Block Management Witham | Hatfield Peverel, Kelvedon

In short

Essex Block Management manages blocks of flats and estates of houses in Witham and nearby, including Hatfield Peverel, Silver End and Kelvedon, from our office in Chelmsford. Full management is £240 a flat a year plus VAT, minimum £2,400, with a named manager, four site visits a year and the service charge held in a client account in your building's own name. We are regulated by RICS and members of The Property Ombudsman. On Witham's mixed estates of flats and houses, we check every lease's share before the first demand.

Witham sits on the main line to Liverpool Street, which has driven steady demand for apartments near the station and new estates on the edge of town such as Rectory Fields, with shared open space and estate roads.

Between Witham and Braintree, garden-village style developments like those around Silver End add more estates of houses with estate charges and residents' companies.

01The buildings we look after in Witham

Apartments near the station. Commuter blocks on the main line to Liverpool Street, with door entry, bin stores and car parks. The work is contracts that are checked and residents who know who to call.
Rectory Fields and the new estates. Shared open space and estate roads paid for through an estate charge collected by a management company.
Older blocks in the town. Buildings where the reserve fund has been left too low. The work is a plan to rebuild it without shocking the leaseholders.

Witham falls under Braintree District Council, whose planning and building control teams we deal with when repairs need consent.

02A Witham case: who pays for what on a mixed estate

Randall Close is part of a Witham estate of mainly flats, with some coach houses. The owners of one coach house, bought in 2005, paid 1.61% of the cost of the structure and grounds and 1.45% of the management costs, under their lease, but nothing towards the inside of the flat blocks. They challenged years of charges as unfair for things they did not use. CAM/22UC/LIS/2022/0011, 2023

The tribunal had sympathy, but said a fixed percentage in a lease binds everyone and it cannot rewrite it. Before the hearing the landlord dropped a £559.60 external decoration bill and £210 of administration fees, and the tribunal stopped it putting its legal costs through the service charge, because the owners had found accounting errors in how charges were allocated.

On mixed estates of flats and houses, the split between schedules is where errors hide. Before the first demand on any estate we take on, we check every lease's share against the budget, so a coach house is never billed for a block's stairs.

03Flats in Braintree district, in numbers

Witham is in Braintree district, where 8,690 households, 13.4%, lived in a flat at the 2021 census. Census 2021, Office for National Statistics.

04Block and estate management in Witham

We look after blocks of flats and estates of houses across Witham and the villages around it, including Silver End, Hatfield Peverel, Rivenhall, Braintree and Maldon. Every building has a named manager with a direct line, four site visits a year on full management, a client bank account in the building's own name, and every question answered in writing.

Our fees. Full management £240 a flat a year, minimum £2,400. Director Desk £895 a year for two to six flats, then £110 a flat. Estates of houses £100 a home for the first hundred homes and £40 after that, minimum £1,000. All plus VAT, twelve-month rolling agreement, three months' notice. How our fees work.

05Block management, not lettings

Most firms that come up for property management in Witham are letting agents, who look after one landlord's flat and its tenant. Block management is different. We act for the residents' company, the right to manage company or the freeholder that runs the whole building: the shared parts, the service charge and the company itself.

06Changing managing agent in Witham

Boards stay with agents who do not answer because switching sounds hard. It is not, if it is done in order: read the notice clause, get written quotations, resolve it at a board meeting, serve notice, and hand over. How to change managing agent sets out each step. We publish the handover checklist we send an outgoing agent and the three letters a board needs, and the free switching pack puts it all in one PDF.

07Other areas we cover

08Questions

Do you cover Hatfield Peverel and Silver End?

Yes, and the villages between Witham, Braintree and Maldon.

How quickly can you visit a block in Witham?

Within the first month of the handover, and then four times a year on full management.

How much does block management cost in Witham?

£240 a flat a year plus VAT for full management, with a £2,400 minimum. Director Desk, for boards who run the building themselves, is £895 a year for two to six flats and £110 a flat above that. Estates of houses are £100 a home for the first hundred homes and £40 after that, minimum £1,000.

Who manages blocks of flats in Witham?

Essex Block Management is a RICS regulated managing agent based in Chelmsford. Full management is £240 a flat a year plus VAT (minimum £2,400), with a named manager, four site visits a year and the service charge held in a client account in the building's own name. We manage residents' management companies, right to manage companies and freeholders' buildings in Witham.

How do I choose a managing agent in Witham?

Ask four things in writing: the fee per flat and every charge on top of it, whether the firm is regulated by RICS and protects client money, who your named manager will be and how many buildings they run, and how often they visit. A firm that will not put its fee in writing before a meeting is worth questioning.

How do we change managing agent for our block in Witham?

Check the notice clause in your current management agreement, usually one to three months, then serve notice in writing from the company that appointed the agent. The new agent arranges the handover of the money, accounts and records. Our free switching pack has the letters and the handover checklist.

Can the tribunal change my share of the service charge?

Not in a service charge case. At Randall Close in Witham the tribunal said in 2023 that a fixed percentage in a lease binds everyone. Changing it needs agreement or a separate application to vary the leases.

Block management in Witham