Frequently asked questions

You must ensure your fire door is compliant and effective — if it is not, you must conduct works to meet compliance. As your Block Managers, it's part of our duties to conduct regular fire door inspections, including a detailed 10-point inspection of all fire doors in your building.

If you've been sent a Fire Door Repairs Quotation, our recent inspection has shown maintenance issues that must be addressed to avoid non-compliance with fire safety laws. The terms of your lease also require you to keep your property in good condition, and non-compliant fire doors amount to a breach of lease.

Please note: your fire door is privately demised to you and is not a communal area, so we cannot use communal service charges to maintain it.

If your fire door is non-compliant it must receive repairs or replacement to achieve compliance — it is a requirement of the law and of your lease.

If our records show we've written to you and the door remains non-compliant on further inspection, we must take action to enforce the lease. We will serve a Breach of Lease Notice requiring repairs within a specified time. You may use our Fire Door Repairs service or another contractor — but anyone conducting the works must be competent, and you must provide evidence of their competence and of the resulting compliance.

We've made it simple. We have office-based Block Management and field-based Trades staff working together on your building routinely, so we know it well. Via your Fire Door Quotation email, simply "Book Now" and we'll take care of the rest — your Fire Door Compliance Certificate is emailed on completion.

To comply with the law you must engage contractors competent with fire doors who hold recognised certifications. Our Fire Door Installation Operatives are qualified installers approved by UK Fire Door Training and FireQual — independent certification providers — so they can demonstrate the necessary competence.

After booking, works are conducted within 1–4 weeks depending on the nature of the repair. Smaller repairs can be done much more quickly; for complex works — such as replacing an entire door — we need to order the new door, so there's a lead time before installation. On completion we'll email your Fire Door Certificate of Compliance.

On receiving your booking, our Operations department will contact you to arrange access to your property and a date for the works to take place.

The principal laws applying to fire doors in blocks of flats are the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, the Fire Safety Act 2021, and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The 2022 & 2021 Acts require fire doors in all flats to be compliant and in good working condition — doors that are not amount to non-compliance.

Your lease also requires you to keep your property in satisfactory condition; a non-compliant fire door is a breach of lease that may result in a Breach of Lease Notice.

As your Block Managers we conduct regular fire door inspections, including a detailed 10-point inspection of all doors. During these we collect photos and details of your door, held in our database. Your personal Fire Door Quotation is prepared with careful reference to that information, is accurate, and includes exactly what's needed to achieve compliance.

Yes. Our installers are approved by UK Fire Door Training and FireQual (independent certification providers), and a Fire Door Certificate of Compliance is emailed to you on completion of your works.

To be a compliant fire door, your door must have at least 3 hinges, with no screws missing, and the hinges must be CE marked and rated to BS EN 1935. Non-compliant hinges will melt, warp or break under the intense conditions of a fire. If your door has non-compliant hinges, fewer than 3 hinges, or missing screws, works are required to resolve this and achieve compliance.

Fire doors are designed to contain and prevent the spread of smoke, so smoke seals compliant with BS 476 part 22 and part 31.1 or EN 1634-3 must be used. If your door has no smoke seal, or damaged or non-compliant seals, works are required to achieve compliance.

All fire doors — other than those to locked cupboards such as communal electrical-meter cupboards — must be fitted with an appropriate self-closing device. Your front door must be a fire door and must have a self-closing device compliant with BS EN 1154 or BS EN 1155 and CE marked. If yours has no device, or it's failed or non-compliant, works are required.

Your fire door may hold various ironmongery and furnishings — locks/latches, hinges, letterbox, spyhole and signage — as long as they are compliant and don't compromise the door's fire-resisting properties. For example, a fire door that later had a mailbox retrospectively installed will no longer be a fire door unless fitted by certified installers using compliant methods and materials. Non-compliant furnishings mean works are required to achieve compliance.

We've made it simple and easy — use our online reporting tool. Our team promptly and carefully reviews each and every reported issue and takes the necessary action.

The respective responsibilities of AM and you are set out in your lease or transfer, which you must refer to for the detailed obligations. Typically, for leasehold property AM is responsible for the common parts, building structure and exterior, shared services or equipment and external grounds; you are responsible for repairs within your demised property.

If you own a freehold house, you're likely fully responsible for your individual property, and AM will only have specific responsibilities for any shared private roads, gates or drainage. If you're unsure who is responsible, contact us.

Use our maintenance request system and select "Communal doors & access". There may be an additional cost for keys or fobs, and our team will contact you once your request is received. Keys and fobs often have to be ordered specially and may take several weeks to arrive; electric fob charges can be significant and are passed on to the purchaser. We don't hold keys for your individual front door and reserve the right to limit the number of duplicates supplied.

Most leases require AM's consent to keep a pet in a leasehold property, for the protection of your neighbours and the building. We're particularly concerned with larger pets such as cats or dogs, and will usually give consent for smaller pets subject to reasonable conditions. Contact us to request permission and we'll supply the necessary application form.

