28 MONTHS LATER

3 YEARS + 2 MONTHS + 26 DAYS
since Thistle’s mismanaged Major Works Programme started on 7th January 2016
28 CALENDAR MONTHS
since 30th November 2016 when “all of the works to all of the houses in Toryglen will be complete“. Today, 1st April 2019, still incomplete, work proven to be shoddy and more importantly, dangerous

The answer to all of the above is NO!

Thistle Housing’s failed Major Works Programme to last no more than fourteen weeks per address.

Now, more than thirty eight months after it started and twenty eight months after its contracted completion date and still not finished.

Shoddy work crumbling away. Bits falling off.  Who would have thought it and the same people at the helm in Thistle Fort although now aided by Scottish Housing Regulator compulsory conscripts from housing associations who actually know how to run such businesses.

It’s perhaps appropriate that today is April Fools’ Day. Wonder who the fools are?

WHERE’S THE DIRECTOR?

The Director has vanished or rather has been “off sick“, coincidentally at the exact same time as the annual accounts had been knocked back as a fix mistake followed by the AGM being spectacularly postponed at very short notice “due to unforeseen circumstances” (AKA, they were caught and the director ‘shot the craw’) and very quickly thereafter, The Scottish Housing Regulator being forced to march into Thistle’s offices on 23 August 2018 only a few days before the AGM was supposed to be held.

Mind you, she did make a brief appearance at the postponed Annual General Meeting – she had no choice – where she displayed a profound lack of professionalism and was unable to offer any explanations as to her failures, the huge financial loss, where the money had gone and the long term mismanagement of Thistle’s financial affairs. She then re-vanished herself (whilst continuing to rake in her huge salary package).

“Off sick“?  For eight (convenient) months? Must be some terrible illness although Thistle stay silent when asked.  Not bad, eight months and counting, one twelfth of her annual £90,000 slice each month for doing nothing (which in actuality, isn’t much different from previously). Around £7,500 of residents’ funds each and every month for doing zilch. Shareholders have asked the whereabouts of their company’s director, as they are entitled to do but no information has been offered in response other than the claim of her experiencing what must be a dreadful illness. Is that not strange? If that was genuinely the case, a limited company like Thistle Housing Association Limited would have appointed at least an interim replacement Director and advised shareholders and residents of the director’s unfortunate circumstance. Unless it’s yet another pack of lies and she ran so that she could not be questioned. Has she been intensively questioned by the Regulator as she should have been? Who knows and certainly not shareholders or residents.

What’s being hidden here?

WHERE DID THE £1.1 MILLION
OF TORYGLEN RESIDENTS’ MONEY GO?

No reply to the question of where the £1.1 million which disappeared in the last published accounts 2017-2018. No explanation to shareholders. Silence, complete utter silence.

Yesterday saw the ending of Thistle’s current financial year, 2018-2019, one of the reasons, no doubt, that they have been desperate to claw in as many funds as possible. It is understood that the accounts, when eventually published (probably two minutes before this year’s AGM, as per normal) will be disastrous. Consider that any financial loss Thistle makes as a consequence of its weak, inept and self seeking management, results in funds not being invested in Toryglen and its residents. Not that Thistle, in its eighteen year history managing the estate, has ever been too good in that direction. Pulling in rents and fees is all they have done but no proactive maintenance or upgrade to the estate, unlike the majority of similar associations which invest in their areas and build new properties.

One wonders what a highly paid and clearly incapable Operations Manager is actually for? Answers on a postcard please.

What’s being hidden here?

FAULTY CHIMNEYS & COPES
which the corrupt
Thistle management ignored

The ongoing questions regarding the dangerous and almost disastrous chimneys, ignored. Eighteen chimneys were rebuilt after residents told Thistle on 22 September 2016 that they were faulty and built by people who had no experience in this field.

Every one of these eighteen chimneys and copes was faulty, all built by the same people, in the same manner and overseen by the same heating engineer, the self styled ‘Clerk of Works’, Mr Poulter, aided and abetted by his previous aide, the junior painter, wee Nolan, neither of whom had any experience in chimney construction (or indeed, much else) but they no doubt know where the bodies are buried. What are the chances of the rest of the chimneys being safe when, thus far, there has been a 100% failure rate? Every single one was improperly built. Every single one was and is potentially dangerous.

Thistle promised to repair ALL chimneys within the failed Major Works Programme. Seven months, yesterday, after the first failure almost caused a disaster, where’s the action? What if another chimney fractures and causes injury, a situation which could easily have happened on 31 August last year in Ardnahoe Avenue, not that any of Thistle’s management or poodle committee even bothered to visit the scene.

