Buildings looked after for the long term, by a named manager who answers, on a fee that is printed and never a percentage of your service charge.
Well managed places. Stronger communities.
WORKING ACROSS THE COUNTY
I. THE MONEY
The job is to look after a building and the people in it for years, not to process tickets. It comes in four parts, and we report to the board on each.
A budget the board agrees before the year starts, demands in the form the lease and the law require, and every penny in a client account in your building's own name, held on trust.
Four site visits a year, contractors checked and supervised, repairs followed through, and a reserve fund planned so the roof never arrives as a surprise.
Section 20 consultation done properly, the statutory summary of rights with every demand, solicitors' enquiries answered, and the company side kept in order.
A named manager with a direct line, who knows the building and the board, and residents who know who to call.
One Essex household in five lives in a flat, and in Southend more than one in three. Block and estate management across the county: city blocks, seafront conversions and the new garden communities. The problems are the same across Essex. The buildings are not.
City-centre blocks with lifts and plant, and the neighbourhoods of the Garden Community.
Block management in Chelmsford
More houses split into flats than the rest of Essex put together, and the county's highest share of right to manage.
Block management in Southend
Maltings, mills and waterside apartments, and the new estates at Heybridge.
Block management in Maldon
Garrison conversions, riverside blocks at the Hythe and Victorian villas split into flats.
Block management in Colchester
Post-war blocks coming round to roofs and windows, and a generation of new estates.
Block management in Harlow
Beaulieu, Dunton Hills, Gilston: estate charges and companies to run from day one.
Estate management in EssexOne table for every building. No percentage, no insurance commission, no mark-up on contractors.
a year plus VAT. Full management, four visits a year, a named manager.
Everything a managing agent does, with four visits a year and a named manager.
£240 a flat a year ii.For boards who run the building and want the paperwork done properly.
From £895 a year iii.Roads, open space, the estate charge and the company.
£100 a home a yearUnhappy with your managing agent? See what it takes to change →
Your agent stopped answering. Here is how to leave.
The free Essex switching pack: the six steps, the handover checklist, three letters, the first ninety days and how your money must be held. One PDF, yours whoever you appoint.
Send me the pack
Block managers in Essex are appointed by the residents' company, the right to manage company or the freeholder, and the job is the same whoever appoints them. A managing agent runs the building on behalf of whoever holds the obligations under the leases. The work falls into five parts.
A budget for the year, agreed with the board; service charge demands sent in the form the lease and the law require; collections and arrears; a client bank account in the building's own name; year-end accounts prepared for the accountant. The money is held on trust for the leaseholders by statute, which is why it must never sit in the agent's own account.
Site inspections; contractors found, checked, instructed and supervised; repairs; the reserve fund planned so that the roof does not arrive as a surprise; buildings insurance arranged with the board shown the options.
The fire risk assessment and its action list; electrical reports for the common parts; lifts; water hygiene; asbestos; gas where there is any; and, for buildings over 18 metres or seven storeys, the Building Safety Regulator's requirements. Each has a date, a certificate and a next-due date.
Consultation before major works or long-term contracts; the statutory summary of rights with every demand; answering leaseholders' requests for accounts and receipts; solicitors' enquiries when a flat is sold.
Companies House filings, the register of members, the annual general meeting, minutes, and the directors' own duties under company law.
An agent who does all five and tells you about them is doing the job. An agent who does the money and nothing else is a bookkeeper with a bigger invoice.
Most agents will not print a figure until they have seen the building. That is worth noticing. The honest structure is a fixed fee per flat per year, plus VAT, with a minimum for small blocks, and a short list of extras charged only when they happen: a solicitor's pack on a sale, major works administration, an extra visit.
£240 a flat a year in Essex with a £2,400 minimum. Estates of houses £100 a home for the first hundred homes and £40 a home after that, minimum £1,000. Director Desk £895 a year for two to six flats and £110 a flat above that. The only extras: major works administration at 10% to £50,000 of works and 5% above, a solicitor's pack on a sale £300, an additional visit £125, an arrears notice £75, £100 once to take on a new building. All plus VAT.
Boards stay with bad agents for years because switching sounds hard. It is not, if it is done in order. We publish the documents for each step: the handover checklist, the three letters, how client money must be held and the first ninety days.
Your lease, your service charge percentage and your directors do not change. The agent is the only thing that does.
Many blocks, and most built in recent decades, have a residents' management company written into the leases. Every leaseholder is a member; the directors are volunteers. The company holds the obligations and appoints the agent.
Where there is no RMC and the freeholder manages badly, leaseholders can take the management over under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 without proving fault. It needs a company, a notice inviting participation, a claim notice, and at least half the flats taking part. The freeholder keeps the freehold; the RTM company takes the management.
You are a company director with the ordinary duties: act within your powers, promote the company's success, exercise reasonable care, avoid conflicts. Directors' and officers' insurance is inexpensive and worth having. A good agent keeps the company side in order for you.
Unhappy with your managing agent? See what it takes to change →
Any number. The minimum fee is the only floor.
Yes. A good agent checks their insurance and their prices and keeps them.
Yes. Accounts are drawn to the handover date and the year carries on.
It is the building's money, held on trust, and it transfers to the new client account with the rest.
If your leases name a management company, that company appoints. If not, the freeholder does, or the leaseholders can form a right to manage company.
The service charge pays for the building; the estate charge pays for shared roads, lighting, drainage and open space on an estate, and is usually payable by house owners too.
The agent's own procedure first, then its redress scheme, The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme, and the First-tier Tribunal for disputed charges.
Look for a firm that is regulated by RICS, a member of The Property Ombudsman, protects client money through a recognised scheme, and will put its fee in writing before you meet. Essex Block Management in Chelmsford is all four: RICS regulated (firm 932779), TPO member T14991, in the RICS Client Money Protection Scheme, with its fee published.
Most charge a fixed fee per flat per year, commonly £200 to £400 plus VAT, with extras on top. Ours is £240 a flat a year plus VAT, minimum £2,400, with the only extras published.
Essex Block Management is based in Chelmsford and manages blocks of flats and estates across Chelmsford and the rest of Essex, at £240 a flat a year plus VAT.
Ask an assistant to research us, compare our fees and tell you what to ask, before you speak to us:
A written figure for your building, in two minutes.
Get the written figure
Firm 932779
Member T14991