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By Michael Epstein, Our man in the lift
Peverel’s calamitous way with lifts seems to be continuing – a week after BBC radio highlighted pensioners imprisoned in their Bristol retirement site, Ferndown Grange.
Now it is the turn of Mulberry Court in East Finchley, north London.
Fortunately they were only – only! – stranded for 15 days after the broken lift was reported, according to the Barnet Press.
Residents in Ferndown Court in Bristol were without a lift for five weeks, as a part had to be made in Italy.
Two other local newspapers have also reported broken lifts trapping the residents indoors: St George Court, Deneside, near Great Yarmouth, in February, and at two Peverel sites in Liverpool in December 2011.
At Mulberry Court, Miriam Silver, 85, has been pointing the finger at Peverel, according to the Barnet Press: “ We pay our service charge, which goes up every year, but we don’t get looked after in any way.”
The Great Yarmouth Mercury report that residents at St George’s Court, where the lift was out for ten days, had paid £25,000 for the lift to be renewed the year before.
In reporting the lift breakdown at Robyn Court, in Huyton, the Liverpool Pool echo said in December 2011 that another Peverel block in Seaforth had broken down for two weeks.
Why are the lifts breaking down so frequently, and why is it taking so long to fix them?
Peverel is being contacted for a statement
Related posts:
Hold on! Pensioners have been stranded by broken lifts in Peverel blocks FIVE times in the past TWO years!
Pensioners stuck in flats for five weeks at Ferndown Grange … while spare-part for lift is made in Italy!
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation interview with BBC raises Peverel price-fixing scandal and AgeUK logos
Mere Court residents should vote as they wish, but tell Peverel it cannot sell the house manager’s flat until its ownership is clear
Note Peverel never publish any of these horror stories covering lifts or fires in Life & Style!
Fleeced,
Give Life & Style a chance! Remember they have a new editor, who is more qualified in marketing than journalism.
It is very pleasant to read about the latest residents raising money for new plants in their gardens(if you forget that they already have paid for the plants in their service charges)
Anyway, what else would you read?
Perhaps the Chichester Observer?
Do you really want to read about another group of residents being trapped by a broken lift at Dolphin Court?
Do you really want to read the Peverel excuse for the delay in repairs?
(actually the Peverel excuses must come up on predictive text!)
Perhaps you would prefer to read “This is Kent?”
Do you really want to read about another group of residents being trapped by a broken lift at William Gibbs Court, Faversham?
Do you really want to read the Peverel excuse for the delay in repairs?
(actually the Peverel excuses must come up on predictive text)
Peverel never publish anything that looks even slightly detrimental to their image in any Peverel publication – blog – or other of their media.
You are wasting your time trying.
Any adverse comment is totally ignored, censored and not tolerated or published, so if you want to be heard, you have to resort to the likes of Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation – LKP – National Press ect.
ME – funny you should mention this: “It is very pleasant to read about the latest residents raising money for new plants in their gardens (if you forget that they already have paid for the plants in their service charges)”.
To the Editor, Life & Style for publication: Today, there was a coffee morning to do just that. I didn’t go but I had a phone call asking for the money and it has gone up to £5 each now! Yes, a couple of residents do the work and Peverel should at least pay for the plants, pots or whatever. J. who volunteers told me that when she can no longer do the work we will all have to pay an extra charge on top of the service charge for the gardeners to do it all – unbelievable.
I will look out for this story in the next edition..!
For ‘fleeced’ and’ Michael Epstein’
I have extensive input regarding the garden upgrade saga that has evolved from this thread, as I think I was responsible for the initial Blog to Rea [Life & Style] editor.
Will attempt to elucidate in a later post – could be worth a separate post.
To keep on topic ‘LIFTS’
Not so dramatic as some of the latest revelations – but we were troubled a couple of years [2011] back with a lift problem. Where when was operated it shuddered and growled in the most alarming manner.
Engineers were called in and made a temporary repair ?? – We were assured that all was safe until the new bit part was fitted [despite the grating and grinding noises that occurred.] fortunately the diagnosis was accurate.
When pressed the MH sort information from the AM as to how long the NEW bit would be –
Answer = It has to be manufactured in SPAIN, so there could be a delay. Two weeks as it transpired.
Our lift service is now done by Schindler who was not responsible for us at that time .
Who were contracted to do the servicing in the thread to the for mentioned complexes ??
How hard can it be to think of a catchy headline? Let’s have a go!
“Pensioners Left Trapped in Cheltenham Apartment For Weeks”.
Sorry, I can’t use that! It has already been done by The Gloucestershire Echo, concerning a broken lift at Pegasus Court. Commenting on the situation, the managing Agent Peverel said………….. ( note to the editor, i think we can all guess what they said!)
I have made comment and asked questions about the LIFT SITUATION on the Peverel Blog.
The Peverel reply should be appearing any time now.
MH
The lift situation has not taken off and Peverel have not seen that taking it to another level will benefit them.
Like the residents we needed a lift, which would have brighten up our day, if the lights were on.
