FAQs

Service Charges are issued to cover the cost of managing communal elements of your building/estate. Within the lease/deeds for your property they will be a section that stipulates the responsibility of your Landlord/Management Company.

Some info from leasehold can be found at https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/service-charges-other-issues/

If you want a more detailed explanation, please contact us and we will be happy to review your charges alongside your lease/deeds and help you to understand why you are paying what you pay.

Yes, 100%, as a property owner you can not only challenge but also have an input into the service charges and works.  

You also have support from the Leasehold Advisory Board if you feel like you have any issues. 

https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/service-charges-other-issues/ 

Yes, the process is very simple and can sometimes take a bit of time. At Potts Gray we always suggest having informal chats with other agents such as ourselves to see what could be available to you should you choose to switch.  

In some instances, we have had chats with property owners who have taken our advice and been more confident in approaching their current agent, challenged them and managed to improve the service and reduce costs without switching.  

Give us a call or email us if you want to chat, we are happy to talk with you and hope we can help. 

No, it can seem like a very daunting and monumental thing to do but it’s actually very simple. Once the decision to switch is made your current and proposed agents will then begin dialogue and manage the transfer for you.  

At Potts Gray we set an agreed date, usually 6 weeks from official request to change and then work with your current agent to make sure the switch is hassle free, contractors are managed over and all the paperwork is completed in good time.  

You just sit back and let us do all the work! 

Well, we’d love to be able to tell you to the penny, unfortunately we can’t…… until we have asked you some questions about your site such as: 

1. How many properties? 
2. Freehold or Leasehold? 
3. How big is the site? 
4. How often do you want cleaners in? 
5. How big are in the internal/external communal areas? 

 They are a lot more questions and the easiest way for us to give you a cost is to review your current charges with you, get an understanding of what level of cleaning, gardening etc you require and then we could give you a very detailed like for like quotation on what Potts Gray would charge. 

Unfortunately, the industry does not benefit from an Ofgem, Ofcom, or FCA type regulatory body as unfortunately the industry is not regulated as such.  

Managing Agents can sign up to ARMA https://arma.org.uk/leaseholders/search-for-a-member, if your agent is a member of ARMA this does give you a route to go down if necessary.  

https://arma.org.uk/leaseholders/complaints-about-a-member 

However, first and foremost, speak with us, our complaints policy is provided on the home page of our website. 

You’ll often find that things can be resolved with a face to face meeting, a chat and an agreed plan going forward. 

At Potts Gray we pride ourselves on our levels of service and regularly visit all of our sites for walk rounds with residents, contractors and to complete site inspections. This put faces to names, allows people to talk and we feel it helps you to be able to engage with your managing agents.  

Useful Links 

https://www.lease-advice.org/ 

https://arma.org.uk/ 

https://www.tpos.co.uk/ 

https://www.gov.uk/leasehold-property/leasehold-disputes 

https://www.freeholdcalculator.com/freehold_choose.php 

Leasehold properties are mostly apartments and can be purpose-built blocks, converted buildings or part of a ‘mixed use’ development. A leasehold ownership is a long- term tenancy of a property with the right to occupy the property for a period in excess of 21 years. The term of the lease is often 99,125 or 999 years and diminishes over time.

The ownership of the property relates to everything within the four walls including floorboards and plaster to the walls and ceilings but does not usually include the external walls.

Responsibility for doors and windows varies and you should consult the lease for confirmation. The structural and communal parts of the building and the land it stands on are owned by the freeholder, sometimes referred to as ‘the landlord’.

The lease is the starting point for understanding the operation of leasehold property. It is a legal written contract between the landlord and the tenant reflecting their agreed relationship (and in some cases the management company). It explains the rights and responsibilities that both you and your landlord have. When an apartment is sold, the seller assigns all the rights and responsibilities of the lease to the purchaser. Unfortunately, not all leases are well written documents or easy to understand.

What happens with my service charge payments? Service charge monies are collected and held in a client account for the individual Management Company to allow contractors, utilities and services for that Management Company to be paid.

At the start of the financial year, a budget or ‘statement of anticipated expenditure’ is prepared for the costs likely to be incurred during the service charge period. The service charge budget is primarily designed to cover expenditure anticipated for the day to day costs of managing the communal areas of the development. As this is an estimate there could be a balancing charge to adjust to the level of costs incurred. At Potts Gray Management Company Limited, our job is to provide all services required in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible to avoid any additional costs being incurred.

A sinking fund is also known as a reserve fund. A contribution towards a sinking fund is usually built into the budget each year. This money is retained in an individual client account to build up a fund for future major repairs, renewals or replacements, for example internal redecoration, roof repairs or lift replacement.

As the apartment/flat is part of a development built on land owned by the freeholder, the lessee (leaseholder) often also must pay ground rent to the freeholder to compensate the freeholder for the use of the land. It is a specific requirement of the lease and must be paid on the due date, subject to the issue of a statutory demand by the landlord or their agent. The ground rent is usually a fixed amount and it may be payable annually, half yearly or quarterly. The amount may be reviewed after a number of years, specified within the lease. Ground rent should not be confused with the service charge.

A Management Company is a legal entity, registered at Companies House and referred to within a lease.

It is created to provide ongoing management of a development. In most cases the Management Company is made up of leaseholders as members and Directors and they may then choose to employ a professional Managing Agent such as Potts Gray Management Company Limited to provide services and management on its behalf. Where a Management Company does not exist, the Managing Agent will be directly instructed by the landlord/ freeholder.

It will be a requirement of the lease that all buildings must be insured and should be based on the cost of rebuilding. The freeholder/Management Company or the Managing Agent on their behalf arrange the buildings insurance for leasehold properties. Leaseholders should arrange their own contents insurance. In relation to freehold properties, the freeholder must arrange both buildings and contents insurance.