Download the checklist as a PDF to fill in and send.
This is the list we send the outgoing agent on the day we are appointed, and report against to the board every fortnight until every line is closed. The first part is due within four weeks of our start date. The accounts and the money are due within three months. On the copy we send, each line carries the date it was asked for and the date it arrived, and a blank is a chase.
Part one: due within four weeks
The building and its paperwork
- Leases or transfers for every flat or home, and any deeds of variation
- Land Registry title and plan for the freehold or the estate
- Articles of association, register of members and register of directors
- Minutes of the last three annual general meetings and any board resolutions in force
- Buildings insurance schedule, policy wording, last three years' claims, and the broker's name
- Directors' and officers' insurance, engineering insurance and any other policies
- Last reinstatement cost assessment, with its date
- Contracts in force: cleaning, grounds, lifts, door entry, fire alarm, pumps, utilities, with end dates and notice periods
- Warranties and guarantees, including any new-build warranty
- Keys, fobs, codes, and the list of who holds what
- Plans, operation and maintenance manuals, and the asbestos register if the building predates 2000
Safety and compliance, each with its date and the report itself
- Fire risk assessment, and the action list with what has and has not been done
- Fire alarm, emergency lighting, smoke ventilation and dry riser service records
- Fire door inspection records
- Electrical installation condition report for the common parts
- Lift thorough examination reports and the maintenance contract
- Water hygiene risk assessment and monitoring records
- Asbestos survey and management plan
- Lightning protection, fall arrest and any other plant records
- For a higher-risk building: the Building Safety Regulator registration, key building information and safety case report
- Health and safety risk assessment for the common parts
- On an estate: play area inspections, tree survey, pumping station and drainage service records
The people
- Owner list: names, correspondence addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers, with the basis on which each is held
- Subletting register and any registered notices
- Live correspondence: open complaints, disputes, breaches of lease, and anything with a solicitor
- Sales in progress and any solicitors' enquiries not yet answered
- Works in progress, quotations obtained, and any section 20 consultation under way, with every notice served
- Staff on site, if any, with their contracts, for the employment transfer rules
Part two: due within three months
- Service charge accounts for the last three years, and the budget for the current year
- Closing accounts drawn to the handover date, reconciled to the bank
- Owner-by-owner statement of account at the handover date, with the arrears and any payment plans
- Reserve fund balance and its history
- Bank statements for the client account for the current year
- Transfer of the balance held, service charge and reserve, to the new client account
- Unpaid supplier invoices and any credit notes due
- Ground rent records, if collected
- The Companies House authentication code and confirmation statement date
- VAT, payroll and corporation tax records where the company has any
How we report it
Every fortnight the board gets this list with the dates filled in, and one paragraph on what is outstanding and what we have done about it. When the outgoing agent is a member of a professional body or a redress scheme and a deadline has passed, we say so in writing to them, and we tell the board before we take it further. The list is closed when every line has a received date, and we tell the board that it is closed.
Related
Block management in Essex, block management in London, the handover checklist, the three letters, how we hold your money, the first ninety days. The free switching pack for Essex directors is at essexblockmanagement.co.uk. For a written quotation, the form takes two minutes.