In piecemeal fashion, ARMA is announcing companies that have signed-up to the new regulatory regime ARMA-Q on Twitter.
These are the new criteria for membership of the trade body.
The decision marks an abrupt reversal of a decision last week by Michelle Banks, the CEO, to announce the accredited companies in February once all applications had been processed.
On January 14 she informed LKP: “At present we are not in a position to confirm the status of individual companies …
“Once all applications have been processed we will be publishing a list of all members who have achieved accreditation.”
Now, the information is appearing on ARMA’s Twitter feed.
Mrs Banks has repeatedly refused to confirm to LKP / Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation whether specific companies have not applied to the new regulatory regime. The biggest question mark concerns Countrywide, which manages 100,000 flats.
Countrywide’s website claims that it is still a member of ARMA, which it isn’t if it did not apply for ARMA-Q.
The publicly quoted and diverse property group is not prompt at responding to questions, and their PR did not know whether it was a member of ARMA or not, or indeed know what ARMA was.
ARMA’s handling of this matter is confused.
Directors of right to manage companies or residents’ management companies who need to appoint a property manager won’t have a clue whether companies are an ARMA member or not – unless they follow Twitter.
Applications to ARMA-Q have been extraordinarily protracted and some companies announced their membership – such as HML Group plc – months ago.
“Back in November only half the ARMA membership had applied to ARMA-Q,” says one insider.
“At most, I reckon three-quarters of members will sign up.
“The delay to announcing ARMA membership is not dealing with processing applications: they are hitting the phones to try to get more to sign up.
“The problem is that the conditions of ARMA-Q are quite onerous and impossible for many large companies. The additional expense is also putting companies off.
“The current confusion, with no one knowing who is in and who is out, is of no benefit to the public at all.”
The latest company to be announced as an ARMA-Q member is Y and Y Management, which very helpfully confirmed to LKP its membership on January 13.
Meanwhile, here is the list of pre-January 1 members presented on the ARMA website. When ARMA decides to publish its list of members, you will see who has been culled. Click on images to enlarge:
I have been waiting since Sept 2014 to read the 2013/14 annual report for ARMA on their website. It is yet to appear so I can only assume they have been far too busy with ARMA-Q to produce it?
According to the ARMA Twitter, M&S are now qualified as Q Members.
“Not many people will know that”
They were not on the original list of ARMA members.
There appears to be nothing to announce this on the M&S web site and ARMA will say nothing until February.
So I wonder how many of their residents are aware of this
Michael Hollands,
Put yourself in the position of ARMA.
It would be a financial burden for those firms that fail to meet the criteria for ARMA-Q, and thus cannot become members. It is inevitable that competitor firms would make a point of the fact that a rival company is not a member of ARMA. How embarrassing it would be if a company the size of Mcarthy & Stone could not meet the ARMA-Q requirements.
And how easy it would be for any large company (nothing implied about Mcarthy&Stone) to tell ARMA, that unless they are admitted to ARMA, they will face legal action for reputational and consequential financial losses as a result of non admission?
Much easier to “cave in”
ME, why would/could ARMA or ARMA Q face legal action for reputational and consequential financial losses as a result of non admission? Surely if you don’t meet the criteria, you don’t get to join, simples.
As for all the rest of these fiascos am I glad a company does not have to be a member of these “clubs”.
Hypothetical situation.
A large property management company is denied membership of ARMA on the grounds of non compliance. This naturally has an effect on their business. Suppose the property management company employed someone like Justin Bates for example to insist that his client was compliant and should be admitted? Given their past record, what would be the likely outcome?
Am I missing the point of ARMA Q, and other clubs, or have I got it all wrong.
The first company on the above list to “meet best residential property management industry standards”!!!!! is Y & Y. In view of their history are there any actual standards to meet in order to how join the “club”.
I wonder if Consort property Management will meet the ARMA-Q standards?
Or will the fact that they are registered as a “Dormant Company” disqualify them?
Michael
Consort are still displaying the ARMA logo so they must have met it. 1 Jan was the deadline.
This is one of the problems with a list not being published.
The first qualifiers were notified by ARMA on Twitter in mid October
One has to ask, how a company that is dormant (and purely a trading name can be a full member of ARMA?
Surely the most basic criteria for membership of ARMA is that the member actually exists?