Turn of the month celebration

I am in celebration mode at the end of this month, as we move into June, as I’ve just taken on our 15th block, which is in Gloucestershire!

It as a block of four flats, and came from a referral, for which we are always grateful. Currently, there are major refurbishment works taking place.

When taking over from other agents, I have to get a lot of information, which isn’t always forthcoming. This can be worse too, if works are already in progress.To ensure that everything runs smoothly in taking on the new property, I have to:

• get to know homeowners; this is important, because my team and I will be coming into contact with them regularly in the future, so we need to get off to a good start, and start to build good relationships.
• get to know which contractors are working on the project and check their progress; is the work being done satisfactorily, or are there things that have been missed due to the changeover of management.
• deal with any issues including the money needed from the homeowners to get the work done.
  If any don’t want to pay, we have to seek legal redress.

There are a whole number of details that need to be sorted in this type of scenario. I talked in more detail about this in my blog in April, “First steps when taking on a new block”.

From a relatively small block of four flats, at the other end of scale, our biggest client comprises of 84 flats over four blocks. Also, situated in Gloucestershire, this is a property I have had on my books almost from the beginning of my business. We’ve just finished major roof works and are now discussing internal decoration of three of the four blocks.

Residents want to change very dark coloured walls for a more modern look, while maintaining heritage features. One block for example, has a beautiful original Victorian tiled floor in the hallway which is stunning and would be a shame to lose.

Our overall responsibility as a property management company is to manage the process of overseeing ongoing care to the communal areas of residential properties through the service charge. As you can imagine, managing a block of flats requires a professional, organised approach, which takes time and dedication. Can you imagine how disorganised things would be if you had 84 flats without a management company taking care of the processes?

As I mentioned earlier, this often involves ongoing communications with a variety of contractors who deal with maintenance or repairs to ensure the trouble-free running of the property.

Smooth running of the property among other things, can entail:

• Collection of service charges and ground rent
  
• Organising cleaning of communal areas
  
• Ground maintenance
  
• Window cleaning – as per the terms of lease
  
• Building work
  
• Financial bookkeeping
  
• AGM& Directors meetings
  
• Budgets and forecasting
  
• Placing of block insurance under the company block policy, with transparent commission rates.