Managing Agents
Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:50 am
Would be very grateful to hear experience of firms of managing agents locally. So far I have heard nothing but complaints about several managing agents operating in and around Hastings! The complaints always seem to be very similar - that agents are hard to get hold of, very slow to deal with problems, generally don't deal with them very well anyway, leaving major issues like e.g. disrepair or damp not dealt with; that they all over-charge, are not good value for money, and are not transparent about the charges.
I bought my first flat here not that long ago, in a large converted house that was supposed to be "self managed" by the flat owners. When I bought that seemed like a good idea - you get to manage yourselves and it saves money. But it turned out that the building is more like "unmanaged", with legal requirements (like fire safety) being left undone for many, many years, individual flat owners doing what they like, causing quite significant problems, refusing to comply with the bits of their lease that they don't like, and no one actually managing the building. Quite like mayhem. It seems the only option is to get competent managing agents on board, but I haven't been able to find anyone in a similar building who would actually recommend one!
If anyone does have experience of an agent who manages a smallish building (6 flats) well I would be very grateful to hear. Thank you!
I bought my first flat here not that long ago, in a large converted house that was supposed to be "self managed" by the flat owners. When I bought that seemed like a good idea - you get to manage yourselves and it saves money. But it turned out that the building is more like "unmanaged", with legal requirements (like fire safety) being left undone for many, many years, individual flat owners doing what they like, causing quite significant problems, refusing to comply with the bits of their lease that they don't like, and no one actually managing the building. Quite like mayhem. It seems the only option is to get competent managing agents on board, but I haven't been able to find anyone in a similar building who would actually recommend one!
If anyone does have experience of an agent who manages a smallish building (6 flats) well I would be very grateful to hear. Thank you!