An extract of a letter to residents from Daniella Sprott, Thistle’s Operations Manager, dated 2 November 2018, stating that ALL chimneys would be redone. That was five months ago and no action. Meantime, residents and their families remain at risk.

Of course, Thistle has no money to pay the tens and probably hundreds of thousands of pounds to undertake these urgent repairs (although forking out £7,500 each and every month to pay a failed director doesn’t seem to pose any difficulty) and no doubt did not want any of this what should have been unnecessary expenditure, if management had proper experience, to be included in the now ended financial year’s figures. Safety first with Thistle? Nah. Money first, especially to line the pockets of an utterly failed management.

• More on chimneys and the near disaster here
• From the Evening Times here
• The letter to residents from Thistle’s Operations manager, dated 6 September 2018, can be downloaded by clicking on this link:
  180907_sprott_re_chimney_copes_to_be_tested-redacted

What’s being hidden here?

THE FULL REPORT FROM CIVIL ENGINEERS
ON THE FAULTY CHIMNEYS & COPES

Thistle Housing’s management and their low brow all pals committee hide the truth. They certainly won’t want Toryglen residents to be aware of their lies. Try this quotation, verbatim, from the Engineers’ Report, page 5…

Conclusion
Having considered the number of chimneys which are displaying perimeter cracking, (18no, i.e. 36%), against the original suggestion (by Thistle) that only a few chimneys had “add on chimney cope edge extensions”, in view of the significant number, there has to remain some doubt over the structural durability of all chimney copes.

Thistle leaving residents in possible danger.

You can download the full nine page report, addressed to the self admitted, “A’hm no technical” Operations Manager, Daniella Sprott, dated 8 November 2018 (almost five months ago) from A J Balfour Associates, Consulting Civil & Structural Engineers by clicking on the link below:

181108_ajb_balfour_civil_engineers_to_sprott_re_faulty_chimneys

This is a damning report of which the management of Thistle Housing and its compliant poodle self elected committee should be intensely embarrassed and utterly ashamed. They have known of residents’ fears literally for years and ignored them. Jeff Poulter and Daniella Sprott have treated residents with disdain and with no respect at all.

These major faults, ignored by Thistle, could easily have resulted in a disaster and with so many suspect chimneys left unrepaired, who knows what might yet happen.

Why is Mr Poulter, the serially failed and mendacious heating engineer still on site? Why is he still being paid huge amounts by Thistle when he is clearly, by his own failed actions in many aspects of the Major Works Programme, an expensive liability?  Really, what does he bring to the party other than stories, fibs and lies?

Similarly, the highly paid and clearly out of her depth Operations Manager who hardly has a reputation of success or honesty.

FAULTY GUTTERS

Rainwater continues to spew down the building elevations, water not being caught by the incorrectly placed gutters which, as per the independent British Board of Agrement investigation and subsequent report at the end of October 2017, as per an agreement between The First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, the local MSP and E.ON, require to be relocated.

Thistle’s (currently absent through illness) director stated that the BBA’s report would be ignored as the junior painter, Paul Nolan (now gone) who being a painter and a mere contracted hired hand, must surely have had profound knowledge of guttering, said that there was nothing wrong with the gutters, contravening the expert opinion of engineers from the industry’s governing body with his evidently greater knowledge. Still the rainwater flows in all the wrong places. Still Thistle has done nothing.

There is the wee video taken on 23 February 2017 which details, in all its glory, the water scudding down the elevations. At least, the gutters won’t be wearing out any time soon unlike the roughcast and render which, in many circumstances, is discolouring, flaking and cracking.

Click here to stream the video taken when there was no heavy rain but a light flurry of snow.

What’s being hidden here?

FAULTY RENDERING/ROUGHCAST,
DAMPNESS & COLD SPOTS

Cracks are beginning to appear in the render/roughcast or to be accurate, more cracks as well as discolouration. Residents, in increasing numbers, are reporting dampness and cold areas in their homes since the re-rendering and insulation of the buildings, situations which can only get worse with the passage of time. Thistle wants nothing to do with these reports and now claims that reference must be made to the worthless guarantee which is no more than a cheap insurance policy like you’d get from Curry’s for your TV and does not cover faults with the render, does not cover and problems with the roughcast or cracks in the render, only the insulation.

What’s being hidden here?

STAINED BALCONIES

Residents in flats have reported the heavy discolouration of their balconies, discolouration which, incidentally commenced within days of the application of the single coat of cheap paint, with no preparation or undercoat. Umpteen generations of spider families were wiped out at a stroke as the single coat almost covered everything.

