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Minutes of the Annual General Meeting (NOT) held on Wednesday 25^th March 2020

Although the meeting was cancelled, the following reports would have been read out had it taken place.

Chairman’s Report

The last year has been as busy as ever. Along with the renovation of vacant properties, we still have the usual list of repairs to contend with. Blocked drains, failed window seals, dripping taps, loose tiles,broken gutters etc. These are the everyday problems we face. Global warming is also beginning to affect us, as the increasing instances of high winds and rain, meant that we suffered many cases of roof, ridge and hip tiles being displaced.

In my report, in October 2019, I was able to say that we had no vacant properties and all houses were let. Since then we have had 2 more house become vacant. One, because the tenant passed away, and the second we were obliged to issue an eviction notice. Both sad occasions, firstly because we lost one of our long term tenants and secondly because we hope that people who take up the offer of a house will respect and look after it and pay the rent on a regular basis. This was not the case and we were left with no option but to take the action we did. I repeat what I have said before when this happens. In situations like this, there are no winners. The tenant loses a home and we are financially out of pocket.

Hall

We took the opportunity,whilst funds were available, to complete,what we hope, is the last stage of our community hall renovation. The area,next to the hall,on which there used to be garages,was unusable in its present state. It was,in fact, becoming a health and safety risk. We had the area excavated and a compact layer of stone and gravel laid down. It is now available for users of the hall to park their cars and there are also some spaces for tenants to use if they wish to get their cars off the street You will see,from the financial report, that the hall is now contributing to the income of the estate. There are still maintenance costs to consider but we hope that the capital spending on the hall is now at an end.

Painting and gutters

The bottom half of Lilac Avenue was repainted and we continued our program of replacing the old cast iron gutters and pipework. This replacement,we consider to be very important, as most of the gutters and pipework is old and in some cases becoming quite dangerous. The increasing intensity of the wind and rain is putting quite a strain on them and we intend to replace them as quickly as possible.

Electricity

We are still awaiting information regarding the governments consultations on the Landlord and Tenants Act and whether new legislation is to be introduced. The Electrical Safety Standards Bill is now going through Parliament and we shall be obliged to have an electrical inspection and report on all the properties. We shall be proceeding with this as soon as possible. The date set by the government to have all houses checked, is April 2021, The current situation regarding the Corona virus, makes this almost impossible to achieve as each check will take approximately 4 hours and all breaches of the new electrical standards will have to be remedied. We expect that the majority of houses will need some work. We shall need the help and good will of all tenants in order to achieve this. We will keep you informed on how we intend to comply with the new legislation. With regard to the electrics, I did say in my report in March 2018, that if you have had any electrical work done recently, it must be by a qualified electrician and a completion certificate obtained for all work done. What I did not mention was that we need to have sight of that certificate for our records. If you are in possession of an electrical certificate, can you let us have sight of it so that we can keep our records up to date.

Tree planting

Because we thought that a few more trees would not go amiss on the estate, we asked tenants if they would like us to supply them with a tree for their garden. This was quite successful with some 16 people applying for a tree. We hope to repeat that scheme this year and if you missed out last year, we are compiling a list of people who wish to take up our offer later this year.

Letting of properties

Because of the costs we incur when renovating vacant properties, it is most important that prospective tenants can not only afford the house offered but that they will look after it and respect the ethos of Anchor Tenants. To this end we now interview all prospective new tenants and, with their permission, have a credit check carried out. This is standard practice throughout the industry. It is no good offering a house to someone who cannot afford it and will just put them into debt. It is important that people respect the property and appreciate the hard work that goes into making these houses available at the current rent.

The avalanche of new regulations over the passed few years have put quite a financial burden on landlords. Rents in Leicester have increased by 13.9%over the last 5 years and are predicted to increase by 2.5% in 2020. We have,by good housekeeping and hard work, managed to keep our rents at 2016 level. The increase in rental value from the renovated properties goes a long way in helping to achieve this. But it cant go on forever. I am not saying that we propose a rent increase at the moment,but we shall have to have a hard look at finances next year.

Conclusion

Today people talk about the importance of work/life balance. They understand the importance of a healthy diet, regular exercise, recreation an work,all contributing to a feeling of well being. Research also shows that contributing to society and the positive feelings experienced when people give back can be just as important to overall well being. Research suggests that people feel happier, safer, and more content when they live in connected communities and know their neighbours. It is important that we all work hard to keep our community thriving. It was nice to see more people applying to serve on the committee,than there were vacancies. I thank those who applied and even if you were not successful your support is most appreciated.

This concluded the chairman’s report.

Result of the committee Ballot

The voting was as follows:

Name	Votes
Mrs K Creese	99
Mr T Gee	185
Mr I Pawson	68
Mrs C Smith	55
Mrs V Walker	149

As there were three positions to fill, Mrs K Creese, Mr T Gee and Mrs V Walker are elected to the committee. There were three void papers.

Auditor’s commentary on 2020 accounts

In the absence of the AGM I have written out below what I would have said about the accounts.

The year saw rents received increase by almost £13,500 – with no rent increase again this year the additional rent is from the higher rents received on properties renovated and brought back into occupation both this year and last year.

This is now the third year in which the hall has been available for letting and with a number of regular users now established and plenty of addition bookings income has risen £4867 to £13270 this year. I would also point out that the issues I raised last year with regarding to the control and recording of hall rental income has been resolved.

The overall management expenses are nearly the same as last year. Annual pay rises have increased the wage cost, extra costs have been incurred on website and IT and the costs of running the hall have increased but there are no bad debts this year and other savings have been made.

The increased income has enabled more to be spent on the upkeep of the estate. In particular there have been some big costs in re-roofing 6 properties (£34,800) and replacing 12 fascias (£31,400). It was possible to recommence the painting programme with £17,062 being spent on work on Chestnut Road and Lilac Avenue. It was also necessary to carry out 5 lead pipe replacements this year and the area adjacent to the hall was cleared and tarmac laid at a cost of £28,756.

Compared to last year less empty properties meant less had to spent in this regard, saving on empty property rates and on central heating installations and remedial electrical work fell by almost £12,000 as the programme progressed.

Whilst there was investment in the hall with LED lights being installed as well as a CCTV and door entry system the amount spent on the hall was much less than last year.

Overall the Society had a deficit of £25,501 for the year but this is in line with budgets and the balance sheet remains strong despite this. There are plenty of funds available and even with no increase the effect of empty property renovations will see further growth in income for the current year.

Hopefully we will be able to meet again for the 2021 AGM but in the meantime I wish you all best during this very difficult times for us all.

Ross

This concluded the auditor’s report.

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

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