Residential Block Management
We run blocks of flats for resident management companies, RTM companies and freeholders across the South West: budgets, service charge accounts, repairs, insurance and fire safety duties, with no commission on contractor work. We run them from our Plymouth head office, and won Managing Agent of the Year (1,000 to 5,000 units) at the ARMA ACE Awards 2022.
Proposals are for developments of 50 or more units. Smaller building? Talk to our team.
Last updated by the Plymouth Block Management team.
What Is Residential Block Management?
Residential block management, usually just called block management, is the running of a building divided into flats or apartments on behalf of whoever holds the management obligations in the leases: a resident management company, an RTM company or a freeholder. It covers the shared parts of the building rather than the inside of each flat: setting and collecting the service charge, insuring and repairing the structure and common parts, managing contractors, producing the year-end accounts and meeting the fire safety and health and safety duties for the common areas.
A development of houses with shared roads and open space is run in the same way under estate management, and a freeholder who wants its obligations carried out on its behalf uses freehold management.
Block Management vs Property Management: What Is the Difference?
The two terms describe different jobs. A property manager typically works for one landlord, letting and looking after individual homes: the tenancy, the rent and repairs inside each one. Block management looks after a building of flats as a whole: the structure and roof, the communal areas, buildings insurance, contractors and the fire safety duties. The managing agent acts for the RMC, RTM company or freeholder, and the leaseholders usually share the cost through the service charge.
| Block management | Property management | |
|---|---|---|
| Who appoints the agent | The RMC, RTM company or freeholder | An individual landlord |
| What it covers | The structure, common parts, insurance and safety duties of the whole building | One home: the tenancy, the rent and repairs inside it |
| Who pays | Usually all the leaseholders, through the service charge | The landlord |
A landlord who lets out a flat in a managed block deals with both: whoever manages the tenancy, and the managing agent for the building.
What Does a Block Management Company Do?
A block management company, or managing agent, is the firm appointed to run the building day to day, under a management agreement with its client. For the blocks we manage, that means:
- A formal inspection of each development every three months, reported to the board with agreed action points
- A service charge budget set before the year begins, demands issued with the statutory summary of rights and obligations, and money banked in the building’s own client account
- Repairs raised, instructed and followed up, with no commission taken on contractor work
- Buildings insurance placed through brokers, renewed each year and claimed on for the common parts
- Fire risk assessments and health and safety checks for the common parts, with the evidence kept on the building’s record
- Section 20 consultation planned early, ahead of major works
- Reserve fund planning, timed to when each major component is due for replacement
- Cleaning, grounds maintenance and window cleaning let to approved contractors, with the communal areas and grounds checked at every inspection
- AGM notices, papers and minutes, where we act as company secretary
- Management packs for a buyer's solicitor when a flat is sold, at our published fee
- Year-end accounts prepared against the budget, and a 24-hour line for genuine emergencies
The agent acts for the client that appointed it, but the service charge money it handles is held on trust for the leaseholders who paid it.
Who Hires the Managing Agent for a Block of Flats?
The managing agent for a block of flats is hired by whoever the leases make responsible for management: the freeholder, a resident management company (RMC) or an RTM company. Leaseholders pay for the agent’s work through the service charge, including the management fee where the leases allow it, but the contract is with the client that made the appointment.
The phrase “management company for flats” is used for two different things. One is the resident management company, a company usually owned by the leaseholders that is a party to the leases or owns the freehold, and is responsible for running the building. The other is the managing agent, a firm such as ours that the RMC, the RTM company or the freeholder appoints to do the work.
Who makes the appointment decides how leaseholders can change the agent. Where they control an RMC or RTM company, its directors can appoint a new agent under the terms of the current agreement. Where the freeholder appoints, leaseholders can claim the right to manage, and a landlord must consult them under section 20 before entering a management agreement of more than 12 months that would cost any leaseholder more than £100 a year. Our guide to changing your managing agent sets out the steps.
What Residential Block Management Covers
Our blocks range from converted houses with a handful of flats to purpose-built developments with lifts, car parks and landscaped grounds. The work is the lease put into practice: setting and collecting the service charge, keeping the building insured and in repair, and making sure the fire safety and health and safety duties for the common parts are met and recorded.
Residents of the blocks we manage report routine repairs during office hours. Genuine emergencies out of hours, such as a significant water leak or a lift entrapment, go to our 24-hour emergency line on 01752 257338, option zero.
Our Residential Block Management Services Include
- Property inspections every three months, reported to the board
- Residential block maintenance and repairs, with contractor management
- Buildings insurance renewals and claims on the building policy
- Fire safety and health and safety compliance for the common parts, including fire risk assessments
- Service charge budgets, collection and year-end accounts
Choosing the Level of Management
Full management is not the only arrangement. Directors who want to keep the contractors and repair decisions can choose admin-only management, a building with a shop or office on the ground floor needs its service charge split under mixed-use property management, and a resident management company can hand its Companies House filings to us as company secretary.
What the Law Requires of a Managing Agent
Residential leasehold management is not a statutorily regulated profession in England. There is no licence to hold and no qualification required, although a managing agent must belong to a government-approved redress scheme under article 5 of the Redress Schemes for Lettings Agency Work and Property Management Work (Requirement to Belong to a Scheme etc) (England) Order 2014. Beyond that, the standard a leaseholder actually gets depends on the agent they appoint and on the obligations written into the lease. On 29 September 2026 the government announced it will legislate for an independent regulator of property agents, including block managing agents, with licences to practise and mandatory qualifications; nothing changes until a new Act of Parliament is passed.
