ABOUT THE LILESTONE TENANT MANAGEMENT ORGANISATION
The Lilestone TMO was formed thirty years ago by a group of leaseholders, some allegedly property companies , to take on responsibility for managing homes; Including homes they had bough in an estate, which consists of a majority of social housing tenanted flats, with the landlord Westminster Council.
Under Margret Thatcher’s right to manage scheme, this group got independence from Westminster Council’s repair management obligations on the Estate, like major works and refurbishment.
For the past thirty years The Lilestone Tenants and Residents Co Operative a Ltd company, is responsible for Council tenant flat repairs and maintenance instead of our landlord Westminister Council, this has caused many Council flats to fall into disrepair with slum like conditions in many.
The Lilestone Co Operative company is in addition in charge of communal repairs, including cleaning and grounds upkeep while ensuring the service charge to all residents is kept to a minimum. The Chairman for twenty years is Chris Garner, a leaseholder on the Estate with multiple properties .
The TMO is an independent legal body, which is run by a committee.
Lilestone TMO have a legal management agreement with Westminster Council regarding repairs to Westminster Council flats on the Estate. Lilestone is paid an annual management and maintenance allowance for their management duties and responsibilities of repair of Council flats on the Estate.
Our homes consist of flats in three buildings, Orchardson House, Westmacott House and Wyatt House called the Lilestone Estate.
The money that Lilestone TMO receives for repair to internal areas in tenants flats comes out of rents collected by the council from its tenants, this forms the bulk of its budget and administrative costs. This money is allocated for Council for tenant repairs.
Upkeep of the communal areas comes from a separate smaller budget raised by a service charge levied on both Council tenants and leaseholders.
Leaseholders as owner occupiers repair their own flats, if they are let out, then as the landlords the leaseholders are responsible for the upkeep of the flat. Some of the leaseholder tenanted flats are also in disrepair.
The current state of disrepair mentioned in these pages refers to the flats let by landlord Westminister Council, for which Lilestone TMO is contracted to repair.