Dalton House Investments
Annual Report - 2009
2009 began with a two week holiday in Lanzarote so at least we had a good start. Whilst there things continued to deteriorate in the U.K. and the first news to come through was that Marks & Spencer were cutting back after a disappointing run up to Christmas. Whilst on holiday I received a text:
'Lovingly wrapped in a nice creamy white envelope with gorgeously detailed fine gold writing and a first class stamp. This isn't just any P.45 it's a Marks & Spencer P.45.'
And then things went downhill.
On 19th. January the share price of my principal client - a major Bank - fell by 58% in one day and it was fairly obvious that things were not too clever. However as usual it's a case of swings and roundabouts and the share price rose significantly as the stock market improved through the year.
Unsurprisingly the year got busier and busier and most of it was enjoyable.
In March I received my free bus pass from the local authority which is great. A couple of months later I was dealing with a rent review on a small pub in Stonegate, York and called at the local brewery for a meeting with the tenant, the M.D. of a Lancashire based pub chain. As we exchanged pleasantries before the meeting he asked where I was parked as it is quite difficult in the centre of York. I told him I had left the car at Designer Centre on the A.19 south of the city. He asked if I'd come there by taxi so I said, 'No on the bus with my free bus pass' - His face was a picture.
Collecting rent became progressively more difficult. It took six weeks to get rent out of HSBC after a pan European hassle procedure with their agent's accounts payable section recently transferred to Warsaw. When I explained to the man in Warsaw that some of my best tenants were Polish I started to get somewhere. The next quarter though they paid twice!
In July a car dealer in Dartford apologised for his late rent payment as he said he had caught swine flu - well at least the excuse was topical. Also in July while chasing a company finance director in Manchester for the umpteenth time for his overdue office rent in Oxford I was advised by his P.A. that 'he was out golfing' - I just said tell him to pay his b----- rent before he goes out playing golf' - I knew I should have not been rude but a cheque for about £8,500 arrived the following day. I thought I must remember that approach.
As highlights go this was a biggy:
A single Detached House in not the best part of West Yorkshire with everything - the pool, the gym - the lot - in all about 6,500 sq.ft.
At first I thought it was just a case of mortgage fraud, then there was the 500k fraudulent insurance claim which was topped off by the unconventional termination of the tenant's occupation - no not a Section 21 Notice - but his removal after he was stopped by police on the M.62 driving the borrower's Bentley. Not much wrong with that you may think but the £760,000 worth of cocaine in the boot raised a few eyebrows. It seemed every call at this property was accompanied by two high speed police cars and included the threatened arrest of my son who was undertaking the remedial work there. He had to explain to the police he was in fact putting things in the house and not taking them out - Oh the joys of working as an L.P.A. Receiver!
A lot of travelling this year by both car and train. The longest journey was a job with properties in Barton on Humber, Wem (Shropshire) and Hailsham (East Sussex) via calls in Long Eaton, Oxford, Chichester and Hornchurch - 740 miles but now I do have the sense to take three days doing it.
The most difficult re-possession was in Essex after two Court hearings - the tenant even secured an adjournment after his mobile phone went off in Court - the look on the judge's face made me think the tenant would be deported to Australia but no such luck. At the repossession we ended up with the bailiff, the bailiff manager and three police officers - got possession, changed the locks and of course he subsequently broke back in - all grist to the mill. After the third Court hearing to obtain the Restitution Order it went a lot easier - perhaps it was because in addition to the occupiers the substantial amount of furniture was removed, carpets lifted, water and gas disconnected etc. and then to top it all the tenant managed against all the odds to complete a purchase within 28 days.
In August we had squatters break in to a large derelict nightclub on a job in the least salubrious part of Southampton. The police attended and the squatters left. However the builders who secured the property charged a fortune as they had to use a team of four. The men refused to work alone at the building and two builders stood guard in the ground floor entrance as two others worked on the first floor. What they needed to keep the costs down was a white haired, 60 year old bloke - but I haven't got 'No Fear' tattooed on my forehead just yet.
There were some conventional jobs as well as L.P.A. work and quite a lot of deals completed - not worth bragging about but still they were deals.
The year's worst photograph comes from a quality job in a flat above a bank. The electric supply had been disconnected to a Saniflow system with dire consequences.
The best photograph of the year was taken in Whitehall having
got back into London following an investment valuation in Surrey and with a few hours to kill I was on my way from Tate Britain to St. Martins in the Field when the light was just right for a late afternoon autumnal shot.
In particular this year I must thank my son, Graham, for his sterling efforts all round the country from Dagenham to Gomersal and Swaffham to Stow on the Wold he has helped me out on a substantial amount of work tidying up and refurbishing properties to good effect.
Whilst I love my work I have felt on occasions this year that you can perhaps have too much of a good thing particularly when we seem to go into 24/7 mode for a few weeks at a time. To counter that Kath and I bought a static caravan near Snettisham Beach on the Wash in Norfolk. Parts of the location there may be a bit tatty but I call it my 'Shangrila' - it is a lovely spot with long walks, wild exposed seashore, an RSPB nature reserve and only 80 miles away. If I'm difficult to get hold of at times next summer that's where I will be found. It has the added advantage of being only 30 miles from a Shopping Centre I manage in Swaffham where the tenants wonder why the Managing Agent keeps popping in. It keeps all the rents up to date and we even managed to let a lot of the vacant units - one of the few genuine successes in an otherwise difficult year.
I hope 2009 has not been too challenging for you and take this
opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and a very enjoyable New Year. I hope that you like the Christmas photograph (not one of mine).
