Block Management

Hudsons specialises in both residential and commercial property in the Central London area. Founded in 2002 by Jonathan Hudson the company ethos is to deliver a personal first class service that exceeds expectations and delivers excellent results.

Thank you for considering

Hudsons

We understand that our clients demand more than just maintaining their homes and property assets. Our multi-faceted service is designed not just to care for your property, but with careful consultation with our clients, we aim to enhance their property and maximise its future investment potential.

Our senior Lettings and Management team have over 60 years combined professional experience of the business and are well respected for their knowledge, professionalism and getting the best results for our customers.

Hudsons are licensed agents of the Association of Residential Letting Agents, the Property Ombudsman, The National Association of Estate Agents and the Tenancy Dispute Service.

From our head office at 24 Charlotte Street we provide a comprehensive Property Management service to developers, RMCs (Resident Management Companies) & RTM (Right to Manage) companies.

With our extensive industry experience and know-how we are confident that you will be delighted with the service we provide, safe in the knowledge that your assets are afforded the management and protection that they deserve, and that will protect and enhance your home and investment.

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Whilst looking after the day to day upkeep of your building we also realise that careful forward planning is essential to maintain consistent capital value growth and up keep the prestige of your property.

We carefully select the contractors we work with to ensure the highest quality of service, swift completion of works and the best value for money for our clients. All of Hudson’s contractors are formally interviewed, with agreed service contracts put in place to guarantee consistently high quality work.

Regular reviews of our approved contactors ensures we have a broad and reliable database of trade specialists to enable a full catalogue of services and repair options to our managed blocks at the most competitive rates and highest quality.

As you would expect Hudsons provides a full out of hours’ service bringing assistance to you around the clock. 24/7, 365 days a year and have an email address to log and respond to enquiries.

For each of our managed sites we produce a leaseholder’s guide. This is broadly based on the lease and has key owner/tenant information which explains when service charges should be paid, who to contact

should things go wrong, what is considered internal under the lease, what is considered communal, this also includes the estate regulations and rules.

Hudsons can help you with future capital planning the right way. We instruct a surveyor to carry out a condition survey of the property looking at building component vs life expectancy and expected cost. Consulting with our residents allows us to implement improvements to not only protect their investment but also enhance the functionality of their building. We work closely with our chosen surveyors to compile a true capital reserve plan whereby we can plan for large expenditure for the years ahead. We also utilise an independent broker to provide competitive insurance premiums and to ensure that you have the appropriate level of cover.

Should your property have established contractors that you wish to retain that is no problem. All we request is that they hold the appropriate liability insurance and produce quality work at competitive rates.

Hudsons shall keep your funds in its very own designated trust account in accordance with Section 42 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987.

Our conscientious approach to Block Management and meticulous management style means we are able to provide a first class service, whilst fully engaging with our clients for complete transparency.

Why choose Hudsons?

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• Proposing a service charge budget for you to agree.

• Preparing a rolling reserve fund or capital expenditure plan with the future in mind.

• Collecting service charges in the manner the lease sets out.

• Negotiating contracts, repairs, and long term qualifying agreements.

• Interpreting leases, case laws and up to date statutory laws and requirements.

• Signposting you when we think you need specialist advice.

• Implementing best practice as it applies to the task in hand.

• Reacting by appointing contractors for small repairs to the structure, plant fixtures, fittings and equipment on a day to day basis.

• Managing, supporting and guiding neighbour issues.

• Diagnosing problems on site.

• Interpreting fire risk assessments and planning with you what you need to do.

• Instructing solicitors to deal with serious debt recovery.

• Re-tendering cleaning, gardening, and facilities contracts to deliver best value to you.

• Arranging insurance for buildings, directors and officers, plant and public liability through our specialist insurance broker.

• Inspecting the common parts at a mutually agreed frequency. Our standard proposal includes twice annually unless otherwise stated.

• Appointing a certified accountant to prepare service charge accounts.

• Protecting your money by holding all service charges in trust, in a RICS regulated client account.

• Attendance to one annual general meeting per annum.

Included in our service

Our services include the fundamental areas of service charge collection and accounts administration together with the following:

We work closely with our surveyors to compile a true capital reserve plan whereby we can plan for large expenditure for many years ahead.

The law requires that leaseholders paying variable service charges must be consulted before a landlord carries our qualifying works or enters into a long-term agreement for the provision of services.

A landlord for the purpose of consultation includes ‘ any person who has a right to enforce payment of a service charge’ (Section 30, landlord and Tenant Act 1985). Consequently, depending on the structure of the leases and titles at any given property, a landlord could be any of the following.

• Freeholder

• Head Lessee

• Resident Management Company

• Right to Manage Company

Detailed regulations have been produced under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (as amended by S151 of the Commonhold and

Leasehold Reform Act 2002) which sets out the precise procedures landlords must follow; these are the Service Charges (Consultation Requirements) (England) Regulations 2003 (‘the regulations’).

The Regulations separate the consultation procedures into four schedules, each covering different contracts.

The requirements in the Regulations are defined under three headings:

• Qualifying works

• Qualifying long-term agreements

• Qualifying works under long-term agreements

We assist our clients in the delivery of cyclical and planned maintenance works.

Major works can be hugely challenging however our contractors and professional advice will ensure your projects run smoothly and to schedule.

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Planning your future capital expenditure

Once we are instructed we shall instruct our surveyor to carry out a condition survey of the property looking at building component vs life expectancy and anticipated cost in line with the needs of the leasees.

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We will require that that prior to engaging us you will have established any current contractual obligations you hold with any other agents and provided for any required notices. If there is anything in our agreement which is not quite clear, we are here to help and explain. We undertake all our management agreements for a fixed minimum term of twelve months.

These will be the steps that will help a smooth transition.

1. We will issue to you our management handover checklist, which details a series of paperwork and information we require. This can simply be handed to any current agents to compile. In any case, you can provide us with your current agents’ details and we will do all the work. We will advise along the way of any additional information we require.

2. Once this is in place we shall set up the requisite bank accounts, files etc. in preparation for the official handover date. This is a great opportunity to discuss anything you know will want to change, write to the contractors to confirm the change of management and inform the owners of the new set-up.

3. Once the handover is complete we shall have a clear idea of your properties financial position and the current thinking regarding both short and long term plans.

4. The first few months are about building relationships and developing understanding. We will then really start to understand the agreed views of the owners and their expectations. This is a great time to consider your long term capital requirements and begin planning for the future. This includes considering your financial position against your capital milestones. What future work will be required? When and approximately how much will it cost?

Hudsons are here to help work with you to plan and agree this, and ensure the very best future for your property.

The Process

As soon as you have decided upon Hudsons as your block manager we need to arrange for our terms and conditions of management to be signed.

Hudsons Property

24 Charlotte Street, London W1T 2ND

T 020 7323 2277 F 020 7323 0077

E info@hudsonsproperty.com

www.hudsonsproperty.com

For more information