Green houses at Romana!
All posts by Warren Clark
Servants in the Age.
A great article highlighting our work in the Age! the article
Manse In Camberwell?
Last weekend Matt and I looked over a disused manse at Camberwell junction. Its needing some TLC in a great spot with lots of land. It has enough accommodation for about 6 residents and a live in housekeeper. Not quite what we are used to … but we expect to bring some kind of report on the place to our June meeting. The fact that we found out about this at all is a testament to our close relationship with Boroondara council who recommended us to St John’s church.
screens and routers
its easy to miss the many acts of generosity that keep us going. Nice to see the donation of unwanted 19″ screens for Carrical from Josh Lyon. And the installation of high end, commercial grade internet routers by Linton. Technology for tenant’s use is a key part of our high grade facilities, its really nice when we get that and even better get it set up for nothing.
Meeting with Matrix managing director
Matrix on board were contracted to help manage our financial operations mid last year. To date they have not met expectations and David served notice on them a few weeks ago.
This week I met with the founding managing director, Morri Young, to share our observations with him. It was a friendly, but frank and fierce, conversation over a couple of hours. Morri now understands our business better than anyone at Matrix. And he was very apologetic about how they had serviced us.
It’s now David’s call whether Matrix has a place working with Servants, but I am glad we have worked it through with them in relationship and honesty and self reflection.
Warren.
Rotarians at Romana
Here is the newsletter that Rotary have published about their volunteering at Romana!
Confidentiality Deed
After lengthy negotiations and work with our lawyers, Matt and I signed a confidentiality deed with Boroondara council on Friday. The deed was revised to address our concerns after the last meeting. The next stage will be confidential but will not result in any commitments by Servants Community Housing.
We are looking forward to what comes next.
SCH rules update approved
At yesterdays special meeting the members approved the revised rules. The simpler, clearer process really highlighted how much easier life is under the revised rules.
Finance and Risk subcommittee meetings
Monday night the finance and risk subcommittees met. They were both great meetings.
More on the council and confidentiality
We (Matt and I) met with council earlier this week to discuss their confidentiality agreement.
It was “feisty”- although it ended on a positive note and it was good that everybody wanted to see the growth of Servants to happen
Obviously we cannot share details of the agreement (otherwise it would be self defeating) but we have been very happy with our lawyers in the way they have dealt with this. We are dealing with the property team at Moores for the first time and they have been great. They suggested changes that needed to be incorporated and council’s lawyers have responded to these.
Update on NDA #2
I have engaged Moores now and they will send someone from their property department to the meeting on Monday with council.
The council’s lawyers baulked at supplying the NDA because they suggested it contained “confidential material”
After a bit of pressure council agreed to release a redacted version for our lawyers review.
phew.
Warren.
Update on the NDA with council
I have asked Council for copies of the NDA for our lawyers to review. Council have agreed and are organising this now.
I have also updated the Housing Registrar regarding the NDA – their response is below:
Warren.
Hi Warren
We have not had a situation where an
agency has signed a non-disclosure agreement with regard to a housing project.That said, we note that your legal advisors
will be reviewing the non-disclosure agreement. While reviewing this
document, Servants and their legal advisors must keep in mind your
obligations under the Housing Act 1983 particularly in your
obligation to meet Performance Standards.Servants will be subject as usual to
regulatory engagement which requires full disclosure of contractual and
financial documentation regarding all housing projects and regular progress
reports ofn such projects.We also draw your attention to the Housing
Registrar’s confidentiality policy which can be found on our websiteConfidentiality
fact sheet (PDF Size 161kb) and
which provides a general overview of the management and handling of information
by the Housing Registrar under the Housing Act 1983..
You should also note that if the Registrar
has any concerns he is an inspector and can commence an investigation under
the Housing Act 1983.Do feel free to contact me again if
you require any further assistance.Regards
Christine Witton
Project Officer
We have received our Annual Review from the Registrar
Minutes of the October 2013 committee meeting
2014 Annual Agenda
Here is the annual agenda for the committee. 2014 Annual Agenda_Final
Registrar has agreed to our new rules
Yesterday we received a letter saying our revised rules are now in line with the registrar’s requirements.
Servants Community Housing rules (after the lawyers)
Its not often you get a discount offered from a lawyer on already agreed work. Elizabeth from Moores did that last week when she provided our revised rules to adjust for the Housing Registrar and our tax status as a PBI.
Here they are:
Servants Community Housing rules (draft) – marked up9 12 13
I have written to the Registrar to get their approval to proceed to adopt these.
Rotary Development project update
Matt and I met with Peter and Alan this morning. Peter gave us an update on the council meeting. The majority of councilors present in the closed door meeting were in favor of the project, even without the champions, mayor Jack Wegmann and Philip ???? being present.
The meeting was rumored to be looking at 4 possible properties with 2 to be selected as proposed for further analysis.
They are now looking to sign a non disclosure agreement with Rotary and us so we can proceed. Things are starting to look serious from the council’s point of view.
Boroondara Council meeting 9th Dec 2013
Council are meeting behind closed doors to discuss 4 possible sites for a purpose built facility for Servants. They are looking to agree on two sites that could be purchased by a rotary/servants partnership.Makes it all seem very real
One councilor queried council officers about our performance at the second year of Canterbury. Matt was able to explain, cite our independent review and follow up with the housing registrar. This was all positively received by the council officer and subsequently the councilor.
CHFOV update on the Standard Lease 6th Dec 2013
CHFOV held a workshop on Friday with speakers from various groups that have adopted the general lease.
All of them have adopted the lease and believe they are better off on it. They also talked about the problem and opportunity areas:
- the elephant in the room – UNFUNDED PROPERTY LIABILITIES.
- Insurance for the property – the department currently “self-insures”.
- Grey areas about total loss and the definition of uninhabitable.
- Less regulatory reporting – e.g. CCB reporting disappears, some reporting move to 6 monthly as well.
- Maintenance backlog when we take it on.
- structural assessments needed.
We will need to convince the regulator that we can complete the required asset management. This is not trivial.