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ALL INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE IS SOURCED EXCLUSIVELY FROM PUBLIC DOMAIN RECORDS
- Companies House: All company data, director information, and "persons with significant control" records are official public records from find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
- Official Websites: Information taken directly from Crest Nicholson's official website (crestnicholson.com) and Preim's official website (preim.co.uk)
- Published Press Releases: Award information and development announcements from official company press releases
- News Articles: Information from published news sources including Housing Today, Property Week, and local newspapers
- Public Petitions: Information from change.org and parish council websites
- Parliamentary Records: House of Commons Library briefings and committee reports
This website presents factual information from these verified public sources for consumer awareness and protection purposes. All claims are supported by referenced public domain evidence. No confidential or private information has been used.
Crest Nicholson & Preim: The Partnership Exposed
13 Years of Strategic Collaboration: How Crest Nicholson & Preim Systematically Block Resident Handovers While Marketing the Opposite
🚨 EXPLOSIVE REVELATION: Crest Nicholson & Preim Systematically Block Handovers
Our investigation reveals a 13-year strategic partnership between Crest Nicholson and Preim where Crest Nicholson develops the sites and Preim deliberately blocks every opportunity for genuine handover to residents, maintaining permanent developer control while marketing resident ownership.
- Crest Nicholson Partnership Since 2011: Preim works exclusively for Crest to block resident control
- Systematic Handover Blocking: Preim creates barriers and delays at every opportunity to prevent genuine resident ownership
- Award-Winning Deception: Preim helped Crest win "Best Community Initiative" using this blocking system
- Crest Control Maintained: Crest Nicholson retains "significant control" and director appointment rights across all developments
- Zero Genuine Handovers: Despite 13+ years of promises, Preim has blocked every single handover attempt
- Marketing Fraud: Crest sells "resident ownership" while Preim ensures it never happens
🤝 Crest Nicholson & Preim: 13 Years of Systematic Handover Blocking
🏢 How Crest Nicholson & Preim Block Handovers
🎯 Crest Nicholson's Role
The Developer & Controller
Crest Nicholson develops the sites and retains permanent "significant control" through Companies House filings. They market "resident ownership" to buyers while legally ensuring residents can never gain real control. Crest appoints Preim to systematically block every handover opportunity.
🚫 Preim's Handover Blocking Tactics
Professional Obstruction Service
Preim's job is to create systematic barriers: "infrastructure defects" that take years to resolve, incomplete road adoption processes, administrative delays, legal complexities, and compliance "issues." Every completion milestone is met with new Preim-generated obstacles to prevent handover.
🔗 The Control Mechanism
Award-Winning Deception System
Unit 8 The Forum, Minerva Business Park - headquarters for systematic handover blocking. Preim manages 20+ Crest developments, maintaining corporate secretaryship while Crest retains director appointment rights. This won them a national award for "Best Community Initiative" - celebrating a system designed to block resident control.
💼 Irrefutable Evidence: How Crest & Preim Block Handovers
🏆 Award for Handover Blocking System
Source: Preim Official Website
Preim proudly states: "Preim has been instrumental in helping one of the UK's major house-builders secure a national industry award." This refers to helping Crest Nicholson win "Best Community Initiative" 2015 for Tadpole Garden Village - a development where Preim systematically blocks handovers while marketing resident ownership.
📋 Crest Nicholson Maintains Legal Control
Source: Official Companies House Records
FAIRFIELD GARDENS shows "Crest Nicholson Operations Limited" as having "significant control" with "Right to appoint or remove directors." This legal structure makes handover impossible while Preim maintains the illusion that handover might happen.
🚫 Systematic Handover Blocking Tactics
Source: Public Records & Petitions
Arborfield Green: Village centre "delays" since 2019. Hunts Grove: 3+ years of "infrastructure issues." Every Crest development managed by Preim follows identical patterns of handover obstruction through manufactured delays and compliance barriers.
🏢 Crest-Preim Partnership Structure
Source: Companies House Address Records
20+ Crest Nicholson development companies registered at Preim's Peterborough address. Preim serves as corporate secretary while Crest retains ultimate control. This structure ensures handovers can be blocked indefinitely while maintaining corporate plausible deniability.
💰 Financial Incentive to Block Handovers
Source: Parish Council Financial Records
Preim collects fees as long as handovers are blocked. Example: £24,940 annually from one development, scaling to £163,700 when complete. Multiply across 20+ Crest developments = millions in annual fees that disappear if genuine handovers occur.
📈 Systematic Business Model
Source: Preim & Crest Official Websites
Preim website: "robust, transparent, and proven model." What they don't advertise: it's proven to systematically block handovers. Crest markets "resident ownership" while partnering with Preim to ensure it never happens - an award-winning deception spanning 13 years.
✊ Resident Groups Fighting Back Against Crest & Preim
Residents across multiple Crest-Preim developments are organizing campaigns, petitions, and legal challenges. You're not alone in this fight:
🏘️ Hunts Grove Parish Council Campaign
Status: Active Legal & Political Campaign
Action: Public petition with hundreds of signatures, legal challenge preparation, and coordinated parish council action.
Key Issues: Management company charging £24,940+ annually while providing no services, Preim blocking handover for 3+ years.
Evidence: change.org petition, parish council records, legal fund established.
🏘️ Arborfield Green Residents Coalition
Status: 700+ Signature Petition Campaign
Action: Formal petition to Wokingham Borough Council, coordinated through Cllr Rebecca Margetts.
Key Issues: Village centre promised when 1,000th house built (2019), still not delivered. Residents "lost complete faith" in Crest.
Evidence: change.org petition, council chamber presentations, media coverage.
🏘️ Tadpole Garden Village Residents
Status: Active Monitoring & Organizing
Action: TGVCIC Steering Committee formed, multiple resident complaints about unfinished infrastructure.
Key Issues: Roads unfinished after 5+ years, safety hazards, Crest maintaining control while charging management fees.
Evidence: Resident review platforms, community newsletters, steering committee records.
🏘️ Swindon Green Party Campaign
Status: Political Pressure Campaign
Action: Cllr Bradley Williams leading petition (500+ signatures) demanding completion timelines.
Key Issues: Crest starting new developments while leaving current ones unfinished, safety concerns over incomplete works.
Evidence: Public petition, council pressure, media statements.
🔍 Parish Council Research Network
Status: Information Sharing Coalition
Discovery: "Parish Council is in contact with many other Crest developments around the country where Preim Limited is appointed."
Key Finding: Systematic pattern identified across multiple developments - all facing identical handover blocking tactics.
Evidence: Hunts Grove Parish Council FAQ documents.
📋 Proven Legal Challenges
Status: Successful Legal Precedent Set
Success: Phase 1 homeowners at Hunts Grove successfully challenged Crest's attempt to retroactively include them in management company.
Legal Victory: "Legal challenge by residents resulted in confirmation that planning permission liabilities cannot be altered retroactively."
Evidence: Parish council records, legal precedent established.
💪 Join The Growing Movement
You're part of a growing coalition of residents fighting back against Crest Nicholson and Preim's systematic deception. Multiple parish councils, councillors, and resident groups are coordinating action across the network. The evidence shows legal challenges can succeed - residents have already won against Crest's retroactive management company inclusion attempts.
Connect with these active groups to coordinate legal challenges, share evidence, and build pressure for genuine handovers across all developments.
How Crest Nicholson Profits from the Management Company Scheme
Massive Financial Benefits to Crest
This is a systematic wealth transfer mechanism that converts £40+ million in developer obligations into £0 cost while creating permanent revenue streams.
