FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) – Plymouth Block Management
What is your fee structure?
Our standard fee structure is on a per unit basis annually at a cost of £250.00 per unit.
Will your fees carry VAT?
We are VAT registered and therefore all fees will incur VAT at the standard rate of 20%.
How can you convince us that you can offer a quality service at a fair cost?
Plymouth Block Management is an award-wining managing agent that puts transparency at the heart of everything that it does. Unlike many managing agents we have built our entire business around the need for transparency from having individual client accounts per property we manage to ensuring each building individually based on its own merits and history rather than on an expensive and inaccurate block policy.
At the heart of everything we do is the Resident software platform which allows leaseholders and directors access to the most important information and reports related to the management of their building 24 hours a day, not just during working hours.
We have our own in-house training programme for staff and a mandatory minimum professional development commitment of 30 hours per year for each member of staff within their respective field. We believe in leaseholders first.
Where and how do you keep service charge monies, and how are they administered and who receives any interest?
All client funds are kept in named designated client accounts provided by Lloyds Bank Plc. Each client account is in the name of the management company and are interest-bearing. The client keeps all interest.
What is your Payment Process? How do you collect the service charge: DD, Monthly, 1/4ly, Web, Portal, Phone, App
The service charge is invoiced as per the lease to ensure recoverability. Payment frequency is agreed with the Directors of the Management Company at the start of each budget year.
Leaseholders my pay by bank transfer, standing or by cheque through their own internet banking or via their nearest branch. Our leaseholder portal will shortly offer the ability to make payments directly through the portal itself – this facility is due to be available in June 2025.
How do you deal with unpaid service charges - what procedures are in place to deal with non-paying leasees
We stay up to date with leasehold laws, fire safety regulations, and health & safety requirements. Our team ensures that your property meets all legal obligations, preventing risks and potential penalties.
How close are your offices to our property?
Our offices are located in Queen Annes Battery in the Ocean Building which is approximately 10 minutes-drive from Quadrant Wharf. Our postal code is PL4 0LP.
How do you deal with complaints?
A copy of our complaint’s procedure is attached as attachment CP-1. In summary, we always try to deal with issues before they become the subject of a formal complaint though informal processes. If unfortunately, the matter cannot be resolved amicably then we apply our complaints procedure in full.
Ultimately, we defer to The Property Ombudsman for third-party arbitration if we are unable to resolve a complaint to satisfactorily through our own internal process.
How do you deal with Residents Buildings Insurance Claims?
As we are not FCA-regulated we cannot directly instruct or facilitate insurance claims however we can assist with claims management. The Property Manager will work with the Insurance Broker to collect the necessary information to support a claim and provide access to the building for loss adjusters, surveyors and approved contractors. We will also receive payments from insurers and handle the necessary disbursements either directly to the claimant or to the appropriate contractor.
What is the support you provide for an AGM?
If we are acting as Company secretary, we will fully arrange and manage the annual general meeting in conjunction with the Directors. If we are not acting as Company Secretary, we will provide the necessary admin support in generating and sending the AGM documentation and receiving apologies and proxies.
Our management fee includes the attendance of your Property Manager and a member of the service charge administration team at the AGM meeting. We also have a full Zoom license with full online voting capabilities to hold AGMs virtually.
How do you attend to routine enquiries from lessees and residents. What are your service levels?
We have three forms of communication available to leaseholders and residents:
1) Resident Portal
2) Email
3) Telephone
Our resident leaseholder portal is our preferred method of communication which allows leaseholders to send messages to their property manager and file maintenance tickets to report and track remediation works.
We also accept email communication from both leaseholders and resident direct to the designated property manager or in their absence to a ‘pool’ email accessible by the entire property management team. We expect emails to receive a reply within 24 hours of receipt. Leaseholders and Residents can also call our office Monday-Friday 9am-5pm on our main telephone line and select the appropriate apartment they wish to speak to. Alternatively, each property manager has a direct line number which goes straight to their phone.
