Pexus1976 said:
Owners of the apartments/property are on the management committee
Not Company.!!
A Management Company looks after the maintance of the Apartment complex on behalf of the owners in return for a fee.
Dont really want to discuss this any further! Now getting back to my initial post any suggestion most appreciated.
Owners of apartments/houses in nearly all recent developments are shareholders/members of the management company (I really should know this as I am a director of our development's management company). So I think you are mistaken in your description of a managment company.
We the members of the management company have appointed Wyse as managing agents to manage the develpoment on behalf of the management company. We pay Wyse a fee for doing this (as part of our annual managment fee).
The blurb on Wyse's site
outlines the difference between manageament companies and managing agents.
This is actually relevant to the question your post. The demand for regulation is indeed aimed at managment companies, but this isn't really likely to reduce the fees you pay. I'm not aware of any proposals in relation to managing agents.
The fees you pay to the management company (i.e. essentially into a pool managed by the agent) are based on a budget (drawn up by the agent) that covers all the maintenace and running costs of the development (the major ones being the agent's fee, buildings insurance, refuse costs, cleaning costs). You can actually dispense with the agent and run the company yourselves if you feel their fees are too high. You will of course still have to pay someone to clean the place (unless you are all willing to do it yourselves), common area (halls etc) maintenance costs, and still have to pay insurance. But at the end of the day, is anyone within the development likely to have the time and expertise to do that (without a fee?).
The developer/builder generally retains control of the management company until all units in the development are sold. This means that they appoint the agent and in effect the owners have little say in what happens.
Getting to your question on the website- I haven't heard of it and Google didn't produce anything, but I too would be interested in having a look at it if it exists. The one thing I would wonder about is how useful it is likely to be-I don't actually think there are that many companies (estate agents, property managers etc.) that act as managing agents?
For what it's worth, I would say that I (and the rest of the directors and most of the residents I know) are very satisfied with the services of Wyse (althought that could be down to the guy who was assigned to act for our development). I don't have any connection or interest in Wyse, other than my dealings with them as our managing agent.