The self styled ‘Clerk of Works’, the heating engineer, Jeff Poulter on contract to Thistle and apparently expert in all things, now adds to his impressive made up list of expertise by being a noted arborist, has blamed the discolouration of the balconies on the trees causing algae. A heating engineer expert in trees, eh?

Here’s a wee definition of algae on painted surfaces, “Algal growth on exterior painted masonry surfaces is a tropical phenomenon“. Mr Poulter now places Toryglen in the tropics. Jeez, you just couldn’t make it up. But he could and does. Thistle at its story telling best.

The trees have been in situ for fifty seven years. There was never any existence of algae at any time throughout these fifty seven years. It appeared only after the rendering was done and the balconies painted (and painted only after it was pointed out to the tree expert heating engineer, that painting was in the Work Schedule). The trees must have had a change of mind and just decided to spew forth algae at that time, tropics or no tropics.

In the real world, the cheap paint used, after the heating engineer was advised, applied with neither preparation nor undercoat, was already tainted, many of the balconies painted whilst raining.

See more immediately below as to a possible cause of balcony staining.

What’s being hidden here?

SODDEN ROCKWOOL INSULATION?

Residents in flats may have noticed the unfilled gaps on either side of the concrete balcony slabs. Rainwater is leeching from these gaps all over the balcony slabs. Of course, the heating engineer/tree guru, Mr Poulter, clearly expert in all things being a heating engineer, stated previously that these gaps had been sealed. Not too well it seems but the main concern here is that rainwater, not being caught by the incorrectly positioned gutters, is seeping down into the Rockwool, behind the render/roughcast and then out of these gaps. Residents already have pictures of water flowing behind the render.

Is all of this the cause of residents’ increasing reports of dampness and cold spots? When insulation gets wet, it stays wet, the only possible direction of travel is downwards to the ground level (thanks to a certain Isaac Newton, known as gravity but no apple for the heating engineer) then fills up and rises and eventually inwards into the house.

Strangely enough, the colour of the markings on the balconies is spookily the same as the Rockwool insulation, the same insulation applied by inexperienced foreign labour gangs, many from Albania where they don’t have (or need) insulation, nor do they generally have gutters on their houses. Thistle refuses to respond with any degree of sense. Plus ça change.

What’s being hidden here?

CLOSE & IRONWORK PAINTING
or not!

Yet another never get off the roundabout situation.

11 December 2017 when closes were being painted. Brrrrr!!

The paintwork to closes, frequently having been done in less that 0°C and with no prior preparation, now in many instances, cracking. The heating engineer, clearly an expert in the chemical reaction of paint, has admitted to some residents that the wrong type of paint was used, resulting in crazing.

It is understood that some repainting has been done but as this affects all closes, what happens to the rest? Remember, like the rest of this failed programme, this is not a free gift. It is at a cost which is on average £762 per landing. You could have done better yourself for much, much less. So far, Thistle has not decently responded to residents’ queries on this topic.

Similarly, the painting of the iron work, as in close bannisters and balcony railings were merely coated with one coat of black finish. No undercoat. This can easily been seen by the fact that much of the iron work painting is flaking with the original paint clearly obvious. It is demonstrated further by lifting just a wee bit of paint.

All of this is against not just common sense but fails to meet the works specifications. A response from Thistle? Lies. It takes two seconds to look.

What’s being hidden here?

BUILDING RUBBLE/ASBESTOS IN ATTICS

This was reported to Thistle in December 2017. They firstly denied it. They then said they would be initiating a programme of attic inspection and rubble removal. They then said it was cleared.

That was a lie.

Above you can see an attic which Thistle said had been cleared. Another one in Thistle’s long list of incapable fables.

The rubble still exists. It still poses a fire hazard. There have been no inspections and clearout. The warning from the Health and Safety Executive given to Thistle in July 2016 regarding possible asbestos has been ignored.

Cleared, eh?

The lies from Thistle just never seem to end.

Dear Ms McColgan

My eMail to you 19 December 2017, Attic Rubble, Asbestos and Overflows

I wrote to you via email on 19 December 2017, a printed copy enclosed, regarding building rubble in attics, asbestos contamination and water tank overflows being cut by your contractors, an email thus far ignored.
…
In the case of the overflow pipes having been cut, should there be any circumstance whereby a water tank overflows, as it is a pre existing condition, any insurance claim would be immediately voided. As Thistle Housing is well aware of the situation and has done nothing to rectify it, you would be held liable.

I now request that you respond specifically to my email regarding the attic situation.

• There are lots of references to the rubble and possibly asbestos situation throughout the blog but more here

What’s being hidden here?