We record all telephone calls and at the end of each day when generate a report on all missed or unanswered calls which is then given to the property managers to call back the following day.
Do you respond to solicitors' and lessees' enquiries regarding sales and licences?
We respond to all solicitor and lessee enquiries regarding sales and licenses through our internal legal services team. We work with solicitors for both the buyer and the seller to address conveyancing enquiries as quickly as possible. For license requests we offer a full-service including drafting and approvals. Fees for legal services are charged to the individual leaseholder – please see our list of additional fees which is attached.
How do you communicate with Residents? Do you produce a periodic newsletter to residents and other circulars?
The Property Manager will engage with leaseholders and residents on a regular basis through regular messages and updates issued via Resident, by email and posted within the building in agreed communal areas on notice boards. We can also arrange by agreement to send out a monthly, quarterly or bi-annual newsletter to all leaseholders and residents with updates on the current state of the building.
How much do you charge for your selling pack provided to residents who wish to sell their properties. How long does it take to issue these?
We charge £320.00 for a leasehold conveyancing pack which is issued within 14 days of payment being received. We also offer a ‘fast-track’ service for £400.00 for which we will issue the leasehold conveyancing pack within 72 hours of receipt of payment.
How comprehensive a panel of contractors do you have?
We have an extensive panel of contractors covering all major areas of property management and maintenance. We are also happy to work with existing contractors when taking on a new management instruction providing, they comply with our contractor approval policy (see answer to Q5 in this section).
How often do you undertake general inspections of a development
Formal inspections by the property manager are carried out every 3 months and report on findings is issued to the board and action points agreed upon. If the building is over 11 metres, we will also carry out the mandatory annual fire checks on flat front doors and quarterly checks on the communal doors to ensure the minimum 30-minute fire-resistance rating.
We will also carry out an annual health and safety risk assessment and address any findings. Combined fire / health and safety assessments are no longer consider best practice and so we provide the health and safety risk assessment facility through our internal staff members who are trained to the appropriate NEBOSH standard.
Do you charge a fee for contractor selection and/or a percentage of their charges:
1. Contractors chosen by you?
2. Contractors chosen by us?
We do not charge any administration or commission fees on contractor selection or on a percentage basis of the total invoice for general maintenance. When dealing with major works under Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, we charge an administration fee of 4% of the total cost of the works to cover the overall project management, the administration costs associated with generating and sending the various section 20 notices and responding to feedback
What selection criteria do you use for contractors on your panels?
New contractors must complete our contractor approval form (copy attached as CAF-1) and supply the following information annually or upon expiry:
1) Public Liability and Professional Indemnity Insurance
2) Professional Competencies Certificates
3) Risk Assessments
4) References for prior works
Contractors must supply expired documents upon renewal – if a document expires and is not updated on Resident the system will automatically remove the contractor from the available contractors list on the date of expiry.
Our payment terms are strictly 30 days and all invoices for payment must be accompanying by a works order issued by the property manager and before and after photographs of the work carried out. We reserve the right to inspect any works to our satisfaction prior to paying the contractor.
Do you charge a handling fee for work undertaken by contracts? If so, in which circumstances?
The only fee we charge is the major works fee as outlined in the response to Q3 which is an all-encompassing fee.
How often does a representative from your company visit blocks you manage and check on how your contractors fulfill their obligations?
Property Manager visits are agreed on a per-property basis.
In the case of Standard Block, we would propose a quarterly informal visit by the appointed property manager on set day and time so that residents are aware and can arrange to meet with them. In addition, we would propose a formal quarterly visit by the property manager which would be documented, and a full report shared with the board and action points agreed. Fire door regulations.
We find in reality, especially for larger properties, that we are regularly in attendance from week to week in some capacity, be it the property manager or a member of our property management team or someone from our building safety team.
How are minor repairs tended to and your SLA's i.e., time to respond and solve?
