Block Management in Somerset
Block, estate and leasehold management across Somerset, run from our Plymouth office. Compliance is tracked against Somerset Council. Marine-exposed stock is surveyed on a shorter interval and funded from what the surveys find. Roughly 74 miles from our office.
Managing a Block in Somerset at a Glance
- Local authority
- Somerset Council
- Authority type
- Unitary
- Building control
- Somerset Building Control, the council's own service covering the four former district areas
- Fire and rescue service
- Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service
- Water and sewerage
- Wessex Water
- From our Plymouth office
- Approx. 74 miles by road, an hour and a half or so
- Setting
- Coastal
Who You Deal with in Somerset
A block in Somerset deals with Somerset Council, a unitary authority, so building control, planning and housing enforcement sit with one body. Fire safety in the common parts is enforced by Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service. Communal water and sewerage is Wessex Water.
The Residential Stock in Somerset
At the 2021 Census 23,185 of Somerset's 250,123 households, 9.3 per cent, were in a purpose-built block, against 17.1 per cent for England. A further 1.8 per cent were in a converted or shared house including bedsits, half the England rate. Blocks here are a minority stock concentrated in the towns.
Coastal Exposure in Somerset
Somerset's coast faces the Severn Estuary, which has the second largest tidal range in the world after the Bay of Fundy. The Environment Agency runs a single flood alert area along it, from Minehead through Burnham-on-Sea to Kingston Seymour.
Standards classify a high-salinity coastal atmosphere as C5-M, very high marine, in which unprotected steel loses more than 80 micrometres of thickness in its first year against as little as 1.3 inland. Balustrades, railings, fixings and walkway structures are what that costs a Somerset block, so we survey them on a shorter interval and fund the reserve fund from what the surveys find.
Flood Risk in Somerset
The Somerset Levels and Moors are a nationally significant flood risk area. The winter 2013 to 2014 floods cost the county up to 147.5 million pounds and produced a twenty year action plan and, in January 2015, the Somerset Rivers Authority, a partnership of the council, two internal drainage boards, the Environment Agency, Natural England, the regional flood committee and Wessex Water. Five main catchments drain the county: the Parrett, the Tone, the Axe and Brue, the Somerset Frome and the West Somerset streams.
For a block that reaches leaseholders through the insurance premium and excess, and through the management pack when someone sells.
Conservation Areas and Listed Buildings in Somerset
Somerset publishes no single county-wide total, which is itself the practical point: three years after the districts merged, conservation area maps and appraisals are still delivered through four separate legacy systems and the council's own page routes an enquirer to a different mapping tool depending on where the building is.
The sequencing is what catches boards out: consent first, then the Section 20 specification. Specify and consult before consent is in hand and the consultation has to be run again.
Radon in Somerset
Somerset Council states that some of the largest radon emissions in the country originate in South West geology and that parts of Somerset are at risk of levels requiring action. The action level for a home is 200 becquerels per cubic metre. Potential varies sharply within the county, so a town-level or block-level check is worth more here than a county-level assumption.
In a block the part worth attention is the enclosed communal space at or below ground level: plant rooms, undercrofts, basements and bin stores. Measuring is inexpensive, takes three months, and the result belongs with the compliance record.
Licensing and Permitted Development in Somerset
Somerset Council publishes one register of Article 4 directions inherited from the four former districts, running from 1959 onwards. Exactly one of them concerns houses in multiple occupation, in Yeovil, confirmed in 2021. Everywhere else in the county, HMO control is mandatory licensing under the Housing Act 2004 alone.
This sits outside the lease entirely, but it still reaches us: satisfying the council is not the same as obtaining consent under the lease, and a leaseholder generally needs each.
Local Government Reorganisation in Somerset
Somerset has already been through what Devon and Gloucestershire are heading into. On 1 April 2023 Somerset Council became the sole principal authority for the county, replacing the county council and four districts. Three years on, four separate district local plans are still in force and will be until the Somerset Local Plan for 2025 to 2045 is adopted, which is the practical shape reorganisation takes: one counterparty, four rulebooks.
The obligations in the lease and in statute do not change. What changes is the body an application goes to and the authority that enforces housing standards, so compliance records and planning history need to be in order before the transfer rather than after it.
Changing Managing Agent in Somerset
Changing agent is the company's decision, taken the way its articles require. The only part with a deadline is the notice the outgoing agent is contractually owed. On Somerset heritage stock the consents history is what most often turns out to be incomplete, and its absence resurfaces later as a planning problem.
See the handover sequence in full, and our fees, which are a fixed annual amount with no commission on contractor work.
What Else Changes About Managing a Block in Somerset
- North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset are not part of Somerset Council. They were constituted as separate unitary authorities out of Avon in 1996 and have their own planning, building control and fire service.
- An HMO licence can bite on a flat in a very small block: a purpose-built flat with five occupants needs one if there are fewer than three flats in the building. Failing to licence exposes the landlord to a penalty of up to 30,000 pounds, rent repayment orders and a banning order.
- Tree work in any Somerset conservation area needs six weeks' notice through the planning process, with fines up to 20,000 pounds for unlawful works, so routine grounds maintenance cannot be a same-week contractor instruction.
- Somerset council tax bills carry a Somerset Rivers Authority charge, which raised 3.133 million pounds in 2025 to 2026 and has been held at its original level since the precept power passed to the new council in April 2023.
- Building control is one in-house service for the whole county, which the council describes as the largest local authority partnership in the South West, and it is currently absorbing reversions from the collapse of a private approved inspector.
| Area | Local authority |
|---|---|
| Bridgwater | Somerset Council |
| Burnham-on-Sea | Somerset Council |
| Chard | Somerset Council |
| Cheddar | Somerset Council |
| Clevedon | North Somerset Council |
| Frome | Somerset Council |
| Glastonbury | Somerset Council |
| Highbridge | Somerset Council |
| Ilminster | Somerset Council |
| Langport | Somerset Council |
| Midsomer Norton | Bath and North East Somerset Council |
| Minehead | Somerset Council |
| Nailsea | North Somerset Council |
| Portishead | North Somerset Council |
| Radstock | Bath and North East Somerset Council |
| Shepton Mallet | Somerset Council |
| Somerton | Somerset Council |
| Street | Somerset Council |
| Taunton | Somerset Council |
| Wellington | Somerset Council |
| Wells | Somerset Council |
| Weston-super-Mare | North Somerset Council |
| Wincanton | Somerset Council |
| Yeovil | Somerset Council |
Service charge or accounts query? Email accounts@plymouthblockmanagement.com and quote your development and flat number, or .
Somerset Questions
Which Council Does a Block in Somerset Deal With?
Somerset Building Control, the council's own service covering the four former district areas. One body, so building control, planning and licensing sit together.
Who Enforces Fire Safety in the Common Parts in Somerset?
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, as the enforcing authority for the Fire Safety Order.
Who Supplies Water to a Development in Somerset?
Wessex Water. A communal supply is the building's contract, not a leaseholder's, so report a loss to common parts through us.
Is Somerset Too Far from Your Plymouth Office?
It is about 74 miles, an hour and a half or so. Distance changes how site visits are scheduled, not whether they happen.
Do We Need Consent for External Works in Somerset?
On a listed building or in a conservation area, yes, for much that would be permitted elsewhere. Get it before the Section 20 specification, not after.
Is the Council for Somerset Changing?
Yes. Reorganisation was decided in July 2026 and takes effect by April 2028. The lease obligations do not change; the authority you file with does.
Nearby Areas
Talk to Us About Your Building in Somerset.
A free, no-obligation proposal, written so it can be circulated to a board.