Block management in South East England
Temphis manages residential blocks and estates across Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Berkshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, for freeholders, developers and Right to Manage companies. This page covers what we do in the region and the issues that come up here more than anywhere else.
What block management covers
A managing agent runs the parts of a development nobody owns individually: the structure, the common parts, the plant, and on an estate the roads, drainage, lighting and open space. Service charge budgeting and accounting, planned and reactive maintenance, contractor procurement and supervision, the compliance record, and dealing with residents, 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.
Managed estates and estate charges
The South East has more new-build managed estates than any other region outside the major cities, and they are where most of the complaints come from. A house on one of these estates is freehold, but the roads, play areas, drainage and open space are not adopted, and the homeowner pays an estate charge towards them.
The legal position is much weaker than most buyers realise. A leaseholder can apply to the tribunal to test whether a service charge is reasonable. A freeholder on a managed estate, at present, largely cannot. Their practical recourse is a complaint to a redress scheme, if the estate manager belongs to one.
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 would change that substantially: a right to apply to the First-tier Tribunal over estate charges and the standard of work, a right to seek a substitute manager where the estate company has failed, consultation requirements for major works, transparency obligations, and mandatory redress scheme membership. None of it is in force. A government consultation on switching these provisions on closed on 12 March 2026 and no implementation date has been announced. Anyone quoting those rights to you as though they already exist is describing a Bill, not the law.
There is one feature worth knowing about if your estate charge is structured as an estate rentcharge. Section 121 of the Law of Property Act 1925 can give the rentcharge owner remedies that are wildly disproportionate to the sum owed — including taking possession of the property or granting a lease over it to secure payment — unless the deed expressly excludes them. Most modern transfers do exclude them. Some do not, and it is worth knowing which yours is before an argument starts rather than after.
What good estate management looks like is not complicated: a budget that reflects what the estate actually costs, accounts that close on time, a named manager who attends, and a clear answer on which areas are due for adoption and when.
The mid-rise bracket
The South East has far fewer buildings in the higher-risk bracket than London — at least seven storeys or 18 metres with two or more residential units — but a great many in the 11 to 18 metre range, which is where external wall assessments, insurance loading and remediation questions concentrate.
The national deadlines announced in July 2025 are the end of 2029 for buildings of 18 metres or more and the end of 2031 for buildings between 11 and 18 metres. Those are government policy rather than law: the Remediation Bill that would impose them as a statutory duty has not completed its passage and Royal Assent is not expected before 2027. It is still the timetable a building should be planning to, but it changes what can be enforced today.
Where duties do apply to a higher-risk building, they sit with the named accountable person, normally the freeholder or the RTM company, not the managing agent. The agent does the work and holds the records; the statutory duty cannot be contracted away.
Office conversions
The commuter towns of the South East have a large stock of former office buildings converted to flats under permitted development. They can be perfectly good buildings, but as a class they bring a recognisable set of inherited problems: a fire strategy written for an office rather than a residence, compartmentation that was never verified after the conversion, plant sized for a different use, and a handover pack that stops at the point of conversion.
Taking one of these on starts with establishing what actually exists, not what the file says exists.
Retirement developments on the coast
From Worthing round to Eastbourne, Bexhill and Chichester there is a heavy concentration of leasehold retirement housing, and it comes with charges that do not appear elsewhere. Event fees — variously called transfer fees, exit fees or contingency fees, payable to the landlord when a flat is sold, sublet or sometimes when a new occupier moves in — are set by the lease and are not separately regulated. The Law Commission recommended a regulatory scheme for them and it has not been brought in.
They are lawful where the lease provides for them. The problem is that residents and their families frequently do not know the fee exists until a sale is under way. Any agent managing this stock should be able to tell a leaseholder what their lease says about it without being asked twice.
Service charges and section 20
Section 20 consultation is triggered once any single leaseholder’s share of qualifying works exceeds £250, or £100 in an accounting period under a qualifying long-term agreement. Those thresholds date from 2003 and have never been uprated. Consult badly and recovery is capped at those figures unless the tribunal grants dispensation — see our guide to section 20 consultation.
Section 20B of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 makes costs incurred more than 18 months before they are demanded generally irrecoverable unless the leaseholder was notified in writing inside that window. And under section 42 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 service charge money is held on statutory trust for the leaseholders who paid it — so “which account is our money in, and what is the balance” is a question with a right answer. If a charge looks wrong, challenging a service charge sets out the route, and our fee schedule is published.
Right to Manage in the South East
Right to Manage transfers management to the leaseholders without anyone having to prove fault. The non-residential floor area limit rose from 25% to 50% on 3 March 2025, which matters in town centres across the region where flats sit above shops and the old 25% test ruled them out. 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 taking on. Where a building cannot qualify and management has genuinely failed, the alternative is a tribunal-appointed manager under section 24.
Where we take instructions
Across the Home Counties and the wider South East, within reach of our London office.
Essex — Chelmsford, Colchester, Brentwood, Basildon, Southend-on-Sea, Thurrock, and Epping Forest including Loughton and Buckhurst Hill
Hertfordshire — Watford, St Albans, Three Rivers, Broxbourne, Welwyn Hatfield, and Hertsmere including Radlett, Borehamwood and Elstree
Surrey — Guildford, Woking, Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Reigate and Banstead, Spelthorne, and Waverley including Godalming and Farnham
Kent — Maidstone, Medway, Dartford, Gravesham, Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Canterbury
Sussex — Brighton and Hove, Crawley, Horsham, Mid Sussex including Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill, Worthing, Eastbourne and Chichester
Berkshire — Reading, Slough, Bracknell Forest, Wokingham, and Windsor and Maidenhead
Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire — Luton, Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, Cambridge and Peterborough
Coverage this wide only works if the manager actually attends. We cap intake at ten to fifteen properties a year for that reason — a building an hour from the office still gets inspected on the same cycle as one in London. We also manage across London, North West England and North Wales.
Changing managing agent
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 covers the questions to ask before you appoint anyone.
Frequently asked questions
Can I challenge my estate charge at the tribunal?
Not at present, in most cases. Freehold homeowners on managed estates have far weaker rights than leaseholders; the usual recourse is a complaint to a redress scheme. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 would give a tribunal route, but those provisions are not in force and no implementation date has been announced.
What is an estate rentcharge, and why does it matter?
It is one way an estate charge can be structured. Where it is used, section 121 of the Law of Property Act 1925 can give the rentcharge owner remedies out of all proportion to the debt, including taking possession or granting a lease over the property, unless the deed excludes them. Most modern transfers exclude them; it is worth checking which yours does.
Do you manage smaller residential blocks in the South East?
Yes, from small conversions upwards. A six-flat block still needs a budget that reflects what the building costs to run and a lease that has actually been read.
Are your services suitable for 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.
Do you manage retirement developments?
Yes. They need particular care over event or transfer fees, which are set by the lease, are not separately regulated, and are most often discovered by families partway through a sale.
How quickly can you take over management?
Usually a few weeks, depending on how quickly the outgoing agent releases funds, records and the compliance file. The handover, not the appointment, sets the timetable.
Speak to us about your building or estate
Tell us where it is and what is going wrong, and we will give you a view rather than a brochure. Get in touch.