What block management in London should look like
Block management is the running of a building on behalf of the people who own the flats in it: the service charge budget and the demands, the insurance, the fire and electrical certificates, the cleaner and the gardener, the repairs, the accounts at year end, the company's own paperwork, and the board's decisions recorded and acted on. Most boards in London who write to us are not short of an agent. They are short of one who answers.
So the service is built around that. Every block on our books has a named person on it, with a direct line, and a named second for when they are away. There is no call centre because we do not have one. On the Managed service the named person visits the building four times a year, and whenever a job needs an eye on it. Every director can see into Servanda, the software we built and own: the client account balance reconciled to the bank, the certificates with the PDF attached, the quotes beside the invoices they were meant to match, and the board's own decisions, on the day they happen.
We have no arrangement with any contractor, so a cleaner who turns up stays. We check insurance and prices, and that is all. Anything outside the printed fee is quoted in writing before it is incurred.
What it costs in London
The fee is a fixed amount per flat or home per year, plus VAT, printed here and on the quotation. Never a percentage of the service charge.
| Service | Fee | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Managed, block of flats in London | £300 a flat a year plus VAT, minimum £3,000 a year | The full service: named person, four visits a year, the money, the compliance, the repairs, the accounts and the company paperwork |
| Director Desk, small block or converted house | £895 a year plus VAT for up to six flats, then £110 a flat | You keep the keys and the contractors. We do the accounts, the demands, the compliance diary, the insurance and the paperwork, with one visit a year |
| Managed, estate of houses | £100 a home a year plus VAT for the first hundred homes, then £40 a home, minimum £1,000 a year | The residents' company, the estate charge, the unadopted roads, drains, lighting and open spaces, and the transfer covenants |
Worked examples on Managed: a block of twelve flats in London is £3,600 a year plus VAT; twenty-four flats is £7,200 a year plus VAT. The quotation form shows the figure for your building before you send it, and the written quotation arrives by email ready to forward to the board.
Where we work in London
London is a large place and we do not claim all of it. We work the part we can reach from Chelmsford in under an hour, which the Elizabeth line has made most of East London: Stratford, Forest Gate, Manor Park, Ilford, Seven Kings, Goodmayes, Chadwell Heath, Romford, Gidea Park, Harold Wood, Woodford, Wanstead, Walthamstow, Leyton, Bow, Whitechapel and Canary Wharf, and the boroughs of Newham, Redbridge, Havering, Barking and Dagenham, Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets. Further west, ask, and we will answer honestly.
London blocks bring things Essex blocks rarely do: buildings over eighteen metres that fall under the Building Safety Act and need an accountable person and a safety case, mixed-use blocks with a shop or an office on the ground floor, and head leases with a freeholder who is a company you have never met. We have run all three, and the quotation says which apply to yours.
Changing managing agent in London
Changing agent is six steps, done thousands of times a year, and the law is on the board's side. Service charge money is held on trust by law, so it is not the agent's money and it never was. When you change agent the balance and the reconciled accounts must be handed over, and the profession's code puts a timescale on it.
- Find the notice clause in your management agreement and read it exactly: how notice is served, to whom, and how long it runs.
- Get written quotations on the same information and put them to the board together. Ours is free and takes two minutes.
- Resolve at a board meeting, minute it, and serve notice in writing the way the agreement says.
- Appoint the new agent from the date the notice runs out, so there is no gap.
- The new agent sends the outgoing one a dated handover checklist: leases, insurance, certificates, contracts, keys and fobs, arrears, sales in progress. The static information is due within four weeks and the money and accounts within three months under the profession's code.
- Every resident gets a welcome letter with the new payment details and a line about bank details that stops the fraud.
The handover checklist we send an outgoing agent is public, for any board to use, whoever they appoint. So is the two-page note for the board.
The Essex page covers the county itself. Whichever side of the border the building is on, the quotation form is the same and the fee is printed before you fill it in.
Blocks of flats, converted houses and estates of houses
A purpose-built block with a residents' management company named in the leases is the most common case and the simplest: the company appoints the agent. A right to manage company, formed by the leaseholders, appoints in the same way. A converted house with three or four flats often has no company at all, and the freeholder appoints; Director Desk was built for those. An estate of houses has a management company set up by the developer, an estate charge rather than a service charge, and covenants in every transfer that make each owner pay. We manage all four, and the quotation says which you are.
Questions directors in London ask
Do you cover all of London?
No, and we would rather say so than let you find out. East London along the Elizabeth line is within an hour of our Chelmsford office and that is where we quote without hesitation. For a building further west or south, tell us where it is and we will say honestly whether we are close enough to manage it properly.
What does block management cost in London?
£300 a flat a year plus VAT on our Managed service, with a minimum of £3,000 a year. A twenty-flat block is £6,000 a year plus VAT. The figure is printed here and on the quotation, and it is not a percentage of the service charge.
Our building is over eighteen metres. Can you manage it?
Yes. A building of seven storeys or eighteen metres is a higher-risk building under the Building Safety Act, with an accountable person, registration with the Building Safety Regulator and a safety case. We tell you in the quotation what that adds and who does what.
We have a shop on the ground floor. Does that matter?
It changes the apportionment and sometimes the insurance, and the commercial lease has to be read alongside the residential ones. It is ordinary work, and it is priced on the residential flats only.
How do we change managing agent in London?
The same way as anywhere: find the notice clause in your management agreement, serve notice in writing the way it says, and appoint the new agent from the date the notice runs out. We send the outgoing agent a dated handover checklist and chase the records and the money until every line is closed.
Where is our service charge money held?
In a client bank account in your building's name, held on trust and separate from our own money. Interest belongs to the building. You can see the balance and the reconciliation in Servanda, our own software, on the day it happens.
Free quotation
Tell us about the building on the quotation form. The fee shows on the page as you type, the written quotation arrives by email in a few minutes, and nothing is signed until the third of our three steps. If you would rather write, info@estateandblock.co.uk reaches a founder.