The Directors' Library is a free set of plain-English guides for people who run blocks of flats and estates in Essex: changing managing agent, right to manage, residents' management companies, service charges, section 20 major works and fees, plus seven free packs made for your own building. It is written by Essex Block Management, a RICS regulated managing agent in Chelmsford.
Everything a board needs to run a block of flats or an estate of houses in Essex, written plainly and free to use whoever manages your building. Start with the question in front of you.
01Free packs, made for your building
Answer a few questions and we email you a PDF written for your building, with the dates worked out and the letters drafted. Free, and yours whoever manages you.
- The switching packFor boards changing agent: the notice, the handover and the letters in one PDF.
- The right to manage packFor leaseholders: whether your building qualifies, the steps and the notices, filled in.
- The section 20 packFor major works: the £250 test, a dated timetable and the three notices drafted.
- The new director packFor new directors: a dated first thirty days and ten questions to put in writing.
- The service charge packFor leaseholders: your rights, the deadlines and two request letters drafted.
- The freeholder packFor freeholders: a scorecard for your agent and a letter asking for the documents.
- The draft estate budgetFor developers: a two page estate charge budget from the homes and open space on your site.
02Changing managing agent
- How to change managing agentThe notice, the handover and the timetable, in six steps.
- Three letters for changing agentNotice to the outgoing agent, the handover request and the letter to residents.
- The handover checklistEvery document, balance and contract the outgoing agent must pass over.
- The first ninety daysWhat a new agent should do, and when, after taking a building on.
- The switching packAll of it in one free PDF, yours whoever you appoint.
03Running the company
- What is block management?What a managing agent does, who appoints them and what it should cost.
- Residents' management companiesWhat an RMC is, what its directors must do, and what they can hand to an agent.
- Right to manageHow leaseholders take over management from the landlord, and what follows.
- Section 20 major worksThe consultation the law requires before major works or long contracts.
- Service charge disputesLeaseholders' rights, the documents to ask for and where disputes go.
04Money and fees
- Block management feesWhat an agent should cost in Essex, and how our printed fee works.
- New-build estate feesWhat an estate charge pays for, and what is reasonable.
- How service charge money must be heldMoney held on trust, in an account in the building's own name.
05Estates of houses
06Block management near you
- Block management Chelmsford
- Block management Southend-on-Sea
- Block management Colchester
- Block management Basildon
- Block management Brentwood
- Block management Harlow
- Block management Braintree
- Block management Billericay
- Block management Maldon
- Block management Witham
Questions
Where can RMC and RTM directors get free guidance?
Our Directors' Library covers the questions boards ask most, and each free pack is made for your building: the switching pack, the right to manage pack, the section 20 pack, the new director pack and more. LEASE, the government-funded Leasehold Advisory Service, also gives free general advice.