Who decides which property management company our block uses???

Question

Hi all,

I just wanted to find out who decides which property management company manages our block.

As far as I know everyone else in our block (like myself) all have a share of the freehold. Does this help?

Where do I start to try get a new management company?

Not particularly thrilled with the current company....

Answer 1

This question covers two things.

1)  Most flats, and new estates have a specific company set up to manage the common parts.  These are often companies such as "The Cricket Lawns Estate (Birmingham) Limited"

You say that you own a share of the freehold, so chances are you also have 1 share in this company, along with all the other tenants.  (maybe the company even owns the freehold.

Management Companies such as these are set up by the builder and you cannot do anything about it.  

2)   However a lot of tenant's management companies then have a Managing Agent who collects the service charge, and arranges the work needed.  Someone like Peverel, Countrywide, MITIE or something.

If you only have the Management Company in 1)    then if they;re not doing a good job this is probably down to the one tenant who has taken on all the responsibilty - secretary of the company.

in which case at the next comapny AGM (or sooner if you call a meeting) you could elect a new secretary.

if you have an agent as well like in 2)   then they have a duty to you to manage the estate reasonably and properly.  you tenants as shareholders in your management company can probably choose another agent, or do the work yourselves; check the terms of your lease carefully.

P.S. if you do have an agent 2)  then i sympathise.  most of them are not worth the money you are paying them for their professional services.

Answer 2

If everyone in the block has a share of the freehold, then it's likely that you have a "body corporate" to manage the affairs.  You might not call it this, but it's basically a committee of tenants who are responsible for the common parts and so on.

You should have some information somewhere to tell you specifically which tenants are involved with this.  If not, you'll have to just ask your neighbours - try the one who's lived there the longest!  If you have a doorman or porter he'll probably know.

So you'd need to get the committee to agree to switching.  Remember though, that it may not be as simple as just agreeing that the current one are doing a rubbish job.  They may have signed a long-ish contract with the current one, and there may be financial penalties for leaving earlier.  It may also be that the current one is cheap, and if you wanted to use a different one this might require people paying a bit more and then you'd probably have to get every single person in the building to agree to it.  But, if you're really not happy, it's definitely worth at least looking into it.