In most cases the frequency is set by your lease — often every 5–7 years. Some leases require redecoration "as and when required", in which case we identify the need from our programme of inspections. We'll advise you when redecoration is due, and where the expenditure is significant we'll formally consult with you beforehand under s20 of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1985 (as amended).

Our team carries out regular routine visits to your building or estate on a set cycle, with a full inspection to check that services such as cleaning and landscaping are carried out to specification and to a high standard. We also identify any repairs needed and check on recent works. A written report is completed on each visit so any issues are located and acted upon.

AM is responsible for the building exterior, structure and shared internal areas and equipment — report concerns about these to us here. A problem within your individual demised property is the owner's responsibility: if that's you, it's a private matter to resolve; if you rent, report it to your landlord. Remember, repairs that alter your property or affect the common parts may require consent — contact us if you think you may need it.

Under your lease or transfer, service charge is payable for the full duration of your ownership. We collect it in line with your lease — yearly, half-yearly or quarterly. We generally wait for your solicitor to send us a Notice of Transfer confirming your purchase and postal address; soon after we'll send a welcome letter, and you'll then receive service charge demands at the next routine collection date.

Under your lease or transfer you must fulfil certain formalities on sale. The solicitors for both parties normally deal with these, but advise your solicitor early that your building is managed by AM and pass on our contact details. Once a sale is agreed you'll need a Sales Management Pack from us — usually requested directly by the vendor's solicitor — detailing current and anticipated maintenance at the building.

If you live in a leasehold property, your lease likely requires you to obtain consent before letting, which we won't unreasonably withhold. Please contact us to request the relevant paperwork to obtain consent to sub-let.

At the start of each financial year a Service Charge Budget is sent to all owners, setting out line by line how the charge is calculated, with explanatory notes. After year-end, Service Charge Accounts are prepared in line with the lease and legislation, detailing actual expenditure and certified as accurate by an independent Chartered Accountant.

We compare actual costs against what was billed to identify any surplus or deficit — a surplus is credited to your account or transferred to reserves; a deficit means an additional charge. Either way, you only pay your proportion of the actual cost of the services.

Some freehold-house developments have shared facilities or areas that must be managed, paid for by the house owners via a service charge. There's generally less maintenance than a typical block, but costs might include electronic gates, shared grounds, open space and private roads/drainage not adopted by the local authority. Property Owners (Public) Liability insurance is also needed where there are shared areas. On mixed developments, costs are apportioned fairly between houses, apartments and any commercial elements.

AM is responsible for the long-term maintenance of the property — redecoration, future major repairs and renewals. So the service charge usually includes amounts set aside as a Reserve and/or Sinking Fund. Each year a contribution builds these up so that, when works are needed, funds are available to reduce one-off payments. Reserves help ensure the development is looked after for its full life, protecting property values, saleability and appearance.

The Management Fee is one element of the service charge — AM's charge for providing the day-to-day management service. It's a set annual charge per property, not a percentage of expenditure (which would give no incentive to keep costs down).

Under your lease or transfer, service charge is payable for the full duration of ownership whether the property is occupied or empty. Each owner's contribution adds up to 100% of the costs — if we didn't charge for an empty property, there would be a shortfall that would fall unfairly on the other owners.

If you've recently purchased, we may have been incorrectly advised of the owner's name, or not yet formally advised of your purchase. The lease requires us to receive a formal Notice of Transfer, which solicitors deal with on completion, and we can't change our records until we receive it. Please check with your solicitor that they've issued the Notice of Transfer, then contact us if you still need help. For a name change or removal, we'll need written notice with the relevant legal document (marriage certificate, deed poll or probate certificate).

No two developments are the same. The number of apartments affects economies of scale; different buildings have different equipment to maintain (fire alarms, gates, lifts). Not all buildings build up reserve funds — where they don't, that's a hidden future cost. Individual charges can also be calculated to reflect the services a property benefits from, or its size — for example by number of bedrooms or floor area.

There's an extensive body of legislation on managing leasehold property and accounting for service charges, which AM adheres to. It governs how we keep and account for service charge monies, the reasonableness of charges, the information we give you, and consultation before major works. Freehold owners rely more on their specific transfer deed. If you feel you need legal advice, it's always best to seek it or research the advisory resources available to you.

Because you own a property in a managed development, a number of services are arranged centrally and their costs shared by owners as a service charge. Your lease or transfer deed states the proportion of costs you pay, how the charge is to be paid, what it may be spent on and how it is accounted for.

We provide a range of methods — online, over the phone, by BACS or by cheque — and accept all major credit and debit cards. If paying by BACS, please use the correct account details for your development, which you can find via your MyBlockman portal. Explore payment options →

The service charge is an estimate of the actual cost of the services arranged for your development. Costs vary with contractor/supplier charges, changes in the level or frequency of services, maintenance requirements and legislation — for example utility price rises, higher-than-expected usage, more frequent cleaning or gardening, or changes in insurance costs. Budget estimates take long-term changes into account, and we use our expertise to keep costs as low as possible while providing the right level of service.