Cirrus do not repair lifts, but if they did, (Off the Telly) I could give them a call on our updated Warden Call System Phone that 28 of us Dribbling Geriatrics paid over £22,000.00 between us for an Updated Version, £752.00 each we paid, which was not challenged by us Geriatrics as we were busy ringing the bells as they were stuck in lifts visiting other Geriatrics.
The fact that the lifts did not work, floored us all as we were not geared up for such failure. We will repeat the Peverel failings on all the Web Sites which hopefully will escalate the repairs.
Peverel are known for their up and down response to repairs so we thought that by adding a little frivolity readers would show the comments to others and whist spreading the word give all residents a lift.
LIFT PROBLEMS
.
Peverel have published their answer to my comments on the Peverel Blog.
As expected it does not address the issue and is merely a statement of self glorification and is there for all to see and make up their own minds about it. I am sure most people (including Peverel residents) would come to the same conclusion as myself and Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation readers.
At least by commenting on the Blog it puts the problems in the domain of all Peverel residents, most of whom have no knowledge of Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation and will not have read the reports in newspapers.
Maybe the residents will now be checking for themselves that all the lift servicing and insurance checks have been carried out. At least the Blog comments will have given them the opportunity to do this
I suspect the Peverel blog has a tiny readership.
According to Awstat, Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation had 10,691 visitors in September and 54,788 page views.
(For the same period, the bigger non-retirement LKP site had 21,879 visitors, and 86,066 page views.)
Google Analytics shows fewer visitors: 7,002 visitors over the past 30 days. This may be because I am pointing http://www.betterretirementhousing.com (which does not really exist) to http://www.Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation.co (which is the real site). Because of this two-step process, I suspect it is not recording accurately.
The figure is somewhere between the two.
I think there is quite high awareness of Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation in retirement leasehold, but it is a resource used occasionally. The regulars are either residents’ association officers or in sites with issues. I would be surprised if no one in a particular Peverel managed / Tchenguiz freehold site was aware of Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation.
I think the figures are high, given zero marketing beyond word of mouth.
Does AWSTAT record the number of hits or the number of users.
Because I find the site so interesting I have my computor set to bring up Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation when I turn on.
This could amount to 10 times a day.
If all were like me then the figure of 10691 users in September could be reduced to 1069.
It amazes me that the Peverel Blog has received no messages from any of their residents for about a month. Myself ( a non resident) have challenged them over the Lift Problems and not one resident has joined in. Is it apathy, are they all living happily or are they scared.
I think they can’t see the point of a PR initiative like the Peverel blog.
I may be on my own on this, but i find the Peverel blog highly entertaining.
I also take pleasure from the “so very pleasant” way Michael Hollands ties Peverel up in knots (brilliant work, Michael )
In his latest reply, David Gabriel makes mention of the 1500 developments managed by Peverel.
Note, that does not mention the number of developments that have a lift. For all we know that could be less than 500(which would affect his 99% figure) Nor, i suppose would he like to dwell on the fact that thus far, only some of those developments with faulty lifts that made the local news papers have been given publicity.
How many others, that don’t make the press are there?
I feel sure, Peverel devotees, will have spotted the subtle change of reply.
What happened to the “inspections 4 times a year plus twice yearly insurance inspections?”
We now have “a close review of inspections and our maintenance contracts are carried out at all times”
Forget the price fixing scandal,Forget the poor service Forget the insurance commission overcharges.
Dismiss from your mind Peverel’s financial position. Do not even think of the number of key developments Peverel have lost. Broken lifts, not a problem. A company looking after the elderly losing their Age UK accreditation, no matter.
The most important thing for Peverel, in their relentless drive to improve customer service is for Ria Wilcox to be emailed your Halloween stories! Trick -or Treat! The Trick is probably the service charge demand, The Treat is no doubt the RTM sacking Peverel. Perhaps Ria this might be described as an “Own Ghoul”
Michael, you are on fire! Own ghoul is an excellent pun.
The problem of lifts is not limited to retirement homes. Many of these european manufactured lifts have slow supply times, and were installed cheaply by the developers, as the manufactuers make their money in the long term through spare parts and proprietary software need to service them and repair them
AM is totally correct. The problem is mainly due to CHEAP EUROPEAN lifts installed by the developer. It is definitely not just retirement homes. I am involved with property management and 2 non retirement, approx 18 flats at each, have had major probs in the area that I live.
Neither sites had anything to do with Peverel or any of it’s other associates but both freeholds were bought by their residents many years ago.
At 15 years of age one lift failed and after being out of order for over 3 months due to parts availability probs (European manufactured lift) the residents paid Otis £18K for a replacent operating system. That was 12 years ago and it has never missed a beat since.
2nd complex had same situation after 20 years of age. The residents have this month spent £28K for a total refurbisment by Otis
Yes, Peverel do their best to exclude adverse comments from their blog, but it is possible to have your say if you are very careful. I had a long discussion with Pat McEvoy on storage heaters recently, and a few years ago actually slipped in a link to the Peverel Action Blog without Keith noticing. Tee-hee!