Minor repairs when notified will be acknowledged within 24 hours of the notification to the notifying party and if necessary, to the board. The property manager will issue a works order and will dispatch a pre-approved preferred contractor if the repair is estimated to be below £500.00 or seek quotations from pre-approved contractors if over £500.00. Minor works, depending on their complexity and access requirements, should be fully resolved with 72 hours of being reported.
Do you offer an out-of-office-hours service for emergencies? If so, please provide details. If not, what is the process?
We operate an in-house 24-hour emergency telephone service for all of our blocks which is staffed by experienced property managers who volunteer to do so. This is a chargeable service outside of the standard management fee and is charged at 95p (inc VAT) per unit per month.
What IT facilities do you have and what information can you record and keep updated? Are you registered under the Data Protection laws?
We are registered with Information Commissioner’s Office as a data processor and a data controller (certificate attached as ICO-Cert). We operate a bespoke cloud-based residential property management system called Resident (www.resident.uk.com) which provides a centralised platform for us, management company directors and leaseholders to share information and communicate. All critical information, reports and certificates are uploaded to
and are available on Resident for leaseholders to access at any time, this includes but is not limited to the following:
1. Insurance Documents
2. Fire Risk Assessments
3. Electrical Installation Condition Reports
4. Fire Safety Certifications and Reports
5. Building Safety Reports
Resident offers levels of access depending on the individual leaseholder’s position within the management company – Directors receive enhanced access with full access to all information held on Resident and can review bank statements, run financial reports, track arrears and review works orders and contractor submissions.
As a cloud-based system Resident is available anywhere and should in theory always be available, however, to ensure continued operation in the event of a failure of Resident we maintain our own internal on-premises file server which stores duplicate copies of all records relating to each block. This in turn is backed up to a cloud-based backup service.
As a final backup, all critical records, reports and certificates for each block we manage is printed off and kept in a folder securely at our offices to ensure in the event of a total IT failure we still have the relevant information to hand for the most important critical tasks. Physical records are archived at the end of each financial year and stored securely in our archive store.
How do you deal with lessees in breach of their leases?
When a potential breach of lease is advised to us, we will carry out an initial investigation. If we believe the lessee is in breach, we will serve them a notice informing them that we believe they are in breach, what they have breached, why it constitutes a breach and what rectification we expect them to make within a set timescale.
If they fail to comply, we will escalate the matter to the head-lessee or freeholder to pursue the breach formally through the Tribunal. We can recommend experienced solicitors to pursue the matter if required.
When we are aware of a leaseholder being in breach, they are flagged as such on Resident – this prevents us from issuing them any further demands and excludes them from all communications and participation until the breach is confirmed as resolved.
Provide full details of your professional indemnity insurance.
Our professional indemnity insurance is included as PI-1 in the attachments.
What is your risk management, fire safety and health and safety compliance procedure?
Fire Safety and Health and Safety Compliance are managed between the Senior Property Manager and the Legal department.
The legal department manages the records all of compliance-related documentation such as fire risk assessments and ensures they books in by the appropriate review date.
The Senior Property Manager oversees the property managers and is responsible for ensuring that all remediation actions identified in any compliance document is properly reviewed and remediated within the timescale specified in the report.
Where a building is over 18 metres and requires approval for remediation works from the Building Safety Regulator, the legal department will file the necessary planning gateway application to gain the necessary approval after which the property manager will arrange for the remedial work to be completed by a contractor who is suitably qualified to work on high-rise buildings.
All copies of assessments and their due dates is entered onto Resident and can be viewed by directors or leaseholders at any time on the Leaseholder portal.
How many staff in your company are involved with management
Please see the attached organisation chart included with the attachments as Org-1.
For regular building, we would assign an experience property manager supported by a second property manager and a service charge administrator who would form the core team. They would be overseen by the Senior Property Manager with overall oversight at the senior management level sitting with the Director of property Management and/or the Managing Director.
