Onboarding a new client LEL Flashcards
Tell me what Bison wall frame is?
Bison wall-frame system was a prefabricated concrete construction method used primarily in the UK during the mid 20th century, particularly for high rise buildings and housing developments. The system involved precasting concrete panels off-site which were then assembled on-site to form the structure of the building. It offered several advantages such as fast construction times and reduced labour costs.
How would you identify Bison wall frame construction?
The most prominent feature is the use of large precast concrete panels for the external walls. These panels extend the height of each floor giving the building a unique look.
What type of agreement is used to document the privately rented garages?
A licence agreement for 12 months with a three month break clause.
What did you have to include within your tender submission?
Completion of the client’s questionnaire, provision of our proposal setting out how we would manage the estate and proposed fees, draft management agreement which includes details of our fees (both fixed management fees and charges for optional additional services) and links to things like our CHP, debt recovery process, details of the redress scheme we subscribe to.
Talk me through your KYC checks.
Meeting with the Directors several times during the tendering stage had confirmed that I didn’t know any of them personally, but we checked their names against our database and then carried out checks using Thirdfort which checks identity, sanctions list and for PEPs.
How did you assess for conflicts of interest?
Meeting the Directors, checking their names against our existing database.
What were the previous property managers obligations with regards to handover?
We would have expected these to be set out in their management agreement, but no-one had a copy of that. The agent was a member of ARMA who issue a guidance note on handovers but that is guidance rather than a requirement
What information was missing from the handover?
How did you propose sourcing this information?
Why did you decide to allocate two Senior PM and Assistant PM to the estate management?
It’s a large estate and we knew it would be a lot of work but with new clients we always go into the instruction with the expectation that it will be come a long-term arrangement so we are usually happy to invest extra time at the outset as it generally means it will make things better for everyone in the long run. Now that we are getting on top of things we can review the arrangements and adjust things if necessary.
What restructuring did you undertake to free up some of the Accounts Manager’s time?
We agreed what duties she would pass down the line to other members of the accounts team. We also recruited and additional member to the team during 2024.
What financial irregularities were there?
How did you ensure all the staff members involved in this instruction undertook their work effectively?
Why were the leaseholders and homeowners refusing to pay?
Because they felt that nothing was getting done
What were their obligations in terms of making payments?
What options were available to your debt recovery team to recover the arrears?
We felt that it was important to correct the irregularities first and effectively start again from scratch before we could begin our usual debt recovery process.
What obligations did the previous management agent have to produce service charge budgets and reconciliations?
They were obliged under the terms of their agreement they had with the client to do so, but they hadn’t and the client did not have the appetite for pursuing a breach of contract claim against them.
How were the service charges apportioned?
There are two schedules at this estate: One for the estate which all property owners contribute to and a second which relates solely to expenditure for the tower block which only the flat owners contribute to.
What items were included in the ‘Estate’ schedule?
What changes did you have to make to the service charge budget and why?
How were the works to deal with the garage block and building defects funded?
What were the obligations to register the building?
The Building Safety Act 2022 required all higher risk buildings to be registered with the Building Safety Regulator by 30 September 2023. At the time we took over in November 2023, this hadn’t been done so registering the building was one of our early tasks.
How did you propose dealing with the 82 action points to ensure they were all actioned?
How did you track completion of the action points?
By using an Excel spreadsheet
