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Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Tuesday 14^th June 2022

Members

Mrs K Creese took the chair, all committee members were present with a further 14 society members present.

Minutes of the previous annual general meeting held on 12^th October 2021 were confirmed and signed, proposed by Mr M Cort and seconded by Mrs J Bradshaw.

Matters Arising

None

Chairman’s Report

Good evening everybody, we will now stand and take a minutes silence in memory of shareholders, friends and loved ones who have passed away during the last few months.

Before I start my report I would just like to ask that you please refrain from asking questions until after the report has been read.

As from 1^st February 2023 rent day is going to change. Direct debits will be collected on the 1^st February and will be collected thereafter on the 1^st of each month. There will also possibly be a rent increase next year.

If pre-arranged appointments with contractors are missed by tenants then tenants will be invoiced with a missed appointment charge by the contractors. Any private work carried out by the contractors and unauthorised by Anchor Tenants is payable by the tenant.

We seem to be having a lot of blockages and these are mostly due to baby wipes/wet wipes. Please do not put these into the toilets to be flushed as they are not degradable. Drain companies charge £150 per call out.

As you know DJB Plumbing and Heating is no longer carrying out work on the estate. Unfortunately DJB now has to charge VAT, which we cannot claim back, as a result his prices were not competitive. N&B Plumbing and Heating won the contract for gas testing.

To avoid being a nuisance to neighbours we are considering limiting quantities of all animals to all new tenants to no more than 2 cats or 2 dogs per house. Tenants must keep their gardens securely fenced and take responsibility.

Due to recent burglaries on the backway it is necessary to always close and lock the backway gates no matter how long you are going to go out for. Please keep brambles under control at the rear of gardens to avoid vehicles being damaged.

To avoid damage to properties any climbing plants, i.e. ivy growing on houses all needs cutting back and removing.

Conservatories and lean-tos are causing us quite a lot of problems. They often cause access problems to carry out repairs and painting, i.e. perspex roof panels need to be eeasily removable to give access. If scaffolding has to be used it could involve a cost in excess of £1500 per set of scaffold.

The trees that are planted in our street, as you are aware, belong to the council. We have contacted them regarding having them cut back. The council say they have no funds but when funds do allow they may get done. If tenants could also follow up with some contact to the council then maybe we will get the trees cut back.

Spouses and children living at home after an original tenant passes will be 1^st succession. 2nd succession spouses and children will be issued with new tenancies as per the current policy.

We need to talk about solar panels as these are becoming part of our lives. If tenants request to have solar panels fitted we have no objection to this on the proviso that they are bought outright by the tenant and this is approximately £10,000 with none going back to the providing companies. They are subject to electrical checks and the panels and equipment have to be insured at the tenants own cost.

We are persistently being asked to repair or replace private items within properties, i.e. showers. Unfortunately, if these have been fitted by the tenant it is their responsibility and they need to speak to the plumber, electrician or builder privately to arrange a repair and agree cost and payment.

We would like to give you the opportunity to give your thoughts on an ongoing problem we are having regarding persistent bad rent payers and we are very concerned. We are constantly looking into this ongoing problem. We are not being allowed access to properties, and some properties are not being looked after. We regularly seek legal advice as to what to do. We write to tenants to invite them to come and discuss the problems with the committee, but to no avail. We are not wanting to evict any tenants as this is a long and costly process.

I am sure that you will have noticed that we now have a defibrillator situated on the front of the hall. Hopefully, we will never have to use it, but if we do, the instructions are on it telling you what you have to do and how to use it. It is quite straightforward.

I would like to welcome Mr Graham Smith from Cunningtons & Co who is our new accountant.

I am sure you will agree that we had an amazing jubilee party on Saturday 4^th June, and that a lot of hard work, hours and effort were given to make it a great success. I would like to thank Lesley and Mike Osborne and everyone of the jubilee committee for giving us such a memorable day. Here’s to the next celebration which hopefully won’t be too long.

