Understanding Property Management
The majority of contemporary developments are established on a basis whereby the responsibility to pay a share of maintaining the development rests with the owner. To facilitate this a Management Company is set up and each owner becomes a Shareholder of that limited company.
A Management Company is formed by the Developer when the Development has communal areas that require maintenance either internal or external (or both). Once the Developer has completed construction and all apartments/houses are sold he/she will step away and pass all control to the Shareholders. It is the Shareholders responsibility to cover all costs of Company Secretarial items, any Communal Maintenance and Insurances.
A Management Company should have at least 1 Director and 1 Secretary. They are responsible for ensuring that all obligations with Company Registry and the Inland Revenue are intact. Charterhouse handles the administration of all these areas, but the Director must sign all relevant documents.
In practice, a Developer or Management Company will appoint Charterhouse to collect service charges from the Shareholders of the Company. Thereafter, Charterhouse will arrange for the provision of all the services required for the management, maintenance, upkeep and running of the Development for which the Management Company is responsible under the terms of the Leases/Transfer Documents of every unit within the Development and/or as per the agreed package of services between the Management Company and Charterhouse.
The packages offered are:
- C Standard
- C+ Plus
- C++ Advanced
Which package you choose is dependent on the complexity of your development and the level of involvement you and your fellow shareholders seek in the Management of your development. We at Charterhouse can suit each package to meet your individual requirements.
Charterhouse’s practices are regulated by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), as such we are obligated to ensure that funds are available in the Management Company’s account to cover all services provided. If the account has insufficient funds, services will cease and the matter will be brought to the attention of the Shareholders. This is because every Management Company is self-funding and Charterhouse cannot knowingly instruct contractors to carry out work when the requisite funds are not available to provide remuneration for these services.