The Azure residents are still waiting for release of funds - as former Management Company is reported to Trading Standards

Residents living in The Azure apartments on Plymouth Hoe are still waiting for funds to be released by their former management company, nearly one month after serving notice and ten weeks after solicitors said money should be forthcoming within days.

Cleaning, maintenance and general insurance are all on hold as the standoff with Devon Block Management continues.

As exclusively reported by The Beagle earlier this month, The Azure is now being managed by Atwell Martin, which has so far not been given access to the residents’ £200,000 contingency fund by DBM.

Meanwhile, Devon Block Management is being reported to Trading Standards for implying on its website that it is a member of Client Money Protect - an insurance scheme that protects landlords’ and tenants’ monies held by a letting agent.

Client Money Protect told The Beagle that Devon Block Management was not a member and would be reported. We asked DBM for a comment but received no reply.

The Beagle has learned that back in February, solicitors acting for Devon Block Management wrote a letter stating that DBM had mixed up Azure funds with its general account, while also facing cash flow troubles and issues that impacted its ability to make payments.

The legal letter, dated February 12, claimed:

• a £500,000 facility should be available to DBM within 2 weeks;
• alternate “bridge funding” should be available within 8 weeks;
• and a personal contact of DBM’s managing director may be able to offer a loan “within days.”

We have asked Devon Block Management for an update on these funding solutions, but have not received a reply.

After our article was published on April 11, residents in several other residential blocks in Plymouth have contacted The Beagle with concerns about their relations with Devon Block Management.

One glimmer of good news for The Azure residents: the cladding work on Azure South has been completed and the scaffolding towers removed. However a contract for cladding work on Azure West has not yet been signed.