I saw this lovely photograph at the Natural History Museum in
London in mid November. I had a couple of hours between calls and popped in to The Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition. It was amazing - I felt like throwing my camera away!
|
Dalton House Investments |
Annual Report - 2009
|
2009 began with a two week holiday in Lanzarote so at least we had a good start. Whilst there things continued to deteriorate in the U.K. and the first news to come through was that Marks & Spencer were cutting back after a disappointing run up to Christmas. Whilst on holiday I received a text:
'Lovingly wrapped in a nice creamy white envelope with gorgeously detailed fine gold writing and a first class stamp. This isn't just any P.45 it's a Marks & Spencer P.45.'
And then things went downhill.
On 19th. January the share price of my principal client - a major Bank - fell by 58% in one day and it was fairly obvious that things were not too clever. However as usual it's a case of swings and roundabouts and the share price rose significantly as the stock market improved through the year.
Unsurprisingly the year got busier and busier and most of it was enjoyable.
In March I received my free bus pass from the local authority which is great. A couple of months later I was dealing with a rent review on a small pub in Stonegate, York and called at the local brewery for a meeting with the tenant, the M.D. of a Lancashire based pub chain. As we exchanged pleasantries before the meeting he asked where I was parked as it is quite difficult in the centre of York. I told him I had left the car at Designer Centre on the A.19 south of the city. He asked if I'd come there by taxi so I said, 'No on the bus with my free bus pass' - His face was a picture.
Collecting rent became progressively more difficult. It took six weeks to get rent out of HSBC after a pan European hassle procedure with their agent's accounts payable section recently transferred to Warsaw. When I explained to the man in Warsaw that some of my best tenants were Polish I started to get somewhere. The next quarter though they paid twice!
In July a car dealer in Dartford apologised for his late rent payment as he said he had caught swine flu - well at least the excuse was topical. Also in July while chasing a company finance director in Manchester for the umpteenth time for his overdue office rent in Oxford I was advised by his P.A. that 'he was out golfing' - I just said tell him to pay his b----- rent before he goes out playing golf' - I knew I should have not been rude but a cheque for about £8,500 arrived the following day. I thought I must remember that approach.
As highlights go this was a biggy:
A single Detached House in not the best part of West Yorkshire with everything - the pool, the gym - the lot - in all about 6,500 sq.ft.
At first I thought it was just a case of mortgage fraud, then there was the 500k fraudulent insurance claim which was topped off by the unconventional termination of the tenant's occupation - no not a Section 21 Notice - but his removal after he was stopped by police on the M.62 driving the borrower's Bentley. Not much wrong with that you may think but the £760,000 worth of cocaine in the boot raised a few eyebrows. It seemed every call at this property was accompanied by two high speed police cars and included the threatened arrest of my son who was undertaking the remedial work there. He had to explain to the police he was in fact putting things in the house and not taking them out - Oh the joys of working as an L.P.A. Receiver!
A lot of travelling this year by both car and train. The longest journey was a job with properties in Barton on Humber, Wem (Shropshire) and Hailsham (East Sussex) via calls in Long Eaton, Oxford, Chichester and Hornchurch - 740 miles but now I do have the sense to take three days doing it.
The most difficult re-possession was in Essex after two Court hearings - the tenant even secured an adjournment after his mobile phone went off in Court - the look on the judge's face made me think the tenant would be deported to Australia but no such luck. At the repossession we ended up with the bailiff, the bailiff manager and three police officers - got possession, changed the locks and of course he subsequently broke back in - all grist to the mill. After the third Court hearing to obtain the Restitution Order it went a lot easier - perhaps it was because in addition to the occupiers the substantial amount of furniture was removed, carpets lifted, water and gas disconnected etc. and then to top it all the tenant managed against all the odds to complete a purchase within 28 days.
In August we had squatters break in to a large derelict nightclub on a job in the least salubrious part of Southampton. The police attended and the squatters left. However the builders who secured the property charged a fortune as they had to use a team of four. The men refused to work alone at the building and two builders stood guard in the ground floor entrance as two others worked on the first floor. What they needed to keep the costs down was a white haired, 60 year old bloke - but I haven't got 'No Fear' tattooed on my forehead just yet.
There were some conventional jobs as well as L.P.A. work and quite a lot of deals completed - not worth bragging about but still they were deals.
The year's worst photograph comes from a quality job in a flat above a bank. The electric supply had been disconnected to a Saniflow system with dire consequences.
The best photograph of the year was taken in Whitehall having got back into London following an investment valuation in Surrey and with a few hours to kill I was on my way from Tate Britain to St. Martins in the Field when the light was just right for a late afternoon autumnal shot.
In particular this year I must thank my son, Graham, for his sterling efforts all round the country from Dagenham to Gomersal and Swaffham to Stow on the Wold he has helped me out on a substantial amount of work tidying up and refurbishing properties to good effect.
Whilst I love my work I have felt on occasions this year that you can perhaps have too much of a good thing particularly when we seem to go into 24/7 mode for a few weeks at a time. To counter that Kath and I bought a static caravan near Snettisham Beach on the Wash in Norfolk. Parts of the location there may be a bit tatty but I call it my 'Shangrila' - it is a lovely spot with long walks, wild exposed seashore, an RSPB nature reserve and only 80 miles away. If I'm difficult to get hold of at times next summer that's where I will be found. It has the added advantage of being only 30 miles from a Shopping Centre I manage in Swaffham where the tenants wonder why the Managing Agent keeps popping in. It keeps all the rents up to date and we even managed to let a lot of the vacant units - one of the few genuine successes in an otherwise difficult year.
I hope 2009 has not been too challenging for you and take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and a very enjoyable New Year. I hope that you like the Christmas photograph (not one of mine).
I saw this lovely photograph at the Natural History Museum in London in mid November. I had a couple of hours between calls and popped in to The Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition. It was amazing - I felt like throwing my camera away!