On 13/04/2024 in message <uvea9v$332ph$1@dont-email.me> J Newman wrote:

I am a shareholder in a building consisting of several flats. Our block >management company is really slow to act to repair ongoing issues,
including urgent matters like roof leaks and overflowing gutters causing >damp.

Google Reviews of the company suggest that this is a common matter.

It has reached the point where tenants and the estate agents through which >tenants are found for landlords in the building are doing the repairs >independently. A tenant has left, citing damp & cracks on the wall that
have been unrepaired for six months now, despite the block management
company being asked multiple times (from the owner, tenants and estate
agent that introduced the first two) to get repairs done.

The block management company refuses to pay for repairs that should be
shared by all landlords (matters affecting the entire building) if they do >not pre-authorise the works and use their own builders.

What is the legal position on this? Replacing the block management company
is a medium term solution that will require an AGM and sufficient >shareholders to agree.

Can a shareholder/landlord undertake urgent repairs themselves and if >necessary sue the block management company to recover the cost of repairs?

What about deducting the cost of repairs from the service charge to the
block management company?

Who chose/appointed the Management Company? Assuming it's the directors of
the freeholder they are the ones who need to get the management company to
do its job or fire it.

As a shareholder of the company owning the freehold presumably you have
access to the directors and voted them in?

Bit confused about your suggestion there are several landlords in the
building but my experience is limited to a block of 10 flats where 8 of us
were shareholders who had the right to be directors (but nobody wanted the job).

In short whoever appointed the management company has the responsibility
of ensuring it performs properly or booting it out. In my experience there
are no good management companies and landlords who manage themselves are
even worse.

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
George Washington was a British subject until well after his 40th birthday. (Margaret Thatcher, speech at the White House 17 December 1979)

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On 14/04/2024 in message <uvfqmt$3g2c4$1@dont-email.me> J Newman wrote:

In short whoever appointed the management company has the responsibility
of ensuring it performs properly or booting it out. In my experience
there are no good management companies and landlords who manage
themselves are even worse.

As a medium term solution, can you recommend (ahem) a good management
company in London?

My flat in the block of ten we bought out was in Hampshire so my knowledge
(of who not to use) is limited to that area. Do you or any of your
colleagues have contacts with an Estate Agent? They would have a pretty
good idea of who would be worth considering. Perhaps also other people in
a similar position. I don't want to be negative but I have never heard a positive report of any block management company.

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
This is as bad as it can get, but don't bet on it

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