The management company services will be detailed in the deeds to your property. In most cases, it will deal with the maintenance of any shared areas such as footpaths and steps; landscaping and maintenance of grass and open spaces.

Each property owner on the estate will pay an annual management fee for these services which will vary between estates depending on the size of the estate, the location and the services provided. You will be able to check what items the annual charge relates to before purchasing the property. However, the charge can vary dependent on the infrastructure of the development. Typically, the RMC take responsibility for communal areas, and in most instances, the residents in turn delegate the responsibility for the day-to-day management to a suitably appropriate managing agent.

Management companies on housing estates are becoming more common and should have no effect on your sale. However, the purchaser will require extra documentation from the management company which could cause some delay. Many property owners are not aware that the management company documentation is required in order to sell the property. This may include some or all of the following:- the formation of the company documentation, accounts, maintenance charge expenditure and budgets and payment history. Be aware that the management company may well be a party to your lease or transfer, and they, like you, have conveyancing obligations. Your solicitor should contact the management company as soon as possible to avoid any delays to the sale as it may be that you actually need permission from the management company to sell your property.

There may be a restriction recorded on your property title at HM Land Registry. This means that you may need the management company’s consent to sell the property. They will normally only provide this consent if all fees are paid up to date. The purchaser may also need to comply with other obligations in respect of your property. The management company will detail all of its requirements in the management pack. It is important to note however that the purchaser may be required to pay notice fees on completion. 

A resident management company (RMC) is a non-profit organisation that is created in order to protect the interests of property owners or leaseholders. They are usually formed by the residents of a development who take ownership over the management and maintenance of the common areas of the development. Non-profit limted companies are companies limted by guarantee, as opposed to trading companies which are limited by shares. A company limited by guarantee does not have any shares or shareholders (like the more common limited by shares structure) but is owned by guarantors who agree to pay a set amount of money towards company debts should it become insolvent (normally £1).

Leasehold means that the property owner has obtained a lease from the freeholder/landlord to use the property for a specified number of years. The leases are usually long term and between 7 years and up to 999 years. So you rent the land that your property sits on and pay ground rent to the freeholder/landlord.

Freehold means that the property owner is the freeholder or landlord, owning the property and the land it stands on in perpetuity (forever). The type of freehold ownership depends on the transfer held – part or whole. Even if you own the property as Freehold you may still have to pay the maintenance charge as laid out in your transfer deed.

The payment of a maintenance charges to cover the cost of maintaining communal facilities is well established for leasehold properties, such as apartments. What is not so well known however is that freehold houses can also be subject to a service charge, or an estate rent charge. A management company will be appointed by the developer to undertake the works to the communal areas and to collect the charges from the houseowners on the estate. This will either be an independent company in which the houseowners will not be members of it, or a company in which the houseowners will become members of the company. Where the houseowners are members of the company it is open to them to engage a managing agent to undertake the day to day management functions on their behalf.

With every maintenance charge you pay, a portion of the money goes towards a reserve fund. The two funds are different however, most of the charge you pay goes towards the day-to-day running costs of your block or estate and is used to cover items such as maintenance,  repairs, gardening and communal facilities. The reserve fund is collected to help contribute towards the cost of future non-annual costs like replacement of the development infrastructure. Having money in your reserve fund means that when large projects like these come up there’s already money set aside to help fund them, and it avoids the need to dramatically increase the charge due to large one off costs.

Yes - More and more often leaseholders and property owners are asking for information, and they want it electronically. Through our Property Portal software they can choose to receive their demands via email, view their account online, report problems and get access to relevant documentation.

The management agreement is the contract held between the managing agent and the instructing client – be that the landlord, freeholder, resident management company or developer. It stipulates what services we will perform for the stated management fee, as well as what services will be charged separately. Our term is one calendar year, with a three-month notice period. The agreement will also include details agreed in advance with the instructing client. This includes the number of visits we will make each year, the number of meetings we will hold and the fee we are charging for providing the service.

Typically you will be breaching the terms of the covenants within your lease or transfer deed. The RMC may charge for reminders to this effect, as a member of the company you will also be bound by the company’s rules (Articles of association). People who do not pay have a negative impact on the development as a whole, and the gap in funding has to be made up by those that do pay. We will work with those who are struggling to make payments via affordable payment plans, as we realise that we can all be subject to circumstances beyond our control. Ultimatley though, and where necessary, it could lead to County Court Judgment, and negative effects on credit ratings