This concluded the Chairman’s report.

Result of the Committee Ballot

The voting was as follows:

Name	Votes
Mrs J Benning	163
Mr I M Carter	94
Mr W Gee	369
Miss D Smith	123

There were 3 void papers.

As there are two positions to fill, Mrs Benning and Mr Gee are elected to the committee.

Auditor’s Report

Mr Smith began his report by saying that the accounts for year ending 31^st January 2022 basically showed that the society had a modest increase in income from £337,000 in 2021 to £340,000 for 2022. The scale of the increase is slightly masked by the covid related support payments received in 2021 of almost £16,000.

£328,000 had been spent on property improvements and maintenance which was an increase from £191,000 the previous year. Overheads and administration costs were a total £61,878 which is a reduction on the previous years cost of £87,000. Overall there was a deficit of £49,000 compared to the surplus the year before of £59,500. The deficit of course means that there is no corporation tax liability as you would expect and at the minimum, the tax that was paid the previous year should be recoverable.

Mr Smith is investigating the possibility that there may be more tax to be claimed back and also the possibility that the society may be able to escape paying tax altogether in the future but that is something that is still being worked on so he will report back in due course.

In terms of the balance sheet, the net assets of Anchor Tenants Limited have declined by the extent of the loss from the historical value of £196,500 in 2021 to £147,000 in the year ending 2022, however, given that that includes the value of the estate at the original cost for the properties of £72,000 the true value is infinitely higher.

The main figure that matters in the short term is the liquidity of the society, in other words the cash surplus that will remain when short term liabilities are paid off and that figure at 31^st January 2022 was £74,158. A healthy balance by any measure and a satisfactory outcome especially given how much was spent on property improvements and maintenance.

Mr Smith ended his report by stating that in terms of his role as auditor and looking at the underlying records he is very happy with what he has seen and how the society keeps its records and accounts for everything. Overall, it is a clean audit report with Mrs Pierce keeping the accounts on behalf of the committee and that everything is in order and as it should be.

Mrs Creese then asked if shareholders had any questions for Mr Smith.

A tenant queried the debtors amount owed to the estate of £9,000. Mr Smith confirmed this figure included some rent arrears but also forecasted pre-payments such as insurance payments, i.e. expenses that were invoiced before 31^st January 2022 but part of it relates to the year we are in now.

A tenant queried the increase in costs for gas testing and servicing from the previous year. Mrs Pierce confirmed that the figure of £56,576 included all gas testing and plumbing/heating work for the estate for the year.

Mr I Pawson proposed that the accounts were accepted as a true record, seconded by Mr G Baker.

Mrs J Bradshaw proposed the re-election of Cunningtons & Co. as auditors for the coming year; this was seconded by Mr I Pawson.

Arbitrators

Not required

Remuneration of Committee

It was agreed that members fees will remain the same as in the previous year at £2.50 per week.

General Business

A tenant asked if the proposed changes to the rent direct debit date to the 1^st of every month would mean that rent would be payable in advance or in arrears. Mrs Creese confirmed this would be payable in advance. The tenant went on to ask why change was needed from the current system of rent being paid 2 weeks in advance and 2 weeks in arrears. Mrs Creese replied that the change of date will aid tenants that are paid at the beginning or end of each month. To which the tenant replied that pensions are paid every 4 weeks.

Another tenant asked when the change to direct debits would take effect, Mrs Creese replied that it would be from 1^st February 2023.

A tenant asked if the society is classed as a housing association in light of the Prime Minister’s recent announcement that housing association tenants are to be given the right to buy their properties. Mr Pierce replied that Anchor Tenants is not a housing association and Mrs Creese confirmed that Anchor Tenants are not social landlords and therefore the announcement did not apply to us.

This concluded the business of the meeting and Mrs Creese thanked members for their attendance, before declaring the meeting closed at 7.17pm.

These minutes are the official record of what happened, and not a verbatim account.

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