Frequently Asked Questions
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A management company — often called an RMC, or residents' management company — owns and looks after the parts of a development that nobody owns individually. In an apartment block that means the stairwells, landings, communal gardens, car parking and the structure of the building itself. On a housing development it usually means the open space, and sometimes unadopted roads, footpaths and lighting.
Apartment blocks in Northern Ireland have had management companies for decades. They became far more common on housing developments after planning policy in the mid-2000s required developers to provide open space, because someone has to own and maintain that land once the developer moves on. As a homeowner on the development, you are a shareholder in that company.
The management company is owned by the homeowners, but it still has to be run day to day — budgets set, invoices paid, accounts filed, insurance renewed, contractors booked and supervised, repairs organised, queries answered. Most shareholders have neither the time nor the inclination to do all of that themselves.
A managing agent is appointed to do it on the company's behalf. We work to the directors' instructions, report back to shareholders, and are accountable to both. What we do not do is make the decisions for you — the directors decide the level of service, and we deliver it.
The service charge is each homeowner's share of the cost of running the development for the year. It is not a fee for one particular job, and it is not our fee.
A typical budget covers grounds maintenance and communal cleaning, buildings and public liability insurance, repairs to communal areas, communal electricity where there is any, accountancy and company secretarial costs, bank charges, our management fee, and a contribution to a reserve fund for larger works down the line. The budget is prepared in advance, shared with the directors, and apportioned between the properties on the basis set out in your title deeds.
Yes. The obligation to contribute is written into the covenants in your title deeds and the contract you signed when you bought the property, so it runs with the property rather than being something you opt into.
If money is tight, talk to us early. We would far rather agree a payment plan than watch arrears build up. Where an account is left unpaid and unexplained we do pursue it, through the small claims court and debt recovery solicitors if it comes to that, because the shortfall otherwise falls on your neighbours.
Where the open space sits was decided by the planning approval, not by the management company. The obligation to contribute applies to every property on the development regardless of the view from your window.
Every homeowner benefits from the development being properly maintained, whether directly by using the space or indirectly through the appearance and value of the estate as a whole. As shareholders, everyone has the same rights over it and the same responsibility for it.
Because it does not own them. Where land within a development has been transferred to a management company it is private land, and the council has no duty to maintain it.
Councils and the Roads Service look after adopted roads and footpaths, and usually street lighting. Anything never adopted — open space, communal car parking, private access roads — stays with the management company, and therefore with its shareholders.
They should, and it is one of the most common things we hear. The solicitor acting for a buyer is responsible for explaining that the property sits within a management company, what the service charge is, and what obligations come with the title.
If it was not made clear to you at the time, that is genuinely frustrating — but it does not remove the obligation. Ring us and we will explain exactly what applies to your property and why.
Email or telephone the office and it goes straight into the system. Our office is staffed from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, on 028 3005 4500.
Outside those hours, email [email protected]. Urgent matters — an escape of water, a failed communal door, anything that makes the building unsafe — are picked up and passed to a contractor rather than left until Monday. We would always rather hear about something twice than not at all.
We work from an approved list of suppliers and tradespeople built up over more than twenty years of managing developments across Northern Ireland. Everyone on it carries their own public liability insurance and has a track record we can vouch for.
Larger works go out for competitive quotations, and we tender services annually so the pricing stays honest. We also inspect the work rather than taking the invoice on trust — if a cleaner or gardener is not meeting the specification, that gets raised with them, not passed on to you.
The annual general meeting is where directors and shareholders review the year: the accounts, what was spent and on what, the budget for the year ahead, and any larger works being considered. Directors are appointed at the AGM, and any shareholder can put themselves forward.
We prepare the agenda, issue the invitations, attend the meeting and circulate the minutes afterwards to shareholders and directors alike, including to those who could not make it. Bring your questions — that is what the meeting is for.
Contact the office and we will deal with it. We handle pre-sale enquiries regularly and know what conveyancers need: the service charge position on the property, whether anything is outstanding, the insurance schedule, and details of the management company itself.
Sales fall through over slow replies, so we treat these as time-sensitive. You will be able to speak to someone who knows the development rather than working through a call centre.
Start with your management company's articles of association and title documents, which set out who has authority to appoint and remove an agent — usually the directors, sometimes subject to a shareholder vote. Check what notice your existing agreement requires.
When you are ready we will talk you through what we would do differently and what it would cost, with no obligation. Handovers are routine for us: we collect the records, accounts and insurance details from the outgoing agent and take it from there. Solicitors and developers tell us the transfer process is straightforward, and we work hard to keep it that way.