Flat-Living.co.uk ARMA
ARMA Conference programme announced
The Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) has recently announced the full programme for its 15th Annual Conference on 4th November in Central London. The ARMA Conference is now firmly established as the event for all those involved with the management of long leasehold estates and blocks of flats. This year’s conference will be particularly significant given the Government’s decision to abandon Regulation of the leasehold sector and the new Accounting Regulations that would have given added protection to thousands of lessees’ service charge funds; many will be wondering what the future holds
and the conference in part will try to address that along with all the other important current topics by leading industry figures: updates on the latest legislation, dealing with nightmare leases, making sure you are safe on site, preparing for and presenting at the LVTs, supporting new property managers, moving up the value chain, estate staff and illegals and much more... If you want to find out more and are interested
in attending then the full conference brochure and booking form can be downloaded from the ARMA website,
www.arma.org.uk. The event tends to sell out quickly so you are advised to submit your booking form asap!
MITIE 250th for ARMA
MITIE which provides facilities, property and asset management for some of the largest public and private sector businesses has become the 250th corporate member of the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) which represents the vast majority of those managing residential leasehold properties. In welcoming MITIE as a member ARMA’s chairman, Brett Williams, commented: “This is a double achievement. We have grown our membership of residential leasehold management firms by 25% over these last two difficult years and we are celebrating it through a highly respected business. When asked why MITIE were joining ARMA at this time Neil Oakey, operations manager of MITIE, explained: “We are looking to grow our leasehold management portfolio, so it was a logical step to become part of this self-regulatory body in an otherwise unregulated sector. We also see that ARMA’s technical support fits in with our philosophy of ‘not just what we do, but how we do it.’”
WORDS OF WARNING ABOUT ‘HAVING A GO’
While encouraged by the continuing growth in membership Williams is concerned about the dangers of ‘pop-up’ leasehold property managers. “With the housing market expected to stay becalmed in 2010, those involved in other areas of the residential property sector will continue to look for alternative sources of revenue,” he says. “The Association of Residential Letting Agents early last year
warned of an influx of unregulated estate agents entering the lettings market. Now we are voicing similar sentiments over estate agents and even letting agents seeking to bolster their income streams by entering the leasehold sector. As a result over the past 18 months ARMA has seen the percentage of firms engaged in sales and or lettings enquiring about membership reach an all time high.” “However residential leasehold management is highly complex
and fraught with myriad technical and legislative requirements so a couple of days training is far from enough to equip new entrants into the sector. Indeed we have a strict requirement that any applicant firm must have two years proven experience before we will consider an application for Corporate membership. “Our fear is,” Williams continues, “other professions will ‘have a go’ and
when the market picks up find it less profitable and walk away. Putting managing agent’s fees next to what estate agents’ get on the average sale for example, and they don’t look so exciting. A managing agent might get a couple of hundred pounds a year management fee for each flat in a block – whereas an estate agent might get over £5,000 for selling the average property. With our members, they have an ongoing contractual relationship with the landlord and therefore the leaseholders as well.” ARMA does offer an affiliation status for those firms entering the
field of block management who do not have the required knowledge and skills to become full corporate members. This status enables new entrants to a have access to ARMA’s technical support and training leading to full membership after two years.
Some of the estates that MITIE manage 33
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