RESIDENTS OF ROWAN PARK

RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION 4 October 2013

Dear Mr McPherson, I am writing to inform you that in recent months a group of residents at Rowan Park have started the process of forming a Residents Association, called Residents of Rowan Park (RORP). Our aim as a group is to collectively represent the views of residents on issues affecting the estate, and to improve quality of life and property values in the development. To date, we have received signed registration forms for 74 of the occupied homes on the estate, and email expressions of interest from 23 others. On behalf of the residents, the Association welcomes the opportunity to develop a meaningful and effective partnership with Crest Nicholson to ensure that Rowan Park delivers everything it promised to its residents at the time they purchased their homes. We are in the process of becoming incorporated as a Community Interest Company, and we will soon be appointing officers for the association. Once this process is completed, we will also be applying to the council for formal recognition as a community group and entering into formal partnerships with the Wandle Housing Association and Chamonix Estates. On Saturday 21 September a Residents Meeting took place at the estate to discuss some of the crucial issues which we are currently facing. The meeting was attended by over 40 residents representing a good number of homes on the estate. The areas covered included: Build problems, materials and build quality Roads and pathways Landscaping Site maintenance

More often than not, the issues arising in these areas have been caused by your company, your staff and your subcontractors. Many residents find Crest Nicholsons after sales customer service and approach to its customers unacceptable, and indeed this has been one of the driving forces behind the formation of RORP. Many of us have been in situ for 12 months or more, and we continue to receive appalling service from your company on a wide ranging number of issues. We hope that by uniting we will be able to work with Crest to achieve better results for all residents. In addition to site-wide issues, many homes in the development are currently suffering from a continued failure of your company to rectify issues and respond to queries and complaints. Some residents are still awaiting responses from your customer service department to issues raised over a year ago, and others have felt as though they have been treated dishonestly by your staff and representatives. This, we all believe, has had a major negative impact on our general quality of life and has generated huge amounts of unnecessary stress and wasted time. The present system of individual residents dealing directly with sub-contracted agents and your customer service department is seen by all present at our meeting on 21 September as inefficient and unacceptable. We would like to propose that a monthly meeting between representatives of RORP and your site manager is held to ensure that all site wide issues are addressed to the satisfaction of the residents.

Residents of Rowan Park

residentsofrowanpark@gmail.com

@Rowan_Park

RESIDENTS OF ROWAN PARK

RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

At the meeting, it was also agreed that the points in the annex attached to this letter should be raised with you directly, and that any response to these issues should be coordinated through RORP. These are site wide issues that we require you and Crest Nicholsons Rowan Park site team to address as a matter of urgency. The residents of the estate further require Crest Nicholson to take full responsibility in managing the solutions to these problems, and to liaise directly with the Association to confirm that they have been completed to a satisfactory standard. Please direct all correspondence to us via our email address. As an alternative, you might also consider posting to our Facebook page the residents are all able to view this page, and we are sure that all of our followers would appreciate the transparency communications of this sort provides. Our contact details are provided at the foot of each page. Finally, we should also advise that should your response to our concerns be unsatisfactory, and if we continue to suffer from the present model of poor communications, broken promises, and weak management, we will have no other choice but to seek other, more formal and public means of securing satisfactory solutions. We look forward to your response, and to working with you for the benefit of all of your customers and the Residents of Rowan Park. Yours faithfully,

The Residents of Rowan Park

Present at meeting on 21 September 2013: Rob Smithies Rowan Gorter-Wright Oliver Wright Martin Bailey Lizzie Bailey Simon Pizzey Sarah Pizzey E Hercer Alex Beeden Thierry Lalonde Richard Veyson Chris Holt Bart Luijk Leathrin Luijk Denis Popovs Art Mawsi Audrey Wong Constance Wong Becky Lyken Shakeena Lyken Michael Addico Tony Corts Andy Clark Simon Bozzoli Clint Browne David Han Mily Quan Laura O'Hara Marie Rajiah Sam Revell Adam Kelbasa Kate Bougas Ben Bougas Tse Shelley Randall

CC: Stephen Stone (Crest Nicholson), Ian Davis (NHBC), David Chung (Merton Council), Rebekah Brydon (Chamonix Estates)

Residents of Rowan Park

residentsofrowanpark@gmail.com

@Rowan_Park

RESIDENTS OF ROWAN PARK

RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

ANNEX
PRIORITY ISSUES 1. DAMP IN FLOORS: At least 9 properties represented at the meeting on 21 September are experiencing problems with damp in their floors. There seems to be a problem with the construction of the floors in many homes and this has impacted visibly on the vinyl, wood or Amtico flooring that has been laid. We require you to: a. Inform RORP of all houses missing a damp proof membrane / currently experiencing issues with their flooring. b. To arrange a site visit with a qualified and independent surveyor so that Crest and RORP are able to establish the extent of the problem to identify the most suitable course of action to remedy it. c. To submit in writing a coordinated plan with agreed times and dates to remedy this fault in the floors and with minimum disruption to households. d. The solution must include: i. An NHBC guarantee. ii. A guarantee by Crest to cover any costs including: building, insurance, professional fees, accommodation, storage, replacement flooring and resulting redecoration. e. We also require that this survey identifies and outlines to the proprietors any future implications including, but not exclusively, financial, structural or those related to internal dcor that may result from a wood framed property having been constructed without a guaranteed damp proof course. 2. PLYBOARD FASCIAS Following the issues with Nos 12-24 Cairns Avenue where water drainage fascias all fell off after rotting in the wet weather, Crest need to replace all flimsy ply board fascias on front, side and back with far more durable plastic or an alternative material. We would also request that you provide assurances that all of the fascias fitted on the estate are of a suitably durable material, and that these will not need to be maintained on a regular basis at the cost of the residents. 3. DAMAGED/SUB STANDARD ROAD DRAINAGE Throughout the site, there are clear examples of damaged and defective drainage channels, guttering and paving. This is particularly evident along Jack Dimmer Close, where there has been a significant amount of damage during the course of building. There are also areas where water fails to drain properly from the channels into the drains.

