. The council retains the ownership, a significant share of the rent, and overall responsibility for the properties, including allocations policy, capital investment, major repairs, public accounting and performance. There was further evidence of the drive to cut costs in an urgent nudge email KCTMOs project manager sent to Artelia, its cost consultant, about cladding prices. A list of amendments to the 9.2m contract between Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) and Rydon, the builder for the My point is this: it is a serious and dangerous error to draw the lesson that KCTMO was not really a TMO. It has now lost its role on the estate and may soon be disbanded. >> This changed in 1995 when Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) was established to manage 10,000 local council properties. Is not the answer for the community to take complete control themselves either through a self-financing TMO (a proper one) in the mould of Leathermarket JMB in Southwark, or a community controlled housing association such as WATMOS (Walsall/Lambeth)? Since January 2018, the housing has been directly managed by the council. A Grenfell resident who predicted a "catastrophic event" would happen at the tower has defended his description of its management as a "mini-mafia". It needs to be more like the Housing Liaison Board we had in Ladywood until the council chose to get rid of it (on bogus excuse) because some people have other priorities than honest effective tenant involvement. Mr Daffarn told a /F12 15 0 R ROYAL BOROUGH OF KENSINGTON AND The DeKalb Area Rental Association is a nonprofit, educational organization representing rental housing units in DeKalb, Illinois, and its immediate I had a sense that the people in the TMO and RBKC looked down on the residents of Grenfell Tower and were brushing us off, he said. Kensington and Chelsea TMO (KCTMO) was the largest tenant management organisation (TMO) in England, managing nearly 10,000 properties on behalf of Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council the entire council housing stock in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Grenfell endobj Kensington and Chelsea, following budget cuts, was quick to close day care centres, local libraries, and direct services, including the repair budget of KCTMO. Read about our approach to external linking. What is the actual purpose of this TMOs? The Kensington and Chelsea borough-wide TMO, formed in the 1990s, is known by tenants locally around Grenfell Tower as a fake TMO. It also acted as quantity surveyor primarily to advise on the cost of the project, [and] prepare tender and contract documentation. The Human Rights Act 1998 requires public authorities to act in a manner that is compatible with the Convention rights set out in section 1. The council and its tenant management organisation will give evidence in coming weeks. /ProcSet [/PDF /Text /ImageB /ImageC /ImageI] John Kieran, a resident of Bray House, said his concern was not the cause of the fire in Grenfell or Rydons standards. Among the 200 TMOs nationally, that particular organisation is a total anomaly not community-based, not cooperatively run, not representative. OToole also said the stay put policy directing residents to stay in their flats if there is a fire in another part of the building conflicted with the advice on posters on the walls on each floor directing residents to go to the nearest exit. Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation A list of amendments to the 9.2m contract between Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) and Rydon, the builder for the refurbishment of the 24-storey tower, reveals that the saving was made after tender by fitting cassette fix aluminium cladding in lieu of zinc cladding. Other savings listed include the removal of all external landscaping works, saving 428,000, and changing window surrounds from birchwood to MDF or softwood in a further 117,000 cut. [The KCTMO] responded they sent up surveyors, but nothing was ever done. Rock Feilding-Mellen is chairman of Kensington and Chelseas housing committee. The Council seems deaf. /F1 16 0 R More sensible was the arrangement we had in Ladywood, of an elected Ladywood Housing Liaison Board of twelve-or-so tenants (and ONLY tenants), handling just the few hundred properties in our locality. It is shocking if, as has been reported, this board then refused to listen to the concerns raised by Grenfell residents, or give them an independent fire safety inspection as they requested. /F11 12 0 R >> With prudent Additionally, the knowledge accumulated through the previous arrangements was not retained within the new corporate body: priorities changed, partly through the perception that tenant involvement conferred sufficient legitimacy on decision making, partly as the priorities of the management team changed and partly because of the increased scale of responsibility delegated to a small and inexperienced organisation.