A managing agent is appointed by a management company or landlord to oversee and manage the building and its amenities. The managing agent invoices leaseholders for services in line with the conditions of the lease, by way of collecting service charge, a small proportion of which makes up the agent’s fees.

Managing agents act on behalf of their client, who could be a Freeholder, Resident Management (RMC), or Right to Manage (RTM) company, and they oversee the property in accordance with the lease and legal regulations. A managing agent will be knowledgeable in a wide range of topics, including accounting, building construction, health and safety laws, and landlord and tenant legislation.

Service Charge covers the cost of various services, such as general repairs and maintenance, buildings insurance and other services (if applicable) like lifts, lighting and cleaning shared areas. The charges may also include provisions for a reserve fund.

The lease will detail what the Landlord can charge for. The Landlord, or in some leases a named Residents’ Management Company (RMC), provides the services and Leaseholders pay for them.

Leases will normally state that permission is required from the Landlord to make alterations or sublet the property, in which case administration charges usually apply, which are separate to the service charge.

Service charges vary year on year and the lease will specify what your share of the service charges should be. This may be a fixed percentage or proportion of the total costs to repair, manage, maintain, and insure the building.

Property Managers work out of hours to ensure that they are always able to deal with any emergencies. Please call the office number on 0330 133 0242, where you will be redirected to a member of the Property Management team.

Leaks unfortunately often occur from radiators, showers, washing machines and other pipework. The source of the leak may not be obvious upon first inspection, but it is important that a suspected leak is always investigated promptly.

If there is a leak into your property from above, it is important that you speak to your neighbour in the flat above, in the first instance, to advise them that there may be a leak emanating from their property. They would then need to investigate and contact a plumber to identify and repair the leak. If the responsible party does not take the necessary steps to rectify the problem once they become aware of it, additional liability may apply and further damage will be caused.

Typically, each individual leaseholder is responsible for pipes exclusively serving their flat and therefore the costs to repair these are the relevant leaseholder’s responsibility.

If you experience a leak from another property, it is important to communicate with the residents in that property and let them know about the damage in your flat. Any communal pipes or apparatus will be the responsibility of the Freeholder or Management Company. It is extremely important to always read the relevant clauses in the lease carefully, as provisions can vary.

If you experienced a leak and wish to submit a claim on the buildings insurance, a copy of your building’s insurance policy will be available to view on the MyBlockman portal and you should advise Metta Property Management that you will be making a claim. You should report leaks to the buildings and contents insurers as soon as possible if you wish to make a claim. It should also be noted that any applicable excess will be payable by the claimant.

The service charges that you pay are based on an estimated budget. When the year-end accounts are completed, the accountants compare the budgeted Service Charge with actual expenditure. A surplus occurs when expenditure during the financial year is less than the budget, whereas a deficit is when expenditure exceeds the budget. If there is a surplus, a credit note is raised on your Service Charge account. If there is a deficit, an additional invoice is raised on your Service Charge account called an End of Year Balancing Charge. This must be paid in accordance with your lease for your property.

A typical lease will include a number of schedules, commonly referred to as the First Schedule, Second Schedule, and so forth. These will usually include the definition of the demised premises and the rights granted to the lessee, restrictive covenants, covenants of the Management Company/Landlord and provisions in respect of Service Charge and payments.

Any reference to the Demised Premises will be the responsibility of the leaseholder to maintain. As a leaseholder, you are typically responsible for maintaining everything exclusively serving your property. This usually includes the glass in your windows, your contents, and your boiler. If you are unsure, it is always best to consult your lease.

A typical lease will usually include restrictive covenants concerning pets, alterations and improvements, parking, Airbnb/holiday lets and subletting. It is always advisable that you consult your lease before considering any changes or additions to your home. Contact us to discuss any consents that may be required before making alterations to your property or subletting.

It’s also critical to understand that, even in the event of a buy-to-let mortgage, the leaseholder will typically be in violation of their mortgage restrictions (separate from the lease) if they rent out the property as an Airbnb. Leaseholders should also keep in mind that planning regulations may be violated if these kinds of lettings occur.

A Resident Management Company (RMC) is a company formed by leaseholders within a residential development to manage and maintain the shared areas and services of the property. The RMC typically appoints a managing agent to take responsibility for tasks such as service charge collection, organising repairs and maintenance, and ensuring compliance with lease terms. Directors of the RMC are usually residents themselves, giving them direct control over how the development is managed.

To make any comments, compliments or complaints about our service, please email customercare@mettapm.co.uk.

Metta Property Management are committed to providing professional and ethical property management services.

However, we acknowledge that there may be instances where we get things wrong or make mistakes. In order to deal with this, we have a complaints procedure below that you can follow to ensure that your issue is addressed appropriately.

Please note that all complaints are treated in strict confidence.

We hope you never need to, however, if you wish to submit a complaint, please follow the below procedure:

(1) Complaints can be received in writing using a ‘formal complaint form’. This template, when completed, provides us with all the information to be able to investigate your complaint. Alternatively, a complaint can be given in person or by phone at 0330 133 0242 and we will take down the details of the complaint, should we find this is necessary to resolve the issue.

(2) Once completed, please email the ‘formal complaint’ form to info@mettapm.co.uk or alternatively by post to the following address:

Metta Property Management, 803 London Road
Westcliff On Sea,
Essex, SS0 9SY

If you have made your initial complaint verbally, whether in person or over the phone, you can send a written summary of your complaint to the address above, in order to evidence your case in writing.

(3) Once we have received your written complaint, we will contact you in writing within fourteen days. At this stage, we will give you our understanding of your complaint. We will also invite you to make any further comments that you may have in relation to this.

(4) Within twenty-one days of receipt of your written complaint, we will write to you informing you of the outcome of our investigations into your complaint and let you know what actions have been or will be taken.

(5) If you are not satisfied with the response received from us, you should put this in writing to the Director of Property Management explaining why you are still dissatisfied. The Director of Property Management will respond within 7 working days.

A full copy of the complaints policy can be provided upon request.

If the complaint is still not satisfied after the last stage of the in-house complaint procedure (or more than eight weeks has elapsed since the last complaint was made) then you can take the matter up with The Property Redress Scheme without any associated costs.

Tel: 0333 321 9418
Email: info@theprs.co.uk
Web: https://www.theprs.co.uk/

Please be advised that The Property Redress Scheme will not normally consider a complaint that has not first been put in writing to us for consideration.