History | Formosa Amenity

The Formosa Amenity

This brief introduction to the Formosa Amenity is based on history of the area from the Paddington Waterways and Maida Vale Society and is used with their kind permission.Residents of Maida Vale have much to gain from belonging to this society whose remit is to interface with Westminster Council and to act as a forum and a lobbying body on behalf of residents in Maida Vale for local issues.

In about 1980, the Church Commissioners decided to sell offparts of the North Paddington Estate which had belonged to the Church of England for over one hundred years. The area they were abandoning was a lovely, unimproved haven of Victorian architecture, with communal gardens to give the residents the feeling of being in the country and having their own private space.

To continue to preserve some of this after they had sold freeholds in the area, the Commissioners drew up complex legal arrangements based on Rent Charge Deeds. The holder of a Rent Charge has property rights over any and every freehold owner of property which is the subject to that Rent Charge. Specific rights and duties are spelt out in a Deed, and this forms a contract between the holder of the Rent Charge, the freeholders of the affected properties and, in this area, between those freeholders themselves.

The Commissioners next set up twelve Companies, drew up twelve Deeds and gave a Rent Charge to each of the appropriate twelve Companies. So who exactly is the Formosa Amenity Company? Well it is a typical Limited Liability Company but its shareholders are, and must be, restricted to the freeholders in the triangle. Every freeholder there has one share in that Company, which is run, as normal, by a Board of Directors elected, of course, by the shareholders (freeholders). It has an AGM and must produce Annual accounts. Like the other amenity companies it is a small, self-governing community.

What are the powers of the Amenity Companies? Each Company varies depending on circumstances e.g. is there a communal garden? Are the houses stucco or brick? The Amenity Companies exist to preserve the features of their areas.

Any proposal to alter the external appearance of a house must have written permission from the Amenity Company.

Houses must be kept in good repair.

Houses must be painted a standard colour every five years.

Freeholders must contribute to running costs of the Amenity Company.

Any change to the external appearance of the houses and additions such as receiving dishes or aerials must have permission from the Company.

These are some of the powers and they are quite independent of the powers of the Local Authority. A householder may have planning permission from Westminster Council, but without written permission of the Amenity Company no alterations may be undertaken.

The Commissioners realised that to work effectively, the amenity companies should cover smallish area, each with some sense of community. Many areas therefore have a focus, such as a communal garden. The 12 areas are:

The square of Howley Place, Warwick Ave, Maida Ave, Park Place Villas, and numbers 22,23 Maida Ave and 1-4 Park Place Villas
The row of 15-24 Blomfield Rd (Randolph Mews has a very truncated form of Deed)
1-8a Randolph Rd, 55-19b odd Clifton, 1-25 odd Randolph Ave, Clarendon Gardens
9a-20 Randolph Rd, 25-33 Blomfield, 20-42 even Warwick Av, 1-19a odd Clifton Gardens
The square of Warwick Ave, Clifton Villas, and 56-34 Blomfield Rd
(Little) Triangle – Randolph Crescent, Randolph Ave, Clifton Gardens
The crescent of Randolph Crescent, Randolph Ave, Warrington Crescent, Clifton Gardens
The row of 32-96 even Randolph Ave
(Big) Triangle – Warrington Crescent, Sutherland Ave, Castellain Rd
The row of 132-188 even Sutherland plus 1 Lauderdale
The row of 115-137 odd Sutherland
The row of 106-130 even Sutherland

The most valuable power the companies have is the right to authorise development. As the Council has similar power, this may seem like duplication. However planning law restricts the Council to specific issues, which can ignore neighbourhood concerns, whereas Amenity Companies can veto a proposal for any reason. The Council, by definition, is more remote than the Boards of Amenity Companies, which see neighbours every day, and live there. A glance at some newer buildings in the area – and across the Harrow Road – show just how fearfully wrong the Council can be sometimes. With Amenity Companies the feelings expressed by the neighbourhood is final. Councils however have a lengthy appeal process to an even remoter Secretary of State. Amenity Companies can have cognisance of the NIMBY Factor (Not-In-My-Back-Yard). Whether this is a good thing is a matter of taste. Finally, the penalties of defying an Amenity Company are immediate and severe, including the possibility of losing one’s freehold completely without recompense.

The Rentcharge Deed, Articles of Association and Memorandum can be downloaded in full below.

Rentcharge Deed & Transfer

Memorandum of Association

Articles of Association