Never A Dull Moment

Well the dullest month of the year is nearly over. Although going by the weather you would be forgiven thinking Spring had arrived early.

 Usually during the winter months we are inundated with weather causing problems but it hasn’t been the case this year not a car stuck in the car park or guttering blown off a building in sight, gardeners have even reported flowers already are starting to bud. Whether this mild weather will continue who knows, this is England after all and we could have six inches of snow on the ground next week.

 January however is a busy time for managing agents as we need to finalise all accounts for those developments that had a December year end, collating and printing off all information to send to the accountants so that the company accounts can be prepared.

It is even busier here at Block Managers as we have opted to use an accounting system where individual files are created for each financial year as opposed to simply rolling on. Fortunately data is automatically transferred from the previous financial year which saves on a lot of manual inputting of data.

 January is also the time of year where we receive many new business enquiries. With Christmas now out of the way residents are reviewing, like many of us, their expenses and looking to save money.

On a personal note I just received my car insurance renewal and instantly by going online saved nearly £200 and I am getting a free cuddly meerkat thrown in for good measure – simples!

 With many residents finding they are paying more in service charges than they are in council tax they are looking more closely into these charges too and finding like most things in life they can get a better and cheaper service elsewhere and are calling us. It is good to know that last year’s radio campaign did have some effect even if we don’t throw in a cuddly toy!

 Over the next few months as well as dealing with new business enquiries and taking on the management of new developments I ensure service charge payments are being paid both on time and at the correct amount. Any managing agents will tell you this is one of; if not the most important job they do after all developments rely on these regular payments to survive. Meetings also have to be arranged with resident directors to get the just prepared company accounts reviewed and signed before filing them at Companies House.

Once that is done then perhaps I can relax? Unfortunately not it all starts again for those developments whose financial year ends in March!

I can honestly say there is never a dull moment in the world of block management it may seem repetitive at times but there is always a challenge of some sort waiting around the corner and now and again you will pick up the phone and it will be someone who has gone out of their way just to thank you for doing something as simple as fixing a banging communal door!