Henry_17

Singularity

Alan, Ah, so the refusal to pay was not due to the service here being poor, just that under these circumstances your colleague's view is that a service charge is not warranted in any case. That is useful to clarify. Henry

Alan, Why did your colleague refuse to pay the service charge? Henry

randy

Rodney, Couldn't agree more. Henry

dregs

TGBTT, If you have not done so already, you can visit the developer's website, go to the projects tab, filter for UK, and review the considerable amount of information on this specific project under elephant and castle regeneration, which includes a figure for total project value of ?1.5bn. If you are highly motivated on this topic, you may also want to review investor presentations and analyst conference call transcripts (which will be on the investor relations tab) from around and since the time of sale, as these may include further financial details on this specific or other comparable UK projects including costs and returns expected to be incurred/made. At the least this should help you improve the assumptions you have made in your calculations while at best you may find specific disclosure by the company on this project. Henry

Help-ma-moab, This tool may help with the calculations Johnkl and Penguin are describing: http://investingsidekick.com/house-buying-vs-renting/ Henry

rahrahrah, That is a fine list. I would add to it a request that drivers use indicators when cyclists are behind them. Many drivers seem to believe that they do not need to indicate for cyclists as they would for a car. However this demonstrates ignorance of the fact that indicating is actually more important for cyclists not less. Henry

Exjags, As you elude to, the example given is indeed likely to be atypical. Much more likely, in my opinion, for ftbs is a higher average mix of housing equity passed down from parents through either negative saving or gross leverage of housing assets, AND reasonably onerous leverage on both of the couple in question's income. Henry

rahrahrah, Aside from the point miga raises, I found myself disappointed as a DM fan to see his use of the highly questionable rhetorical device involving the children of foreigners. I doubt as a dyed in the wool Observer columnist he really believes that offspring of foreign plutocrats benefitting from a given posited subsidy is any more objectionable than those of domestic plutocrats doing so. Henry

Can anyone tell me what the black foam applied to the four smaller vents is? it seems to have been applied to only the smaller ones but not the larger one, and also must significantly restrict airflow through them. Henry

Nimbys, The platitudes - hilarious if done on purpose, please get over the self-attribution bias if otherwise. Henry

London Mix, If that is also the case for the other two private school beneficiaries then I view that as significantly reducing the moral case against the foundation, since as implied by others there is a large difference between the provision of funds for general purposes, which would naturally benefit more relatively well off children than relatively disadvantaged children, and providing funds specifically for bursaries which should benefit relatively disadvantaged children only, provided the means testing process is robust. What surprised me on reviewing the annual report of the estate was the lack of disclosure on how funds were deployed once in the hands of the beneficiaries. While I admit to not having reviewed the entire document, I did look at the majority of the relevant statements and the only enlightening points revealed on this were that trustees meet occasionally with the beneficiaries and received presentations on the spend, but with no further details passed on to the reader. As a comparison the report of the foundation for my school provides significant detail in this area. It is good that you were able to find this information elsewhere. DadOf4, While I can understand views on the estate's policies on usage of sports grounds as being incongruent with a common sense understanding on charity, it appears based on DaveR's posts that the law is restrictive here in terms of maintaining charitable status. I can imagine a theoretical justification for this provision being that it is better to focus on ensuring a charity's purpose is fit, and then require it to maximise revenues through its assets so as to donate to that purpose, rather than muddy objectives by allowing potentially revenue limiting activities such as provision of its real estate at below market rates. I agree though that in practice in this case the result of this provision has led to a perverse outcome. Henry

TDR, Excellent style. Henry

in order for the level of tax per individual to justify the related admin costs I would imagine that level would seem disproportionate vs. the cost of a bike compared to the same ratio for a motor vehicle, or disproportionate vs. the roadbuilding and maintenance costs imposed by bikes vs. the same ratio for a motor vehicle.

fss