Dear Resident

In this edition, I want to focus on the mechanics of the Chilmington Management Organisation (CMO), the people working hard to make it a positive presence in the community and to outline some of the challenges we have been facing.

Having recently received your bills at a very difficult time for some residents, it is important I share with you how the CMO works but also to explain that the CMO cares for its residents and that if you need help with spreading the cost of your rent charge bills, RMG (our estate management partner) is happy to discuss this with you.

I am delighted to let you know that the CMO has recently received charitable status, which is a huge milestone in our journey. Our charitable status brings added value allowing us to stand out even further from typical management companies. We can do this by raising additional funds to support public spaces and community programmes. With lockdown measures in place, we haven’t been able to demonstrate just what we mean by community and all of the programming we’d like to share with you, but we’re gearing up for an exciting year ahead.

I’m very much looking forward to meeting you in person (if I haven’t already come by to knock on your door!), and I’m keen to work with you to organise activities, events and groups. You have a very active parish council (Great Chart with Singleton Parish Council) and many other wonderful community
groups in the locality too. Maybe take an hour to
visit John and his team at the Singleton Environment Centre whose café is now open for takeaways. Their chocolate brownies are my favourite! Or maybe visit Kestral Park or Cuckoo Park both within a short distance of our community.

I look forward to meeting many of you at the up and coming resident surgeries. Katy, Dan and I are always at the end of the phone or email, so please do make contact at 07771 838 740 or hello@cmo.org.uk.

Many thanks,
SallyAnne
Chief Executive

What can be expected in the year ahead?

As we come out of lockdown, we are rolling out a wide range of activities. Between now and the end of the year you can anticipate opportunities that include:

• A pilot to test our community demand for a Chilmington Parent & Toddler Group
• Community tree planting in Discovery Park
• CMO Resident Surgeries
• Social drop-in sessions at the Community Cabin
• Resident artist workshops and public art creation
• And more…

In addition to the above, we want to hear your ideas. What else do you want to see happening in your growing community? Our team will work with you to make connections and link up resources to help realise your aspirations for the community. Contact us at 07771 838 740 or hello@cmo.org.uk

Chilmington Green Rent Charge Deeds (RCDs)

When purchasing a property at Chilmington Green, residents sign a deed of covenant which places a deed on their property, binding the freeholder to paying rent charges. This is typical in modern housing developments and forms part of the planning permission granted by local authorities.

At Chilmington Green, Ashford Borough Council created a stewardship body (the CMO) to adopt all open space and community assets (except for schools and adopted main roads) to ensure that the quality of the development was safeguarded in perpetuity and to create a really special place to live. The CMO goes beyond a typical management company as it will provide community activities for those that live there and before long, have resident representation on the board.

All residents sign RCD1 and RCD2. Some residents also sign a RCD3. The purpose of these should have been explained to you when you purchased your property by your conveyancing solicitor and before you signed the deeds. More information can be found on our website but as a summary;

Rent Charge Deed 1 – collected for the management and maintenance of strategic assets such as play spaces, community centres and landscaping.

Rent Charge Deed 2 – there is currently no fee for this but it provides the CMO with enforcement powers as well as the ability to ask its members to increase the RCD1 bill by up to 20% after 2030.

Rent Charge Deed 3 – for those residents with communal areas which are not of benefit to all residents on the development.

Each RCD carries a £1 annual fixed charge. RCD 1 and 2 are subject to RPI Indexing each year.

ALL residents must pay their bills and if you have any concerns with this, we recommend you speak to your conveyancer. The CMO will be taking on assets this year and will therefore have costs to cover, as well as the costs of RMG for issuing the bills and for procuring the landscaping contractors. Monies not spent are currently put aside for future management and maintenance bills.

Who is behind the CMO?

The CMO has its own board of directors with equal representation between developers and public authorities, including the voluntary and community sector and will soon include a resident director. The team working on behalf of the CMO includes three Ashford Borough Council officers who have been dedicating part of their working hours to establish and operate the CMO. This was setup as an interim service agreement between the council and the CMO, until a time when the CMO can hire its own staff. This same team also leads a programme of work to support high quality placemaking for the whole of the South of Ashford Garden Community.

SallyAnne as the Chief Exec, is an Ashfordian and has worked in the voluntary and commercial sector in community facing roles for many years. Her background is in partnership working, community consultation, community development, play and young people. She has been involved in many local projects including Repton Connect and The Waterside Youth and Children’s Centre.

Katy, also born and bred in Ashford, is passionate about seeing new developments within the area become a fabulous place to live, work and play, whilst ensuring their sustainability into the future. Katy’s background is in HR, and she now brings her experience to help deliver community activities and to manage the ongoing relationship between the Estate Managers, RMG and the CMO.

Dan hails from Canada with a background in theatre making and managing non-profit organisations. He retrained in London as an urban designer with a specialty in participatory planning and now supports the CMO with communications and organising community projects.

Resident Billing

The CMO would normally bill residents in March of each year for the full financial year ahead. Since the CMO went live in August 2019 and the first residents took up occupation, we have struggled to secure the relevant information from the developer’s conveyancers to enable this to happen. Lockdown has only exacerbated the issues. This has meant that some residents have had to pay some outstanding sums from 2019/20, bills for 2020/21 and now the first half of 2021/22. We are really sorry for this as it is not what we wanted or intended.

Some residents were charged incorrectly at the completion of their sale, meaning RMG has had to reconcile all the accounts as far back as 2019/20 to ensure all residents have paid the correct sums due. We recognise that this is very difficult for some residents, which is why we have only billed for the first half of the new financial year and have offered payment solutions for those in financial hardship. Please do pick up the phone to RMG and we will do what we can to help. 0345 002 4444, rmguk.com/contact-rmg

The bottom line, however, is those bills do have to be paid. Unpaid bills (plus interest) will be placed against the property and will need to be cleared when the property is sold.

At the time of purchase, there is also a legal sum due; £175 for RCD1, £25 for RCD 2 and £100 for RCD3. Total of £300 (index linked). This covers the costs of the CMO in ensuring that the legal obligations of the developers and purchasers are followed through correctly (more below). Some conveyancers did not charge the correct fee at point of sale and therefore the CMO has also corrected this in all bills. Any shortfall in legal fees will be billed by
the developers’ solicitors.

The sums collected are held in ring fenced trust fund accounts by RMG. Residents can be assured that they are safeguarded for the purpose for which they are collected with the accounts available for approval at the annual AGM.

Compliance Certificates

The legislation which relates to rent charge deeds is complex. You will no doubt have picked up on some of this through your conveyancing process. Through the purchase of your property, you will have signed a deed of covenant which commits you as the freeholder to paying the rent charge sums in perpetuity. Once your sale is complete, the relevant paperwork is sent to the CMO and checked. If it is all complete and accurate, the CMO then issues a Compliance Certificate which is sent to your conveyancer and a further copy sent to the Land Registry to be held with your Title Deeds.

Most of the paperwork which has been received for completed properties so far has been completed incorrectly and returned by the CMO’s solicitors, Knights, to the conveyancer for that property. We realise this is frustrating for you, but we are also sure that you can understand how important it is that the CMO safeguards its interests on behalf of the residents to enable us to care for your community in the future. We are trying to issue compliance certificates as quickly as possible but do need to make sure the paperwork is correct. This also protects you if you decide to move in years to come.If you are affected please help us to get things right.

We are also aware of a small number of households where the incorrect initial rent charge deed sum was inserted to the Deeds and/or where RCD3 was not applied. The CMO cannot accept either of these circumstances and will not issue a Compliance Certificate until the matters are resolved between the developers and the purchasers. Again, please contact your conveyancer if you believe this situation relates to you.

Some residents are in the process of selling their properties and will be unable to do so until the Compliance Certificate is issued. The CMO will do its upmost to support all residents but we do understand the urgency around house sales, so will prioritise those properties where this is the case.

RMG provide a pack for residents who are on the move which explains the role of the CMO and RMG together. To inquire, please email SED@rmguk.com