1. Upfront Cost Avoidance - Section 106 Obligations
- Original 2008 Section 106 agreement: Required Crest to "hand over fully to Stroud District Council to manage and maintain" all open spaces
- Council adoption requires: Large upfront commuted sums (typically £10,000-50,000+ per dwelling for ongoing maintenance)
- 2015 Section 73 variation: Crest claimed development "no longer viable" - avoiding these massive payments
- Council encouraged: Management company alternative to avoid taking on liability themselves
2. Ongoing Liability Transfer
- Eliminates perpetual maintenance obligations that would normally cost Crest millions annually
- Transfers all future costs to residents through service charges
- No cap on charges - residents bear all inflation, repair costs, and improvements
- Example: At Hunts Grove alone, £1.9m developer contribution was supposed to be placed in escrow - "none of the £1.9m has yet been placed in a 'Service Charge client/escrow account'"
3. Construction & Design Cost Savings
- Sub-standard infrastructure: No need to build to council adoption standards (which are higher)
- Cheaper materials: Private roads/utilities don't need to meet highway authority specifications
- Reduced warranties: Council adoption typically requires 25+ year warranties vs. minimal private standards
- Faster construction: Avoids lengthy council technical approval processes
4. Retained Control = Ongoing Profit Opportunities
- "Golden shares" give Crest indefinite control over management company decisions
- Can award contracts to preferred suppliers (potentially connected entities)
- Property sales marketing: Can use "professional management" as selling point while buyers pay the cost
- Land value retention: Keeps ownership of valuable amenity land rather than gifting to council
5. Planning Permission Leverage
- Easier planning approval: Councils prefer management companies (saves them money)
- Higher density approvals: Can promise "premium management" to justify more units
- Faster permissions: Removes council concerns about adoption liability
- Precedent setting: Once established, model replicable across all developments
6. Preim's Guaranteed Profit Stream Benefits Crest
- Captive market: Residents can't change management company
- Preim incentivized to support Crest: Guaranteed £77.95+ per property annually creates loyalty
- Professional legitimacy: Having "independent" management company deflects criticism
- Shared legal costs: Preim helps draft legal documentation to entrench the system
🔢 Quantified Savings Example (Hunts Grove)
What Crest AVOIDS Paying:
- Section 106 commuted sums: £20-40m+ (£10k-20k per dwelling across 2,100 homes)
- Annual maintenance liability: £500k+ per year indefinitely
- Infrastructure adoption standards: £5-10m in enhanced construction costs
- Professional indemnity: Ongoing insurance for adopted assets
What Residents PAY Instead:
- Management fees alone: £163,700 annually when complete (£77.95 × 2,100 units)
- Actual maintenance costs: £200k-400k+ annually
- Total annual resident cost: £350k-550k+ indefinitely
- 20-year resident cost: £7-11 million+
🎯 The Smoking Gun Revealed
For Crest Nicholson:
- Converts £40+ million liability into £0 cost
- Maintains control without responsibility
- Creates competitive advantage (can bid lower on land knowing costs avoided)
- Repeatable business model across all developments
For Residents:
- Trapped in perpetual payments with no control
- Pay more than council tax equivalent for same services
- No consumer protection or tribunal rights
- Property values potentially affected by ongoing charges
This isn't just a business relationship - it's a sophisticated financial engineering scheme that systematically transfers public infrastructure costs from developers to residents while guaranteeing profit streams to preferred contractors.
The "smoking gun" is that this generates tens of millions in savings/profits for Crest while creating permanent revenue streams - making it one of the most lucrative aspects of their business model.
🏘️ Complete Database: All Crest Nicholson - Preim Partnership Companies
Every management company we've identified in the Crest-Preim strategic partnership network. All follow identical control patterns to prevent genuine resident ownership:
🎯 Expose Crest Nicholson & Preim's Handover Blocking System
For 13 years, Crest Nicholson has partnered with Preim to systematically block handovers while marketing resident ownership. This award-winning deception must be exposed: