Changing managing agent (or going without one): how to do it properly

Changing your managing agent — or moving to self-management — is an ordinary decision for the owners. The hard part is not deciding it: it is the handover.

What has to be approved

Appointing and removing officers is a matter for the meeting. It goes on the agenda, gets voted on and is recorded clearly in the minutes: removal of the previous agent, with an effective date, and appointment of the new one (or the chair or a neighbour taking on the functions, if you are going to self-manage).

Check first what the contract says: term, notice period and what happens to work in progress. Honouring the notice period avoids the one genuinely avoidable conflict in the whole process.

What to demand at handover

This is what really matters, and where most buildings end up crippled:

• The minute book, properly stamped and up to date.
• Full accounts: statements, receipts, invoices, the position of every owner.
• Balances and account ownership for the community accounts, with the change of signatories under way.
• Current contracts: lift, cleaning, insurance, maintenance, utilities.
• Technical documentation: insurance, building inspection where applicable, certificates, guarantees on works.
• Contact details for owners and suppliers.
• Outstanding debts and the status of any claim in progress.

Ask for it in writing and with a deadline. A verbal handover of "whatever there is" is the source of half the problems of the following year.

If you are going to self-manage

It is perfectly legal and for a small building it is often sensible. You just have to be honest about what it involves: keeping accounts, calling meetings properly, drafting valid minutes, managing suppliers and answering neighbours. It is not difficult, but it is constant.

What makes the difference is not capability, it is the system: that everything is recorded somewhere other than one person head, so the next handover does not start from zero again.

One final note

Make the change with the accounting year closed as far as possible. Switching agent mid-year, with invoices half-processed and charges issued by the previous one, makes the first year a great deal harder.