What happens when the Fraser Allen team take on a new block

We are looking forward to taking on a new block in St George, Bristol – therefore we thought you might be interested in the first steps we take as responsible and efficient block managers and property managers.

There are 16 units in this block, which are all flats. How are they onboarded and how do we engage with residents around their homes?

Change over from previous agents.

The changeover can be a little time-consuming. This can be quite fraught as outgoing agents, not surprisingly, don’t always want to be helpful. This means we have to run around picking up paperwork etc and trying to gain the information we need in a timely and non-confrontational manner.

However, that isn’t true of all changeovers, and some previous managers have sent information over via WeTransfer, which is always helpful.

Those of you who have moved house recently will know how much information you have to give to your buyer’s solicitors, and vice versa.

With a block of flats, there is a huge amount of information we need to know and things we need to collect before taking over.

And managing a block is, ultimately, taking on a responsibility for all of the tenants in the block too. We have to ensure the handover is professional, competent and efficient, without any interruption or inconvenience to residents. We want them to feel confident with us from day one.

To this end, we send a check list to the outgoing agent to gather as much information as we can. Below is some of the information that we ask for:

Systems:

• List of tenants
• Number of units
• Copies of lease
• Year-end accounts

Insurance:

• Block policy details
• Public liability insurance
• Terrorism insurance
• Engineering
• Directors and officers
• Any other applicable policy
• Most recent insurance valuation
• Claims history for the past five years

Accounts:

• All invoices, bank reconciliations, expenditure, accruals, debtors, reserve fund and tenant ledger.

Ground Rent:

• Aged debtors
• Funds held

Health and Safety:

• Asbestos Survey and Register
• Health & Safety Risk Assessment
• Fire Risk Assessment

Keys to all relevant areas – sounds obvious but easily forgotten!

Maintenance contracts, such as lifts, emergency lights, fire panels

• Lift of Regular Contractors
• Service specifications
• Utilities/Electrical testing
• Guarantees (roof or NHBC)
• Any historical issues

General information:

• Certificate of incorporation
• Memorandum and Articles of Association
• Passwords
• Minutes of meetings
• Any other management company documents

Major work:

• Section 20 notices for the past 3 years
• Dates for external and internal redecoration
• Dates for 5-year electrical testing
• Copy of 10-year maintenance plans
• Any surveyors report

Legal:

• Any pending action for breach of lease or service charge arrears.
• Pending sales
• All archived documents

The information we need to gather from the outgoing agents, mostly come under three main areas that cover everything about block and tenants: Health & Safety; Legal and Systems.

If you are working with a block manager or property manager and you are considering making changes then here’s some further advice about changing agents: Download Now 

Talking to Residents

Alongside collecting information from the outgoing agents, we also like to contact the tenants to inform them of the changes to their management service company.

We give them all of the information they require to be able to transfer their payments to our bank, and give them all of our contact details so they can get in touch if they need anything.

Here’s one of our earlier blogs which may help you understand your right etc if you are considering moving into a new flat with a managing agent - https://www.fraserallenem.co.uk/what-to-expect-of-your-landlord

We also send them a contact sheet so that our records can be kept up to date. 

For us, once this initial work is done and we have our ‘ducks in a row’ we can move forward to offer an efficient service to residents and the property owner.

If you’d like to find out what the benefits of having an agent are – visit  https://www.fraserallenem.co.uk/benefits-of-an-agent