The duties themselves are statutory even where the agent is not. Service charges are governed by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985: section 19 limits recovery to costs reasonably incurred, section 20 sets the consultation thresholds for qualifying works and long-term agreements, and section 21 gives leaseholders the right to a summary of costs. Section 42 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 requires service charge money to be held on trust, in a separate account, for the contributing leaseholders.
Building safety adds a further layer. The Building Safety Act 2022 and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 place duties on whoever is responsible for a building's fire safety, including record-keeping obligations that fall to the managing agent in practice. A block of at least 18 metres or seven storeys with two or more homes has had to be registered with the Building Safety Regulator since 1 October 2023, and its accountable person has had to assess and manage building safety risks since 6 April 2024.
Leasehold reform is arriving in stages. As at October 2026 the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 right to manage changes have applied since 3 March 2025, while its new service charge demand forms, accounts and annual reports still await regulations that the government expects leaseholders to see during 2027.
Where a block has communal heating, the heat network has been regulated by Ofgem since 27 January 2026, with consumer protection duties for whoever supplies the heat, usually the landlord, the residents' management company or the RTM company.
How We Are Accountable
Because the sector is unregulated, accountability has to come from somewhere else. Plymouth Block Management is a member of The Property Ombudsman, which gives leaseholders an independent route of redress once our own complaints procedure is exhausted, and the company holds ISO 9001:2015 certification for its quality management system, certificate FS 685565, audited by BSI.
Client money is held in designated accounts, and our fee is a management fee: we take no commission on contractor work, so there is no incentive for us when a building spends more.
Fire Safety Duties in a Block of Flats
The common parts of a block of flats are covered by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, so every building needs a current fire risk assessment for its shared areas, whatever its height. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 add duties that scale with the building: in any block with two or more flats, residents must be given fire safety instructions and information about the importance of fire doors.
Above 11 metres, communal fire doors have to be checked every three months and flat entrance doors on a best-endeavours basis every year. Above 18 metres the building is a higher-risk building under the Building Safety Act 2022, with registration, a named accountable person and a safety case on top. We keep the evidence for each of these in the building's record, because an inspection that is not written down cannot be shown to have happened.
A Management Year, in Order
The service charge budget is set before the year begins and apportioned in line with the leases. Demands go out with the statutory summary of rights and obligations, and money is banked into the building's own client account. Through the year the building is inspected, repairs are raised and tracked, insurance is renewed and compliance checks fall due on their own dates.
At the end of the year the accounts are prepared against the budget, any balancing charge or credit is worked out lease by lease, and for a resident management company the directors receive what they need for the company's own filings and meeting. Where major works are coming, section 20 consultation is planned early enough that the programme is not held up by the notice periods.
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions resident management company directors most often ask before they appoint us.
Are Block Management Companies Regulated in England?
Not by a licensing regime yet. In England a managing agent needs no licence or qualification, but must belong to a government-approved redress scheme; ours is The Property Ombudsman. On 29 September 2026 the government announced it will legislate for an independent regulator with licences and mandatory qualifications, and nothing changes until a new Act of Parliament is passed.
What Is the Difference Between Block Management and Property Management?
Property management usually means looking after individual rented homes for a landlord: finding tenants, collecting rent and arranging repairs inside each home. Block management covers the shared parts of a building of flats for the freeholder, resident management company or RTM company: the service charge, buildings insurance, communal repairs, year-end accounts and fire safety duties for the common areas.
How Much Does Block Management Cost?
Our management fee is a fixed annual amount, quoted for each building and agreed in advance, so it appears as one identifiable line in the service charge budget, recoverable where the leases allow. We take no commission on contractor work, and one-off charges, such as the start-up fee for taking a building on, are in our published price list.
Can Leaseholders Change Their Managing Agent?
Yes, through whoever appoints it. Directors of an RMC or RTM company can appoint a new agent under the notice terms of the current agreement. Where the freeholder appoints the agent, leaseholders can claim the right to manage, or, where management has seriously failed, ask the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a manager under section 24 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987.
What Is the Difference Between Block Management and Estate Management?
Block management runs a building divided into flats, under its leases and through a service charge. Estate management runs a development of houses with shared roads, open space and services, usually under the transfer deeds and through an estate charge. Many developments need both, where blocks of flats sit inside a wider estate.
How Often Do You Inspect the Blocks You Manage?
A property manager inspects each development we manage formally every three months and reports the findings to the board with agreed action points. Between inspections, residents report routine repairs during office hours, and the property manager for the building instructs and follows up the work. Our property inspections page explains what each inspection covers.
What Happens If Something Goes Wrong Out of Hours?
Genuine emergencies out of hours, such as a significant water leak or a lift entrapment, go to our 24-hour emergency line on 01752 257338, option zero. Routine repairs wait for office hours, Monday to Friday, so that they can be logged, instructed and followed up by the property manager who looks after the building.
Do You Take Commission on Contractor Work?
No. Our fee is a management fee, and we take no commission on contractor work, so there is no incentive for us when a building spends more. Service charge money is held on trust for the contributing leaseholders under section 42 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, in designated client accounts.
Sources
Everything above is taken from these, not from a summary of them:
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 19 legislation.gov.uk
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 20 legislation.gov.uk
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, section 42 legislation.gov.uk
- Building Safety Act 2022 legislation.gov.uk
- Redress Schemes for Lettings Agency Work and Property Management Work (Requirement to Belong to a Scheme etc) (England) Order 2014, article 5 legislation.gov.uk
- Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, section 84 legislation.gov.uk
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