WINDOW CILLS
(bits of bent plastic)

Residents have complained bitterly, for more than two years, that their original concrete window cills had been ripped out to be replaced by bits of plastic fascia board.

Pure quality! Everything stuck with silicone goo. That’ll last.

These are supposed to be OVER cills, as in OVER the original cills but they have been removed resulting in bits of insecure plastic unsealed and merely jammed into the render with nothing beneath them.

Rain pitter patters on these so called cills, sprays back on to the glass and does not run off. Once again, Thistle took direction from its previous contracted junior painter, Paul Nolan, who stated with whatever experience he has as a painter, that the cills were fine.

This is to be the subject of an inspection but thus far, no action and no solution. Of course, Thistle stays silent.

 

What’s being hidden here?

MAJOR WORKS PRICING
A Stradivarius or just a Cheap Fiddle?

Residents have asked, since the start of Thistle’s now well failed Major Works Programme, why the cost of replacement/upgraded parts was approximately twice that quoted and suggested by other experts in the given field.

Total Bill                   Per Close                Per flat
Wall Insulation                £52,400                  £6,550
Roof                           £31,728                  £3,966 
Secure Entry Door System       £ 6,384                  £  798  
Close Painting                 £ 3,048                  £  381
Total                          £93,560                 £11,695

For example, Thistle management have been asked to explain the cost of replacement roofs per close at TWICE the figure suggested by experts.

Extract from a letter dated 22 August 2016 from GCC

Glasgow City Council advised residents in August 2016, by letter, that the insulation to be applied to their homes would be “at no cost to owners“. Thistle have refused to explain why a charge, before grants, of £6,550 per flat has been levied. Additionally, it has been suggested by experts that given the average meterage area covered per flat, that this charge has been somewhat inflated, particularly in the case of houses rather than flats.

As usual, Thistle refuses to provide any sensible explanation or is it, maybe, that the additional cost levied to extract more grant funding and cash from owners is to pay for the upgrades to Thistle’s own properties which don’t attract the same level of funding? Are owners subsidising Thistle’s own costs?

• More info on this from a previous blog entry here

What’s being hidden here?

HOUSING REGULATOR STATUTORY MANAGER
& INDEPENDENT ENGINEER INSPECTION

Residents have been promised by the Regulator that an external firm of engineers would be put in place to examine the workmanship throughout and the raft of increasing faults and shoddy workmanship forced upon Toryglen residents as part of the Major Works Programme, a programme to which no one was invited to comment prior to its commencement, a programme which now, apparently, has been signed off as acceptable by Thistle with no reference to residents and completely ignoring the raft of problems they continue to experience, problems which will get worse with the passage of time.

This refers to a full inspection of all types of work, in addition to that undertaken by A J B Balfour which was only as a result of the faulty chimneys and copes.

The Regulator’s Statutory Manager and the additional statutory Committee members have now been in place for more than seven months and have, thus far, been silent on the questions:

• Where is the promised feedback to residents?
• Where is the promised consultation?
• What happened to the promised meetings to seek residents’ opinions?
• When does this examination take place?
• Where is the report?
• Where are the outcomes?

None of this, absolutely none of this has taken place or if it has, it has been done under a veil of secrecy, which as residents are more than aware, is exactly how Thistle operates. It is understood that there has been some difficulty in retaining a suitable firm of examining engineers as no company wants to be involved in such a failed and tainted project.

The Regulator’s Statutory Manager and the additional statutory Committee members have now been in place for more than seven months.

In a separate but not unconnected circumstance, a resident’s home was recently examined after reporting dampness eighteen months ago. Jings, oak trees grow faster than Thistle’s actions.

It has been reported that the engineer was shocked at the state of the workmanship who noted immediately – and without prompting – that the gutters were wrong, that the rendering was improperly applied, the Rockwool insulation wasn’t sealed and that the window cills were just bits of flimsy plastic fascia board and certainly not window cills. He commented on the paintwork which he confirmed had not received the required preparation and undercoat. All as residents have complained for more than two years.

A report was apparently handed to Thistle who have refused to make comment. Handing a report to Thistle? That’s like giving the murderer the gun back!

• More Scottish Housing Regulator stuff here 

What’s being hidden here?

THISTLE’S DEBT REFINANCING
Thistle’s desperate dash for cash

It is understood that, following the requirement for the Scottish Housing Regulator to take control of Thistle Housing Association Limited on 23 August 2018 (and ongoing), Thistle contravened the terms of its borrowing agreements with its bankers.

As a consequence, Thistle has been attempting to obtain renewed financial agreements but with little success. Bankers know what has happened in Thistle and Toryglen. It may be highly unlikely that they would be willing to provide financing to the tune of almost £9.5 million to a limited company which has been proven to be mismanaged, unless with punitive conditions and interest rates, all of which, every penny, would have to be paid for not by Thistle’s failed management, none of whom stays in Toryglen, or the corrupt committee but by Toryglen residents to the tune of at least an additional £100,000 per annum. It is further understood that the refinancing of Thistle’s debts has proven to be “difficult“. If it works and that’s in doubt, it will be expensive, all due to Thistle management’s gross incompetence backed by their pals in the poodle committee.

Thistle shareholders have asked for information, as shareholders are entitled to do but with there being no functioning Director and a chairperson who resigned, replaced by one who doesn’t seem to communicate, nothing has been forthcoming.

What’s being hidden here?

QUESTIONS ASKED BY RESIDENTS
FOLLOWING THE AGM OF 26 SEPTEMBER 2018

Not a single one has been answered. Nothing has been done to better the lot of Toryglen residents. The only action which seems to have happened is that those responsible for the mismanagement of the association remain in place, coining in their inflated salaries paid for by residents.

Of course, the last item on the AGM’s manipulated agenda was the election of office bearers. Those due to stand down were immediately elected (by themselves) with absolutely no input from attending shareholders. All in all, the election, from start to finish, took little more than fifty seconds with no discussion at all. The chairperson, the director’s pal then immediately closed the AGM ignoring the complaints from shareholders. Democracy? The Kremlin couldn’t do better.

• See more regarding the AGM here
• Download notes 180926_agm_text
• Stream AGM audio and listen to Thistle’s bare faced lies here

OWNERS THREATENED WITH
“FINAL NOTICE”
FROM GLASGOW CITY COUNCIL

Owners, or some of them, are now being threatened with “Final Notices” (which happen to be the first notices) from Glasgow City Council for the alleged outstanding amounts towards the Major Works Programme, again, a programme they were never invited to comment upon in any way.  GCC expects owner residents to fork out for work into which they had no input, is incomplete, is shoddy, is apparently subject to engineering inspection and report and, to cap it all, is dangerous.

20 March 2019

Residents have yet to undergo an unknown period of full scaffold erection to make the chimneys safe and all the dirt and inconvenience that will cause. Indeed, residents in Ardnahoe/Kerrycroy have reported that more scaffolding was erected to the rear of their block last week. More than three years after all this started.

The Leader of the Council, Susan Aitken, a local Toryglen councillor, was, in the past week,  challenged with this action from her council. She is to investigate and make comment. Won’t be holding any breath on that one.

Just bear in mind that owner residents, which in this programme are the majority, are being forced to pay for something many had no vote on, had absolutely no input into, something which was months and frequently YEARS late, shoddily done by the cheapest, bottom dollar imported, untrained workforce, is incomplete, is dangerous (witness the faulty chimneys still incomplete), has no warranty, the so called 25 Guarantee being worthless as it covers only the Rockwool insulation (and that’s doubtful), NOT the render, the roofs, the gutters, etc and only for a maximum of £25,000 per building. A block of flats containing three closes, eight flats per close therefore has a fictitious cover of £781.25 each. Some warranty!!

All of this, by any measure, is wrong. Very, very wrong and rotten to the core.

The Regulator has been in place for eight months now, nothing has changed, more faults are appearing, Thistle stays silent and, from the point of view of residents, no action has been witnessed.

Thistle’s method continues to be secrecy, never open but apparently always something to hide. Thistle will never change. It is tainted and will always remain so. It will always, forever more, be blamed for problems in the future. The management is sullied, the Committee ridiculed and proven to be basely incapable and mounting up huge financial losses, money which should be invested in Toryglen but like the erstwhile Director, has simply vanished without explanation.

The Regulator’s Statutory Manager MUST, as promised, consult with shareholders and residents who have a right to be advised of the circumstances which required the Regulator’s intervention otherwise, there’s no point in regulation.

Additionally, large salaries and positions come with responsibility. If those in management fail, they cannot remain, otherwise irresponsibility is rewarded.

Those responsible are clearly the Association’s Director and her pal, the now ex Chairperson and the self admitted in her usual bullying and inarticulate manner, quote “Ah’m no technical” Operations Manager who always made it known that she was in charge although apparently not so much in charge when it all goes wrong …but still screws in the loot.

What is the Regulator’s, thus far ineffectual, take on that?

Is this merely an exercise to cover up the expensive faults of Thistle and the incapable management and damn the residents?

Or is it more sinister?

Is Thistle heading for the rocks?

 

What’s being hidden here?