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Leaseholders and unreasonable service charges
Leaseholders and unreasonable service charges
For many years, there has been a constant stream of news stories about unhappy leaseholders, being asked to pay unreasonable service charges, for poor services and management.
George Curl Way,
Southampton,
United Kingdom
(prbd.net)
07/09/2012
For many years, there has been a constant stream of news stories about unhappy leaseholders, being asked to pay unreasonable service charges, for poor services and management. Nothing changes. Which is why in recent months there has been an ever-louder cry for regulation of the property management industry.
The member organisation; ARMA [the Association of Residential Managing Agents] requires its members to follow a Code of Practice. That is designed to ensure that its members provide a good service, manage properties efficiently, and have happy leaseholders as a result. For the most part that works well - in that 'the good guys' do follow the rules, they understand what needs to be done, and they do it effectively.
But it is not the good guys who are the problem. The rogues of the industry simply ignore ARMA and do not pay the large membership fees to join. They simply get on with ripping people off, making money wherever they can, flouting the law when they need to. And they can do this because there is no requirement in this country to be a good guy. Anyone can call themselves a managing agent and there's no need to get qualified to do so.
The time has come for government to stop ignoring this issue. For too long, politicians (who are not all whiter than white themselves) have turned a blind eye to the abuse being suffered by a significant number of leaseholders throughout the country. It is about time that they took notice of the changing mood of the country. People are no longer prepared to tolerate unfairness and abuse of the system. Reform is starting to be forced upon the banking and financial world. It is also time for change to be forced upon the property management world.
Regulation would have the effect of putting the bad guys out of business. All managing agents should not only be required to follow a Code of Practice, but they should also have to demonstrate that they actually do so. Good standards of education - and continued professional development - should be a requirement too. Residential property management is a complex and ever changing environment which means the conscientious property manager should constantly be learning about the changes happening around him, so that he can do even better for leaseholders (and freeholders) tomorrow.
I wonder whether politicians will take note - or will they continue to ignore their leaseholder voters?
If you are unhappy about your block management and or feel that you have unreasonable service charges, BW Residential Property Consultancy offers expert advice and guidance and have helped many leaseholders get the service they deserve at a fair price.
For more details please visit: http://www.leasehold-advice.co.uk/
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If you are unhappy about your block management and or you feel that you have unreasonable service charges, BW Residential Property Consultancy offers expert advice and guidance and have helped many leaseholders get the service they deserve at a fair price. For more details please visit: http://www.leasehold-advice.co.uk/
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