Management companies running blocks of flats

Former Member

At my last flat, we farmed out management of our 9 unit block to a private agent. They gave a great impression so we took them on to run our block of residential flats, but turned out bad. Years later, after persistent attempts to get maintainance done failed, we were left with a hefty overdraft on the sub-account the managing company held for our flatowners. After taking monthly service charge and one off payments, we wondered what the money had been spent on and found ourselves caught in a financial dispute in trying to sever ties

With many blocks of flats built for selling by developers I guess there is a market for property management and its difficult to find a good company

Former Member

Management companies are a bunch of con artists. The easiest way is to take over the management yourselves. Maintenance is easy, do the cleaning yourself and keep a bank account that everyone pays into to pay for the buildings insurance/electrical/lifts.

Former Member

Whowhere wrote: »

Management companies are a bunch of con artists. The easiest way is to take over the management yourselves. Maintenance is easy, do the cleaning yourself and keep a bank account that everyone pays into to pay for the buildings insurance/electrical/lifts.

Yup, a friend of mine who had a bad experience says such companies when they take over your flats almost enjoy a licence to print money. They are trusted to handle your communal flats' financial affairs and often the industry is unregulated. Things go wrong no one to turn to above them. A few regulatory bodies exist but then I've heard they're token gestures to give you confidence, but lack effectiveness to control management companies behaviour