Residents of Rowan Park

residentsofrowanpark@gmail.com

@Rowan_Park

RESIDENTS OF ROWAN PARK

RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

To rectify this, we would like to suggest that Crest Nicholsons site manager and RORPs Public Areas Subgroup arrange to carry out a joint site inspection identifying a programme of work that will remedy damaged/sub-standard drainage channels, drains, paving, curbing, and service man holes to ensure they are all left in perfect condition at the time these areas are handed over to Chamonix Estates. 4. RUMBLE STRIPS A number of residents raised issues with the rumble strips that have been installed across the estate. It appears that many of them have not been set into the street sufficiently. As a result they protrude from street level too much. This causes all of the properties close to the rumble strips to shudder when heavy vehicles pass by, potentially causing damage to residents vehicles. This is a serious issue to which the residents require a quick resolution. 5. SEWERS I am sure you are aware that there have recently been a number of issues with drainage from the sites sewage infrastructure into the surrounding infrastructure. This has caused blockages that have resulted in unhygienic, unfriendly and undesirable smells across the estate. We are extremely concerned that this issue will worsen as the occupancy on the estate increases. The residents agreed unanimously that Crest Nicholson should rectify these issues (by improvements to design and build of the sites infrastructure if necessary), and provide formal writ ten assurances to residents that the issues have been entirely and finally resolved. 6. LANDSCAPING The hot summer weather and the lack of co-ordination with Chamonix Estates to manage the whole site has led to a lot of damage with some trees, plants and bushes dying or being left in poor health. There also seems to be a lack of consistency in the quality of planting across the estate, with the front of the estate on Rowan Road having much more attractive planting than other parts of the development. The residents require that all dead or dying plants are replaced by healthy specimens and that Crest take responsibility for watering and weeding until such a time that they pass full management control over to Chamonix. We further require planting to be standardised across the estate, so that all planted areas and green spaces are completed to the standard at the front of the development. There will need to be a final site inspection involving the RORP Public Areas subgroup and the site manager to ensure all identified plants, trees and shrubs have been suitably replaced and to sign the site off prior to handover. 7. PARK PREPARATION & HEALTH AND SAFETY

Residents of Rowan Park

residentsofrowanpark@gmail.com

@Rowan_Park

RESIDENTS OF ROWAN PARK

RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

For health and safety reasons, the residents require Crest to improve the surface of the green space behind Kerlin View, Crowley Mews and Tomblin Mews. This should involve removal of all building debris and rubble from the surface of the grass planted park and the use of top soil to improve the evenness of the finished surface prior to hand over to Merton BC. This will need to happen retrospectively and as soon as possible, as grass seeding has already happened and there are stones, shards of glass and other harmful debris in the area which could pose a serious risk to any park users, especially children and pets using the space. Once again, there will need to be a final site inspection involving the RORP Public Areas subgroup and the site manager to ensure that the work in this area has been completed to the satisfaction of the residents. 8. RUBBISH MANAGEMENT There is a significant and persistent problem with waste management on the site. It was unanimously agreed at our meeting that RORP would request Crest Nicholson to provide wheelie bins for all households on the estate. Upon further investigation the provision of 2 wheelie bins per house was in fact incorporated in the refuse strategy section of the detailed planning application, submitted to Merton Council in September 2011. Please confirm when these bins will be provided, as waste on the estate is causing serious issues with increasing numbers of vermin. We require this item to be resolved by 31 October 2013. 9. SOLAR PANEL ARRAYS There is a problem with solar energy production from many of the installations on the estate. Prior to paying deposits, a number of residents at the meeting were told by your sales agents as part of their sales pitch to expect an annual cheque for 500 resulting from their PV panels. To many, this was a deal clincher as it was part of the general green appeal of the site. The reality is nearer 60-80 per annum, after one of the sunniest and warmest summers on record. We would like to enter into discussions with you and Crest Nicholson to establish an appropriate solution for this problem. Many residents feel cheated by the promises they received, and may seek to take action against Crest Nicholson on the basis of financial losses. It is clear the sales pitch changed for the latter part of the second phase, who were told to expect 650kwh of production in line with the MCS certificates later issued. 10. ROGUE CAR PARKING Even though the site is demarcated with different paving colours/bricks/schemes, as set out by the materials strategy plan, it is common to see vehicles illegally parked across the service corridors and pedestrian walkways. We suggest Crest plant trees/large shrubs to act as natural traffic barriers to prevent this common practice .

Residents of Rowan Park

residentsofrowanpark@gmail.com

@Rowan_Park

RESIDENTS OF ROWAN PARK

RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

The alternative would be to install bollards which match the three which are still to be installed at the end of Crowley Mews. There is clearly a flaw between the initial architect drawings by Sheppard Robson and the reality of illegal parking. This must be resolved before you hand the roads/walkways over to Chamonix, who plan to penilise residents by bringing in parking enforcements at the residents own expense.

Residents of Rowan Park

residentsofrowanpark@gmail.com

@Rowan_Park