View publication - Chartered Institute of Housing

MEETING THE SKILLS CHALLENGE
Leaseholders see themselves on a par with owner occupiers but they are legally tenants
(and their occupation is governed by Landlord and Tenant Acts). They don’t own the
building but they have permission to occupy their flats for a long term. Some may have
bought a flat that entitles them, along with other leaseholders, to a share in a
management company that runs the block on a day-by-day basis. Some have bought
just a part share (shared ownership). After the Housing Act 1996 introduced Assured
Shorthold Tenancies, the finance companies made buy-to-let mortgages readily available
and so many investors have bought leasehold flats to sublet to weekly subtenants.
Whatever the demographics of the building the landlord’s interest, the asset and the
common parts, needs managing. This is the work of the residential property manager.
Seeing the whole of the moon
There’s an old rock ballad by The Water Boys called ‘Whole of the Moon’ a love song
about the singer’s partner seeing the bigger picture. The lyrics written by Mike Scott
present the story like this (from the second verse):
‘I was grounded
While you filled the skies
I was dumbfounded by truth
You cut through lies
I saw the rain dirty valley
You saw Brigadoon
I saw the crescent
You saw the whole of the moon.’
It is a fitting song for the residential property manager working in the modern context
where perhaps they are the only ones to see the bigger picture. The land owner,
developer, lease drafter, sales agent, conveyancing solicitor and the leaseholder only see
the crescents – it’s only the property manager that sees the whole of the moon.
The management of leasehold blocks is different from that of social housing. Landlord’s
can manage their buildings in many different ways but if they want to be able to
recharge the cost of services back onto the leaseholders, through the service charge
provisions in the lease, then they are bound by a raft of legislation and separate codes
of practice. Block management is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Some landlords have
IT systems that are ‘top down’ covering their whole property portfolio. The good block
managers have systems that work from the ‘bottom up’ so that each leaseholder is seen
as an individual customer.
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