One of the most common requests that
we hear from our site visitors, is a cry for help on how to handle problems
that customers and leaseholders are having with Equity Asset Management and
its associated companies. This page summarises some useful information for people
having problems with this organisation.
Who are these companies?
Equity Asset Management has also been
known as Regis Group, Regis Direct, Regisport, MAS and Hull and Co. Until January
2005, Equity was owned by Mount Street Holdings (MSH plc),
and this parent company has recently acquired CPM in Hertfordshire. Francis
Maintenance, AIS and Pier Management have also been associated with these companies
in some way. The site Cash4GroundRents.com appears to be owned / operated by Regis.
Not happy with your bills, the way that
MSH, CPM or Johnson Cooper are maintaining your property, or you have another
customer service problem that you can’t get resolved? Here are some suggestions:
Complaining to MSH
/ CPM:
In
the first instance, complaints should be addressed to the Managing Director
of the company you deal with. You can find company details the following places:
If you get no joy, why
not take it higher? Mount Street Holdings’ Chief Executive Officer, Mr Andrew
J Zahn resigned as a director in November 2004 (as reported on the BBC
Watchdog expose of MSH and Equity), but we understand he still acts as a consultant
– for details of managers to contact with your complaints, see the MSH
contact page. Note that Mount Street Holdings ‘disposed of’ Equity to Johnson
Cooper Ltd, so previous customers of Equity Asset Management should now
contact them.
Contacting the media:
BBC’s
Watchdog featured Equity Asset Management in December 2003 and November 2004
– see their report on the BBC Watchdog
site. It’s well worth keeping Watchdog informed of problems you’re having
with Mount Street Holdings, as they could be persuaded to run yet another
follow-up on these companies. Watchdog are particularly interested in hearing
stories that make good telly – issues around poor property maintenance and
threatening letters were uncovered. Incidentally, the ‘new managing Director
of Equity Management, Peter Butler’ referred to in 2003 resigned six months
after the piece was aired, and at the end of the 2004 show, the BBC reported
that Andy Zahn, CEO of parent company MSH, has resigned as a director.
Contact Watchdog: To contact Watchdog, fill in
the short form that you’ll find here
- Also, if you
have a strong case, consider contacting local or national press – You’ll find
contact details at www.mediauk.com.
See a recent story on Equity from the Essex
Evening Echo
Complaining online:
Try making your
voice heard at one of the following:
- Blagger.com
– leave complaints and comments about companies you have used - Grumbletext
– Send a complaint by text message - Howtocomplain.co.uk
– Log your complaint online, MSH are already featured - Add a review
to Regis Group’s entry
in TouchSouthend
Your Local
MP
One of our team
contacted his local MP (in Southend-on-Sea), and received a very sympathetic
response, highlighting that his was not the first complaint that had been received
from local residents.
- Contact your
local MP by fax for free: www.writetothem.com
Discussion
forum:
For help and
advice, discuss these property firms in an online forum.
Some years ago, a basic page was created
to allow customers to comment on issues affecting them. The archive of this
can be found here. Equity started its own forum,
but this was heavily censored, and finally abandoned by Equity. ConsumerDeals
ran a busy forum on this site for around a year. Mount Street’s Chief Executive
Andy Zahn used to be a regular contributor to our forum, but in July 2004, this
suddenly changed, and he instructed a firm of London solicitors to take action
to have the forum removed. Mr Zahn and MSH have
not been in contact with us to explain their sudden change-of-heart. The letter
from Andy Zahn’s solicitors highlighted of prime concern, a thread in the forum
about a fraud investigation into an Andrew J. Zahn in the US, found via a Google
search, and although MSH has not confirmed this, we have it on good authority
that discussion of this topic may have played a part in Mr Zahn’s decision to
force our forum to close. We started a petition
to reinstate the forum, and MSH then took action against the firm hosting our
online
petition.
A replacement forum,
no longer part of our website, can be found at the following external link:
equityforum.freepgs.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl
Trade organisations:
Many UK property management firms are a member of one or more trade organisations. These can be useful when making a complaint about your managing agent. We’ve found it difficult to identify an organisation that Equity, CPM or MSH are members of – if anyone knows of one, please contact us.. Here’s what we know so far:
- Association of Residential Managing Agents – Membership terminated in early 2003
- Association of Residential Letting Agents – It seems that Regis Group are a member
- National Approved Letting Scheme – It seems that Regis Group are a member. Contact NALS here
- National Association of Estate Agents – Not a member
Taking
it further:
Other options available to you, are:
- Contact your local Citizens’
Advice Bureau office for advice - Submit a complaint to your local Trading
Standards online for free - Go to court. The Small Claims Court can be used to resolve a dispute with
a property management company. For information on this and how to get free
legal advice, see the Community
Legal Service Direct website.
Sack
them:
The best way to
show your dissatisfaction with a company, is to stop dealing with them. First
off, get hold of a copy of your lease, and then talk to other leaseholders to
see if they feel the same – if they do, you can get the ball rolling to change
your managing agents.
Other ideas:
Talking to others
in the same boat is a great way to get ideas and ask for help – Consider joining
the Equity mailing list , signing
our petition,
and visiting the independent Equity
Forum (external link). If you have any
other suggestions, let us know.
Associated
pages:
| The companies |
More |
|
More
on Equity Asset Management |
|
|
More
on Mount Street Holdings plc |
|
|
More
on Pier Management |
|
|
More
on Regisport |
|
| Help and advice |
Contact
BBC Watchdog (Equity featured Dec 2003 and Nov 2004) |
| Information |
Information
on the various Names and aliases |
|
Our
attempt at explaining all… Equity Explained |
by, MSH, Regis / Equity / MAS / Pier Management, Johnson Cooper or associated
companies. Consumerdeals cannot be held responsible for any comments posted
to this site. Some links on this page redirect to external sites – we have no
control over content on such sites. Please refer to our disclaimer
for information on site content and removal of inaccurate or inappropriate content.
