I often see threads on here with apartment owners complaining about how their development is being run by the managing agent. It was suggested to me that I start a thread about how to take action to ensure the money you pay in management fees is being spent wisely; how you can improve the appearance of your development and also improve the efficiency of services.
Every apartment owner is a member of the Owners Management Company (OMC) and has voting rights at the AGM. The OMC hires the managing agent to work on their behalf. The agent should always work in the interest of members. If you are unhappy with the services your Managing Agent/OMC is providing these are the steps you can take.
1. Set up a meeting with other owners who have similar concerns. (The development I live in is 70% owner occupied, I understand this can be harder when the majority of units are rented out).
2. Make a list of the main issues, contact the current directors and request they address your concerns. If you are unhappy with their response, or if there are no owners on the board, then you need to step up at the AGM, vote out the current directors and seek nominations from your group.
3. There is no particular expertise needed for this role, but you need to read up on your obligations and be honest and be prepared to work on behalf of all owners. In our board we have four directors, with a variety of differing day jobs. I am a director and a teacher with no prior experience of this type of work. You need a minimum of two owners to volunteer.
4. Once you become a director you can then become a signatory on the company bank account. Remove the managing agent from the bank account and only allow them viewing rights. Once you have done this you are in control of all the spending for the OMC. Set up an email for the directors that will allow you to communicate with each other and communicate your decisions to the agent.
5. Review the current contract with the managing agent. If you feel they are not working in your best interests then you can appoint a new managing agent, once the previous agent's contract has expired. The PRSA has a list of all licenced managing agents.
6. Meet with other agents and decide who would be the best fit for your development. Ask them to send in their tender proposals. In our case we chose a start up company run by an agent who had experience working for some of the bigger property management companies.
7. Review all the big contracts, eg, cleaning, gardening, lift maintenance etc. If you are unhappy with the service these contractors are providing, the managing agent can put them out to tender. In our case by doing this we reduced the cost of almost all services. For example our gardening contract cost €26,000 per year. We reduced this to €12,000 from another contractor who provides a better service. We were being charged €10,000 for building inspections but there were no reports of these inspections so we refused to pay and changed our maintenance contractor.
8. Review your debt management strategy. If non payment of fees is an issue, one solution that worked for us was the introduction of clamping.
8. Ask the Managing Agent to compile a list of monthly invoices. Review these and process payments. Most owner directors allow the managing agent to do this, but we prefer to process payments ourselves. It means you can review expenditure on a monthly basis and the end of year audit is straightforward.
9. Put yourselves up for re-election at the AGM every year. Unfortunately if you do the job well, you won't be voted out and it is very difficult to get someone to replace you!
We followed this approach in our apartment complex and it has worked for us.
Every apartment owner is a member of the Owners Management Company (OMC) and has voting rights at the AGM. The OMC hires the managing agent to work on their behalf. The agent should always work in the interest of members. If you are unhappy with the services your Managing Agent/OMC is providing these are the steps you can take.
1. Set up a meeting with other owners who have similar concerns. (The development I live in is 70% owner occupied, I understand this can be harder when the majority of units are rented out).
2. Make a list of the main issues, contact the current directors and request they address your concerns. If you are unhappy with their response, or if there are no owners on the board, then you need to step up at the AGM, vote out the current directors and seek nominations from your group.
3. There is no particular expertise needed for this role, but you need to read up on your obligations and be honest and be prepared to work on behalf of all owners. In our board we have four directors, with a variety of differing day jobs. I am a director and a teacher with no prior experience of this type of work. You need a minimum of two owners to volunteer.
4. Once you become a director you can then become a signatory on the company bank account. Remove the managing agent from the bank account and only allow them viewing rights. Once you have done this you are in control of all the spending for the OMC. Set up an email for the directors that will allow you to communicate with each other and communicate your decisions to the agent.
5. Review the current contract with the managing agent. If you feel they are not working in your best interests then you can appoint a new managing agent, once the previous agent's contract has expired. The PRSA has a list of all licenced managing agents.
6. Meet with other agents and decide who would be the best fit for your development. Ask them to send in their tender proposals. In our case we chose a start up company run by an agent who had experience working for some of the bigger property management companies.
7. Review all the big contracts, eg, cleaning, gardening, lift maintenance etc. If you are unhappy with the service these contractors are providing, the managing agent can put them out to tender. In our case by doing this we reduced the cost of almost all services. For example our gardening contract cost €26,000 per year. We reduced this to €12,000 from another contractor who provides a better service. We were being charged €10,000 for building inspections but there were no reports of these inspections so we refused to pay and changed our maintenance contractor.
8. Review your debt management strategy. If non payment of fees is an issue, one solution that worked for us was the introduction of clamping.
8. Ask the Managing Agent to compile a list of monthly invoices. Review these and process payments. Most owner directors allow the managing agent to do this, but we prefer to process payments ourselves. It means you can review expenditure on a monthly basis and the end of year audit is straightforward.
9. Put yourselves up for re-election at the AGM every year. Unfortunately if you do the job well, you won't be voted out and it is very difficult to get someone to replace you!
We followed this approach in our apartment complex and it has worked for us.
Last edited: