Making Sure Your Property Is Managed.
by Richard Lewis, Director - Mixed-Use
The cost-of-living crisis. Soaring energy bills. Brexit. The war in Ukraine. Defects. New legislation. New Regulations. Nonpayment of service charge. Poor previous management. There are so many factors that make managing property a challenge. So how do we overcome these? How do we make things better? How do we improve the lives of the people that live in our buildings?
We fix it.
The essence of managing property is to fix the problem. If there is an issue that requires a solution, accounts that need auditing, a maintenance plan that must be implemented, or communication that needs to be improved, SAY can help.
The pressures of managing property have never been so high and as such, Property Managers need to be able to adapt to the changing pressures and make sure that they are doing all they can to understand how the costs of the buildings they look after stack up.
As a result, over the last 12 months, we have seen an increase in demand from our clients to assist them in understanding more about how their properties are being managed. Our instructions relating to audits of service charge accounts and operations has been steadily growing.
Debra Yudolph, Founder and CEO of SAY Property adds:
We have noticed a much bigger focus on making sure that the service being delivered to Leaseholders is compliant, consistent, and communicated in the best possible way. Leaseholders are becoming much savvier in the way that their money should be spent and are demanding more transparency in the way that service charges are calculated and spent.
This is not an unreasonable request, and it shows that the days of ‘guestimating’ budgets and presenting them in a pro forma letter are now behind us. Leaseholders are demanding transparency to understand how their money is being looked after and as such the finance reporting, operations and spending of service charge funds needs to be better.
Alongside this demand for transparency sits a need for understanding, and an interest shown in the operations of our buildings that we have never seen before. Landlords, Resident Management Companies, Developers and Leaseholders have all shown an increased desire to know that the buildings they live in, build, and invest in, are not just complaint, they are safe and they are future proofed, both financially and operationally.
We spoke to Richard Lewis at SAY to find out more about how he has been working alongside Landlords and Developers to improve the service being delivered by their property management team:
“Since joining SAY have been fortunate to work with several different clients, all of which have very different objectives. The one thing that links them all together, is that the Leaseholders they representare asking much more difficult and much more intelligent questions of their Property Managers.
The good can demonstrate the way they approach management is fair and reasonable, the bad cannot, and the ugly are exposing their clients to substantial risk. We have been able to offer solutions to everyone that we have worked with. It starts with a call, and leads to support, improvements and peace of mind.”
The support that SAY Property Consulting offer in assisting with the delivery of management to any Building or Estate can start at any point within the life cycle of the property. We can support our clients in making sure that service charges are being managed and that buildings are being maintained to protect the Residents that are living there, as well as protecting the investment that has been made in turning a building in to a home.
For a free no obligation discussion about how SAY Property Consulting can assist you in the setup, review, or Forensic Audit of your property, contact us now. Email: richard@sayproperty.co.uk.