The Property manager will be one of the below
Property manager, 2 Years experience and currently completing a level 3 apprenticeship in property management in May 2025.
Service Charge Administrator, 3 years’ experience and a level 2 Qualification in accounting
Direct supervision and monitoring of compliance and performance: Senior Property Manager 10 Years experience and a Level 4 Qualification in Fire, Health and Safety with NEBOSH
Office Manager 7 Years experience and a Level 2 qualification in Property Management.
Senior Management Oversight: Director of Property Management 10+ years’ experience and Level 4 Qualifications in Property Management, Housing and Leadership.
Managing Director 10+ years’ experience and Level 4 qualification in Property Management and Leadership.
All staff are registered with The Property Institute depending on qualification level:
Level 2 – Affiliate / Foundation
Level 3-Associate
Level 4-Member
What staff training and compliance with Health and Safety and employment legislation do you provide?
All of our property management staff are trained in health and safety through approved external contractors and have achieved the IOSH Certificate in Health and Safety.
More senior experienced staff members have been trained to the NEBOSH standard and hold Certificates in Health and Safety or Fire Safety, depending on their role.
All property managers have been completed and passed the necessary training to assess and certify fire doors with buildings over 11 metres.
What local representation will be on site
The Property Manager will visit the property weekly at an agreed time on a set day so that all leaseholders and residents will have an opportunity each week to meet with them in person.
Additional staff will also visit the site as required to meet with contractors and leaseholders.
We are aware that you currently have onsite staff provided by your current agent however we also understand they shared amongst other properties in the area, so we do not anticipate needing to acquire those staff under TUPE laws. We expect the current managing agent will wish to remove the onsite staff upon termination and would therefore consider in conjunction with the board whether on onsite staff member is required.
What length of notice period do you require?
Our standard notice period is 3 months.
Can we have the right to refuse a new agent if your company changes ownership and have the right to find an alternative agent
Our management contract contains a clause which requires your consent to transfer your management agreement to a new managing agent if PBM changes ownership. If you decline to grant consent the contract automatically becomes void ☑ upon transfer of the business, and you may negotiate a new agreement or seek another managing agent.
What advice to the Board on residential landlord and tenant procedures including statute and practice do you provide?
We are able to advise on all aspects of leasehold hold law including, but not limited to:
Law of Property Act 1925
Landlord and Tenant Act 1985
Landlord and Tenant Act 1987
Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002
Housing Act 2004
Fire Safety Act 2021
Building Safety Act 2022
Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024
We can also make applications and representations on behalf of the management company and/or individual leaseholders in the First Tier Tribunal.
We can also advise on company law specific to the governance of the management company through the Companies Act 2006.
Where a matter exceeds our ability or requires a practicing solicitor, we can recommend suitable solicitors experienced in all aspects of leasehold law. Our preferred legal practice is Property Management Legal Services who specialise exclusively in leasehold law and recovery of service charge arrears. Clients of Plymouth Block Management are very welcome and often benefit from flexible costs.
Please provide all relevant company details including the names and qualifications of all directors and a list of proprietors if not a quoted company.
Plymouth Block Management is a trading name of Residential Block Management Group Limited which is a limited company registered in England – co. regn. no. is 11252218. The company is VAT registered, and our registration number is 282 443 688.
There are two executive directors and shareholders of Residential Block Management Group Limited – they are:
Mr Mark Christie – Managing Director 10+ years’ experience and Level 4 qualification in Property Management and Leadership. Ex RN.
Mrs Tatiana Christie – Director Mrs Christie is not directly involved with the day-to-day operations of the company.
How many years have you been in the property management business?
Residential Block Management Group has been involved in property management since 2012. It was originally part of Property Links which was Plymouth’s largest independent letting agency until it was sold to Countrywide in 2014. The property management portfolio was not included and was spun off into a separate company which operates to this day.
How many blocks do you manage, and how many units are there in each of those blocks?
