Block management in North West England
Temphis manages residential blocks and estates across Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region and Cheshire, for freeholders, developers and Right to Manage companies. This page sets out what we do in the region, the towns we take instructions in, and the parts of the job that matter most here.
What block management covers
A managing agent runs everything nobody owns individually: the structure, the common parts, the plant and the shared services. Setting and collecting the service charge, keeping the accounts, arranging planned and reactive maintenance, procuring and supervising contractors, holding the compliance record, and dealing with leaseholders, the freeholder and the insurer. Our block management service sets out the full scope, and what a service charge is explains what you are paying for.
Two very different kinds of building
The North West has a high proportion of converted period stock alongside city-centre new build, and the two need managing differently — a Victorian conversion and a twenty-storey scheme have almost nothing in common beyond the word “block”.
A converted terrace or villa split into four or six flats usually has no lift, no communal plant to speak of, and a lease drafted decades ago that may not cover reserve funds or modern compliance costs properly. The risk there is the lease, not the building: money that cannot be collected because nobody checked what the lease actually permits.
A city-centre tower is the opposite. The lease is modern and comprehensive, but the building carries lifts, pumps, sprinklers, smoke control, communal heating and a compliance regime to match. The risk there is the budget: under-collecting for two years and then facing a major works bill nobody has a reserve for.
Building safety
A higher-risk building is one of at least seven storeys or at least 18 metres with two or more residential units. Manchester and Liverpool city centres hold a large share of the region's stock in that bracket, and for those buildings the duties sit with a named accountable person — usually the freeholder or the RTM company, not the managing agent. Registration, a safety case report, mandatory occurrence reporting and a resident engagement strategy all follow from that, and none of it can be contracted away to an agent.
The Building Safety Regulator became a standalone body sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 27 January 2026. Its published targets for 2026–27 are 18 weeks for non-complex gateway 2 applications and 12 weeks for non-complex remediation applications — timescales that belong in a major works programme from the start, not discovered halfway through.
Service charges and section 20
Section 20 consultation is triggered when any single leaseholder's share of qualifying works exceeds £250, or £100 in an accounting period for a long-term agreement. Those thresholds were set in 2003 and have never been uprated, so most meaningful work crosses them. Consult badly and recovery is capped at those figures unless the First-tier Tribunal grants dispensation — see our guide to section 20 consultation.
Section 20B of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 is the other one that bites: costs incurred more than 18 months before they are demanded are generally irrecoverable unless the leaseholder was notified in writing inside that window. It is the rule that catches agents who let a year's accounts drift. If you think a charge is wrong, challenging a service charge sets out the route, and our fee schedule is published.
Right to Manage in the North West
Where leaseholders want control without proving fault, Right to Manage is usually the route. The non-residential floor area limit rose from 25% to 50% on 3 March 2025, which matters in a region with a great deal of flats-over-shops stock in town centres: buildings that failed the old test may qualify now. Claimant RTM companies are also no longer liable for the freeholder's costs of a claim notice. See how Right to Manage works, RTM compared with an RMC, and what directors are actually signing up to. Where a building will not qualify and management has genuinely failed, the alternative is a tribunal-appointed manager under section 24.
Where we take instructions
Greater Manchester
Manchester, Salford, Trafford including Altrincham and Sale, Stockport, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Tameside and Wigan. The city-centre and Salford Quays schemes are the high-rise, high-compliance end of the market; the outer boroughs are mostly smaller purpose-built blocks and conversions where the lease and the reserve fund do the work.
Liverpool City Region
Liverpool, Wirral and Birkenhead, Sefton including Southport and Bootle, St Helens, Knowsley, and Halton covering Runcorn and Widnes. Liverpool has a large stock of period conversions and former commercial buildings turned residential, which tend to bring inherited compliance gaps with them — fire strategy, compartmentation and records that stopped short of the conversion.
Chester, Ellesmere Port and Northwich
Across Cheshire West and Chester we take instructions in Chester, Ellesmere Port, Northwich, Winsford and Frodsham. This is largely smaller purpose-built blocks, retirement developments and conversions rather than towers, and the recurring issue is a building that has been managed by an agent at a distance, or not really managed at all, with no planned maintenance and no reserve. Northwich in particular is the kind of town where a block can sit for years with a service charge that has never been re-budgeted against what the building actually costs to run.
Crewe, Macclesfield and Wilmslow
Across Cheshire East we cover Crewe, Macclesfield, Wilmslow, Congleton, Nantwich, Sandbach, Knutsford and Poynton. Crewe has a good deal of newer estate development where the question is usually the estate rent charge and what the transfer actually obliges residents to pay for. Wilmslow and Alderley Edge run to higher-value, lower-unit-count blocks where leaseholders expect a level of service and reporting that a volume agent does not provide.
Warrington
Warrington sits between the Manchester and Liverpool markets and has both building types — town-centre apartment schemes alongside suburban blocks and managed estates.
We also manage across London, the South East and North Wales.
Changing managing agent
If the current agent is not delivering, changing is usually more straightforward than people expect. The handover is where the value is won or lost: the service charge funds and the statutory trust position, the accounts and arrears ledger, the compliance file, the contracts and their notice periods, and the building safety documentation. Our page on transferring your block to Temphis sets out the process, and how to choose a managing agent is worth reading before you pick anyone.
Frequently asked questions
Do you manage residential blocks in Manchester and Liverpool?
Yes, across Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region, from city-centre apartment schemes to smaller suburban blocks and period conversions.
Do you cover Cheshire towns such as Northwich, Crewe and Wilmslow?
Yes. We take instructions across Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East, including Chester, Ellesmere Port, Northwich, Winsford, Crewe, Macclesfield, Wilmslow, Nantwich, Sandbach, Knutsford and Congleton.
Can you take over a poorly managed building?
Yes, and it is a large part of what we do. The first tasks are usually the same: establish what the lease actually permits to be recovered, rebuild the budget from what the building costs to run, and close the gaps in the compliance file.
Do you support RTM companies?
Yes, including before the claim is made. We can say whether the building is likely to qualify and what management will cost once the RTM company holds it.
Who is responsible for building safety, the agent or the freeholder?
The accountable person, normally the freeholder or the RTM company. The managing agent does the work and holds the records, but the statutory duty stays with the accountable person.
Do you manage estates as well as blocks?
Yes. Managed estates with shared roads, drainage and open space are common in the newer developments around Crewe, Warrington and Ellesmere Port, and they raise their own questions about what residents are obliged to pay and to whom.
Speak to us about your building
Tell us where the building is and what is going wrong, and we will give you a view rather than a brochure. Get in touch.