Tag: concordia

The Benefits of Becoming a Director of Your Development’s Management Company

Everyone likes to feel in control of their lives, both in a professional and personal capacity. Where you live is certainly one of the most important aspects in anyone’s personal life and, if you pay a service charge, becoming a director for your place of residence brings a great deal of control and security. Many developments operate a system whereby there is a management company which is written into your lease and they are responsible for carrying out the landlord’s covenants (such as the cleaning, the gardening and all the communal items).  Some developments have a Right to Manage system in place, but with either of these systems, you can opt to become a Director of the board.  This will give you and your neighbours more of a say in how your service charge money is spent and what happens on your development.

Directors can view financial statements, be involved in setting spend limits, approve costs, set budgets and be part of the decision-making process toward the upkeep and maintenance of their development. You may be surprised at just how easy it is to become a director.  Depending on the Memorandum and Articles of Association (known as the Mems & Arts) for your management company, you could be signed up to be a Director of the board within a week.  By contacting your current managing agent, you can ask them to review the Mems & Arts and advise you of the process for your development.  Every development is different, but it is then normally a simple case of filling in a form and your managing agent/company secretary will do the rest for you.

There are of course, responsibilities that come along with being a Director, but this should never put you off joining the board.  Your experience and skills will benefit your development more than you realise! More can be found out about being a Director on the Leasehold Advisory’s website where there is a great podcast about it all.  

Some people tell us that being a Director of their management company takes up too much of their time or is too much work. We at Concordia Residential enjoy meeting our residents and always encourage the taking up of directorships.  It is your money and your home after all, and we want you to be involved.  With the right managing agent and the right service package, it should never take up too much of your time – that’s what your agent is there for.  We believe in the harmonious, democratic running of people’s homes and understand the importance of sound leadership and proactive management for your development.  We do, of course, have to follow the lease and the law, but a resident’s input and decision making as a Director is invaluable. 

Concordia are always delighted to offer consultations – free of charge – to folk wishing to become directors. We can review and explain your lease and your Mems & Arts, along with any legal issues.  We feel it is time well spent to ensure directors have a sound understanding of how their involvement helps, which will only result in a confident, smooth management process moving forward.

Trusting a New Business

We were recently approached by a potential client who wrote to us asking about our managing agents services. We love hearing from people and we were really interested as to why this particular client had contacted us and what their background and reasons were in searching out a new leasehold managing agent. We were really touched to receive a very detailed and considered explanation of the deliberation and thought process the directors had gone through in choosing Concordia Residential.  The client has very kindly given us permission to share this with you on our blog.

To Concordia,

We were becoming increasingly frustrated with our current managing agent, but none of us really approached the subject of changing as we all thought the fact they are well established and large, they must be OK. Each of us thought perhaps we were each being a bit fussy.  Indeed, I personally felt worry that, by changing to another large, well known outfit we would be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. However it was at an impromptu directors meeting in the garden where two of us had an honest discussion about the fact that it wasn’t working well anymore and neither of us were happy.  It was taking up so much of our time to chase our managing agent for things which should be automatically looked after.  We took our thoughts to a meeting with all directors and I was given the task of researching new agents.  Not a task I desired, but a needs must situation.  As part of researching a change I discovered yourselves who claimed to be a new and supposedly different type of agent. I am very aware that I may fall foul of clever marketing and heady promises, and I was nervous about leaping into the unknown.  A few of the questions we as directors asked ourselves were as follows:

  • How can we establish that the agent has the correct qualifications?
  • How do we know they will look after our money?
  • Do they have any experience in this this industry?
  • Will they be too busy trying to grow to pay any attention to us if I need advice?
  • Will they have disappeared this time next year?

One of the things we like about Concordia Residential is that it was easy to find the answers to our above questions.  Not only were the details on your website clear, but I could also research the RICS website about you (to find you are regulated by RICS), find you on LinkedIn (Abi your profile was informative as well as the Concordia page) and the IRPM website (to see that you were MIRPM qualified). We also liked the fact that you and your team were able to give us clarity about your company’s ethical ethos as we were unclear what it meant.  To know that your operation is focused on actually making things better for the residents and that you are not interested in taking lots of commissions as well as enabling us to use the contractors we want is refreshing and different.  Furthermore, you actually sent us the information about the bank you use, Metro, and information from Metro themselves (including details on interest rates etc).  This reassured us greatly.

It’s interesting, having spoken to Concordia, that I now realise a new business can mean passionate, experienced people.  People who are determined to put right all the wrongs, the negativity and the bad practice they have encountered, by starting afresh and doing things a new way, a right way, an ethical way.

We have decided to make the change. Change is good and we look forward to a much better, more resident focused approach from Concordia when we join you in September.