What to Look For in a Block Management Company

Property block management and estate management agents can offer professional guidance and advice about commercial and residential multi-unit and multi-floor properties. Experienced managing agents will be flexible in their terms and can fully manage or assist a person in managing his leasehold or freehold estate.

A block management company will have expertise in all the aspects of managing blocks of flats and apartment buildings and should also be able to demonstrate compliance and qualifications with regulations in this regard.
Some of the areas a person should consider when it comes to the property leasehold or freehold management agents are discussed below.
Employment and management of property staff- This can be staff employed for the maintenance and security of the building, estate and renovation staff, direct staff and subcontractors, or staff employed by the individual leaseholder.
Health and safety is a key consideration in the management of any property. This includes ensuring the estate or apartment block complies with all the required building regulations, as well as all aspects of risk assessments, fire safety and evacuation procedures and regulations. This should also include regular testing of the procedures and all fire safety equipment like emergency lighting, alarms and fire extinguishers.
Another important consideration is the need to perform an asbestos survey and to put in place a formal strategy for the management of asbestos in any structure. Any time work is needed on the structure the asbestos information and report must be made available to the contractors or suppliers so that that any particular safety arrangements can be made.
Security – This includes both infrastructural and staff security measures. Maintenance of phone systems, car parking, electronic gates, and building access controls are all essential elements of any security strategy for a leasehold or freehold property.
Building Maintenance and Repairs – This includes things like gardening, cleaning contracts, window cleaning, outdoor spaces and lighting. Regular maintenance and servicing of lifts, fire equipment, boilers, security equipment and fire escapes is not only necessary but in many cases is normally a legal requirement for the safe operation of the block in compliance with statutory regulations.
Service charge administration – It includes forecast expenditure budgeting, all aspects of customer responses and service, client reporting, management of cash flow and accounts. Arrears collection is a very important aspect where a robust system needs to be adopted in order to recover any unpaid service charge money owed by the leaseholders.
Lease compliance and management must form part of the block management. Problems with noise, nuisance, neighbour disputes and other breached of the lease must be dealt with properly and courteously by the professional block management agent.
If you still want to manage your block, luckily a block management firm can handle all these tasks and more, and no longer do people have to go through a painstaking decision process as to how much the service charge should be, or the contractors to hire as block management firms can help you with all of this.