We manage a wide range of blocks and estates ranging from small, converted houses of 4-6 flats up to high-rise buildings with flats in the hundreds and freehold housing estates predominantly across Devon and Cornwall.
Currently, our portfolio consists of 2,831 units across 158 managed properties including blocks and estates.
The average number of units per property manager current is between 300-400 – we consider a property manager to be maxed depending on ability at around 550-600 units.
Please supply three references for blocks you manage. Ideally those blocks should be similar to our own property and in our area.
On application
List any professional or trade bodies to which your firm belongs.
The Property Institute
The Property Ombudsman
The Information Commissioners Offic
How do you document management procedures and issues
Plymouth Block Management is accredited to the ISO 9001:2015 International Standard for quality management and operates an approved quality management system internally. (ISO Registration certificate is included in the attachments as ISO-1).
Documents are strictly controlled, and procedures are documented and managed through a process of management review using the Plan > Do > Check > Act methodology.
Complaints are handled through our complaint’s procedure and the senior management team reviews management information such as causes of complaints, matters relating to loss of instructions and procedural failures made by staff as part of its monthly management review process.
Corrective actions are put in place to ensure complaints and errors are learnt from and not repeated. This helps us to continually grow our service and improve it through honest non-biased criticism and review of our performance.
How do you keep the Board informed of status of agreed actions
In our view this is the crucial part of the initial setup of management. Agreeing communication flow with the board and reporting expectations is paramount to ensuring the partnership between management company and managing agent works effectively.
We have found the best approach is to have a designated director as the main point of contact for day-to-day communications to work directly alongside the property manager. The property manager will communicate with the designated director and keep them informed of required actions and their progress which is then filtered back to the other directors through the designated director.
Agreement at an early stage on what the board wishes to be kept updated on is also paramount and we normally set this out in a separate service level agreement once all stakeholders and expected timecales have been agreed.
Do you provide company secretarial work, for example preparation and distribution of the notices for the AGM/EGMs
We provide all company secretary services for an additional annual fee of £180.00 inc. VAT per annum. This includes:
1) Filing annual confirmation statements
2) Filing the annual dormant company accounts
3) Adding/removing Directors
4) Transferring shares or memberships when a flat changes owner
5) Preparing the AGM including providing and serving all relevant paperwork
6) Producing the AGM Minutes
7) Calling EGM’s when required including the necessary paperwork
8) Operating secret ballots
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) – Plymouth Block Management
What is block management, and how does it work?
Block management involves overseeing the maintenance, financial management, and compliance of residential or commercial buildings with multiple leaseholders. At Plymouth Block Management, we handle everything from repairs and service charge management to legal compliance and communication with residents.
What types of properties do you manage?
We manage a variety of properties, including residential apartment blocks, mixed-use developments, commercial buildings, and commonhold properties across North Devon and surrounding areas.
How are service charges calculated and managed?
Service charges are calculated based on the costs required to maintain the property, including cleaning, repairs, insurance, and management fees. We provide transparent budgeting and financial reporting to ensure leaseholders understand how their contributions are used.
What happens in case of an emergency at the property?
We offer 24/7 emergency support to handle urgent issues such as plumbing leaks, electrical failures, or security concerns. Our team responds promptly to ensure minimal disruption and quick resolution.
What should I do if my block management company closes down, ceases trading or sells?
If your block management company ceases operations, it’s important to act quickly. Check your lease to understand who can appoint a new manager — often the freeholder or residents’ management company. We help Devon-based clients transition smoothly, ensuring legal compliance and continued care of the property with minimal disruption.
How do you ensure compliance with legal and safety regulations?
We stay up to date with leasehold laws, fire safety regulations, and health & safety requirements. Our team ensures that your property meets all legal obligations, preventing risks and potential penalties.
How can I get a quote for block management services?
Getting a quote is easy! Simply contact us via phone, email, or our website, and we’ll provide a tailored quote based on your property’s specific requirements.
