UK Apartment damaged

[lorna]

also, there must have been a huge pile of old post and freebie newspapers with dates on them ? if the flat was unlet, surely there must have been some bills. i seem to keep getting bills at my house for some reason !?

 

[coppers]

Thanks again for replies.
Clubman - Yes I mean my apartment. This is the third letting agent. I know management costs are seperate to letting costs I was trying to give an overall picture of the costs hoping to get a reaction to the net yield. Apartment is pre-let from September.

Lorna - After having an agent looking for a substantial amount of money to repair someone elses apartment I am more suspicious of dealings with an earlier agent. Hence the question re letting.

Yes it has been a very sloppy approach to an investment. I would be happy to sell, take a loss and move on. However previous attempt to sell failed depite a favourable asking price. It won't be possible to sell untill a management company is operating successfully and receiving fees from all owners. As for absentee landlords we're in the "overseas property investment" forum.

I should be able to pay a management company and then have minimum involvement from there on.

The apartments are all rented to students(10 months of the year). The majority of them(60% down from 95%) are owned by one investor including unused retail units on the ground floor). The lack of a management company is apparantly as a result of this person trying to be the management company/agent with a view to spending as little money as possible. The letting agent(quite friendly with the person in question) is insisting he take on a proper management company. Hopefully this will come about as the apartments I saw and the common areas are in a very poor state.

The viability of this company is obviously in question if the majority shareholder isn't prepared to pay fees. Any idea what options are available if this continues?

 

[ClubMan]

insisting he take on a proper management company.

You mean a proper management agent? The management company is one entity and the management agent (where employed by the company) is another separate one altogether.

The viability of this company is obviously in question

Does the management copmany still exist, properly registered with the UK CRO (or equivalent), with sufficient funds to avoid trading recklessly and up to date on all account filings etc.? If not then you have problems.

Any idea what options are available if this continues?

As mentioned earlier have you sought independent legal advice?