For many Resident Management Companies (RMCs) and self-managed blocks, the decision to appoint a managing agent is a significant step.

It often follows a period where volunteer directors have taken on increasing responsibility—balancing compliance, finances, contractors, and resident expectations alongside full-time jobs and personal commitments.

At Common Ground, we understand that this transition can feel like a loss of control, especially with respect to financial control.

This article explains what you can expect when moving from self-management to being professionally managed.

1. The Reality of Self-Management

Most self-managed developments start with good intentions:
– Greater control over costs
– Local decision-making
– A desire to “do things properly”

However, over time, the challenges tend to increase:

The global perception of us managing agents is that we charge a lot of money to sort out the cleaners and gardeners……I wish.

In fact, possibly the biggest barrier to moving away from self-management is the fear of increased costs as, understandably, managing agents need a fee for their services.

However, any active resident management company director knows that the demands of managing contractors, chasing works, handling service charge arrears and accounting, keeping up with compliance (fire safety, insurance, legal obligations), dealing with disputes between residents and maintaining records and transparency is where a good managing agent earns their corn.

The result is often pressure on a small number of volunteer directors, and a gradual move from control to stress.

2. The Transition Period – What It’s Really Like

As with transfer of management from an existing agent, the transition is dictated by the quality of the information we receive but the good news is that the information we receive from most self-managed sites is generally quite good.

There is always a lot of information to transfer. The paper parts are easy, what is less easy is understanding the “unwritten” culture that may have existed on a self-managed site. The little quirks that may have been accepted but not documented. i.e. pets policy, certain informal rights that may have been granted to individuals etc.

At Common Ground, we’ll seek to fit the “culture” of the estate through our property managers who are experienced and knowledgeable enough to know that estate management is a “people” business as much as a “property” business.

We will of course advise if previous practices were contrary to current legislation but otherwise, we will try to accommodate each sites different quirks.

3. What Changes (and What Doesn’t)

What Changes

I can’t speak for other managing agents but when Common Ground is appointed:

– Day-to-day management responsibility transfers to us
– We coordinate contractors, maintenance, compliance, and administration
– We implement systems for tracking, reporting, and communication

Our aim is simple:

Allow you to enjoy your property while we take responsibility for management

What Doesn’t Change

Importantly:

– The directors remain in control of key decisions
– We do not make major changes without consultation.
– Culture. We try to align our management culture with what’s gone before. Our property managers not only learn about the existing site culture, but we also document it on our systems.
– Existing contractors and services are retained initially unless instructed otherwise.

Think of it as a shift from doing everything yourselves to overseeing a professional team doing it for you. Common Ground is about evolution, not revolution.

4. Transparency = Peace of mind

The way the law is constructed can leave many RMC directors perceiving that appointing a managing agent is a leap of faith. For example, section 21 of the landlord and tenants act 1985 states that the summary of accounts needs to be made available within 6 months of the end of the service charge year. Many directors will (in some cases rightly) assume they will only see financial information once a year and only then, 6-18 months after the event. Other facets of the law are constructed in a similar fashion and can be difficult to enact in practice (and it’s deliberate in my opinion)

Being a frustrated leaseholder led me to setting up Common Ground and creating a product that wasn’t available in 2008 – totally transparent block management. I didn’t think I’d be alone in this desire, and I’ve been proved right.

Common Ground uses the Xero accounts system to ensure directors see ALL financial records in real time. As we reconcile daily, many directors find that the financial information is far more accessible compared to self-management.

Additionally, we have an online portal that ALL stakeholders can access (tenants, leaseholders and directors) to track maintenance and repair items.

So in summary, there is change but it isn’t as pronounced as many perceive it might be…indeed the most common statement I here is “I’m glad I don’t have to do that anymore”