The importance of expertise when managing blocks of flats
Does your managing agent know what they’re talking about, and can you trust them to solve problems effectively? If the answer is no, you’ll be interested to hear about some upcoming legal reforms and how this links directly to Foxbrush’s raison d’être of improving standards and providing our clients with expert advice.
At the end of last year, Matthew Pennycook, the Minister of State for Housing and Planning, issued a statement about the future of leasehold reform. Much of the statement was an explanation of why it will take time to get this reform right – and after the rushed legislation that was the Leasehold & Freehold Reform Act 2024 which has thus far been of very little benefit to leaseholders, we couldn’t agree more.
However, the following paragraph really caught our eye and is particularly promising:
“Managing agents play a key role in the maintenance of multi-occupancy buildings and freehold estates, and their importance will only increase …. I can confirm that we will strengthen regulation of managing agents to drive up the standard of their service. As a minimum, this should include mandatory professional qualifications which set a new basic standard that managing agents will be required to meet. We will consult on this matter next year”
In short, the government is saying that in future people will not be allowed to work as a managing agent unless they hold relevant qualifications (or perhaps if the directors of their firm do). Whilst we hope that the government will go further than this and create a new regulator with statutory powers to deal with bad managing agents, the introduction of mandatory qualifications would be a huge step forward.
Why does this matter? You may not realise it, but today anyone can start calling themselves a managing agent and charge for their services. No qualifications, training or experience are required and you don’t have to prove that you know what you’re doing.
If you’re having issues with the way your block of flats is managed, contact us and you’ll never have to deal with an incompetent property manager ever again
Unfortunately, this is all part of an industry culture where poor performance seems to have become the norm and where firms try to profit at leaseholders’ expense by taking on as many blocks as possible and providing very little service in return for their fees.
In the past, all a building manager had to do was answer the phone and arrange repairs here and there when requested by residents. Today, however, the role includes responsibility for complex book-keeping and accounting, overseeing compliance with a host of ever-changing health and safety requirements, and advising clients on legal matters. It won’t make us popular in the industry to say this, but the role doesn’t exactly attract top talent either – so you end up with a lot of unqualified and frankly unsuitable people working as managing agents. These qualifications do exist, so why do so few managing agents pursue them?
It was the impossibility of finding a good managing agent that caused our founder, Edward, to set up Foxbrush. As part of our commitment to being the best in the industry, you can rest assured that our staff are highly qualified, holding qualifications from The Property Institute, The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and The Chartered Institute of Housing. More than this, they’re also graduates of Cambridge and other universities – when it comes to competence, no other firm comes close.
If you’re having issues with the way your block of flats is managed, contact us today to find out how we can help, and you’ll never have to deal with an incompetent property manager ever again.