mc2fool wrote:Dicky99 wrote:I'm in a similar situation but apart from me and a 76 year old owner none of the other 5 owners were remotely interested in being Directors. Some were very good at being vocal about their minor gripes about our voluntary efforts though.
I feared becoming last man standing so I went through a section 20 consultation to appoint a managing agent under a long term agreement. Unsurprisingly nobody responded to the proposals until the 2nd stage when the costs were reported.
Having got the MA on board I then circulated a report highlighting to the owners the serious pitfalls of not having enough Directors of the Management Co and explaining that now we have a MA carrying out all the obligations, they would be Directors without having to shoulder any duties.
Matter of interest, how much does the managing agent charge and what do they do? And is it just a local one or one of (or part of) a big national estate agent or similar, and if the latter, who?
They do everything which we have had to do in the past. We didn't want to go through that process and still retain a few duties which other owners won't be prepared to do in future.
So that includes gardening, window cleaning, routine repairs, compliance inspections etc. All the financial duties such as formulation of budgets, payment of suppliers, submitting annual accounts etc; company secretary role including submitting the annual return and organising the AGM; all the various leasehold duties such as lease transfers and lease compliance; arranging buildings insurance etc etc.
The annual management fee for that worked out at £1650 plus £300 for Company Sec role and about the same for getting the annual accounts independently signed off. The other prices were very similar so £250 to £300 per flat per annum is a good yardstick.
We only sought quotes from local companies as we wanted them to have a local office and we were lucky enough to find 3 that fit the bill. It was also important for us that the MA had a good level of activity in our local area so that they could easily accommodate our small block's needs without a disproportionate overhead cost.