When you buy a flat, no one every says ‘Is the block well managed?’  And more often than not, it really isn’t.

Over the course of the lease life, bad management of a block/estate can have a major effect on the value of your property and can also turn a desirable living environment into a slum no matter how nice your flat might be inside.

Residential property management for leasehold flats is an absolute minefield and it’s interesting that not one General Election manifesto includes anything about it, or indeed about leasehold reform in general.

The Competition and Markets Authority recently published a paper looking at this whole area and our previous Government did issue two further discussion papers this year as things are getting out of control :

https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/residential-property-management-services

There are so many so called ‘developers’ building blocks of flats due to the huge demand for stock at the moment and we know that this is only going to increase. However, although building regulations cover these developers in terms of the build, once the flats are sold, the management is, for the main part unregulated.

The RICS does have a Service Charge Code of Conduct for Residential Property Management, but there are very few people who are abiding by this.

So whether you are a Buy to Let investor, or an owner occupier of a leasehold flat, come and talk to us about how we can help you to ensure your block doesn’t become a ‘Slum’!