© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
A strange sort of month this – the weather is fluctuating more than a guilty man’s graph on a lie detector test. This is bringing its own challenges, as the freak weather means buildings are being tested to extremes by the wind and the rain.
The consequences will be felt through insurance premiums and the only people who lose out in the end are the leaseholders, both in terms of damage, disruption during remedial works and the added burden of cost. It’s up to us property managers to keep the fallout to a minimum.
We recently had a meeting that gave a perfect example of the tightrope managers walk and the challenges faced on a daily basis. At one of the buildings we manage, the leaseholders wanted better controls on door and gate access. There was discussion about fingerprint recognition and differing levels of access control, to mitigate the wrong people gaining entry to the building’s facilities.
Now all things are possible and anything can be achieved. However, the main problem was the difference of opinion between those who wanted Fort Knox, and those who thought that if everyone contributes a service charge that pays for all the gates, then everyone should have unrestricted access, regardless of whether they need it or not.
To find a consensus on such divergent opinions is a challenge in any arena. Even more so in the passionate territory of people’s homes. Of course, the easy answer is for all owners and occupiers to be responsible and vigilant.
Mind you, if the solution was that simple, everyone could be shown the path to public spirit, and common responsibility could be replicated across the whole country. It’s not particularly easy when you have an AST tenant who’s proud to have nearly 50 criminal convictions!