Frequently asked questions.

From our Lytham St Annes headquarters, we work with residential property owners and developers across North West England, the Midlands and North Wales; covering the Fylde coast, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, South Manchester, Merseyside, the Lake District and Cumbria in particular.

We also operate from our branches in the Midlands and Wales

Homestead currently manages the servicing, maintenance and repairs for over 7,000 properties across 217 separate developments.

Our aim is to keep our management costs highly competitive.  That means a collaborative, cost effective approach to working with you and tailoring our service provision and fees structure according to your business needs.  We want to maximise your investments and keep your costs low.  We can provide references to vouch for the quality, efficiency and affordability of our services.

Company secretarial work and health and saftey are subject to seperate charges.

No.  Homestead does not charge a fee or take a commission on contractor selection.  All work undertaken and charged is simply covered within your agreed contract with us and the associated management costs.  This is the best approach for giving you the best price we can and offering better value for money.

Homestead has robust procedures in place for dealing with non-paying lessees.  The key is to tackle any issues arising at the earliest possible stage and with clear communications with leaseholders.  We have a dedicated credit control team to follow up on invoicing anomalies, shortfalls and to issue effective reminders.

 This usually resolves any payment issues or payment difficulties at the earliest possible stage, but if matters should escalate, we have access to specialist legal assistance to deal with issuing proceedings in the County Court for non-contested service charge arrears or via the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal in the case of reasonableness of charges being contested as dictated by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.

Homestead seeks to offer round the clock support for urgent property repairs and any arising issues with an out of hours emergency contact centre.  The most important element of that process is our 24 hour call out service.  Even when our office is closed, all calls received via this helpline are answered, triaged and monitored according to urgency.

Homestead undertakes regular on site visits to ensure your property is well maintained.  Your dedicated property manager will have a planned schedule of quarterly visits to the development. They will also make periodic visits to check that contractors are fulfilling their obligations. All directors are notified of the quarterly visits in advance, so you can attend as well if you wish.

We offer the facility to pay your service charges by monthly standing order, BACS or cheque, subject to lease requirements. You can contact our administration department to discuss your payment options and we will send you the appropriate forms to complete and return.

Yes.  Homestead is registered under the Data Protection Act, registration number Z6750613.  We are also GDPR compliant.

We can provide a range of different references to vouch for the quality, efficiency and affordability of our services.  References can be provided with strong testimonials from clients and directors of residential management companies for whom we work.  Homestead can also provide bank references, accountant’s references and year end accounts if necessary.

Service charges are collected in accordance with the terms of your property lease and each of our client companies has an independent, ring fenced client account with Barclays Bank which protects the money of each company in accordance with the Commonhold & Leasehold Reform Act 2002.  This is also in line with best practice guidelines provided by ARMA and RICS. 

Payments are made in full within the timescales dictated by the lease. Alternatively, standing orders can be received on a monthly basis if this arrangement is provided for in the lease.

Yes and yes.  For example, in the case of Insurance we cover a portfolio worth £350,000,000 and can therefore obtain significantly more cost efficient and better policies.  With utilities, Homestead is recognised by power suppliers as managers of multiple contracts and so we can negotiate preferential rates.  We can also source accountancy services at lower rates too.  All those benefits are passed on to you to help you save money.

The managing Director is David Bentham FIRPM, AssocRICS
Director: Heather Heywood ACIS
Director: Sandra Jagger

Registered No: 1302831

Homestead has 45 years’ experience of service charge management.

There are 30 staff at homestead and all of them are involved in one way or another with the management of properties.

Yes: for instance in the case of insurance we cover a portfolio worth £400,000,000 and therefore are able to obtain cheaper and better policies than the man in the street.

Another example is that we are known to power suppliers as managers of multiple contracts and are able to obtain preferential rates.

We are often able to source accountancy services at rates not available to the man in the street.

Yes.

Homestead trades exclusivley in service charge management and has been in the industry for 45 years. we can provide references to vouch for the quality, efficiency and affordability of our services.

All our staff are fully trained and engage in a process of continued professional devolpment.

Homestead has an established panel of local contractors with multiple entries for all trades. as well as the expected trades, we can also call on contractors to deal with matters as diverse as lightening conductor services and Honey Bee swarm collection.

Homestead follows the association of residential managing agents (ARMA) and the royal institue of chartered surveyors (RICS) guidlines.

We also invite nominations to our panel from each of our clients as per the requirements of section 20 of the landlord and tenant act 1985

We are happy to include contractors who come recommended by residents provided that they satisfy the criteria and guidlines we work to

We prefer to use contractors that are local to the clients development.

This information can be provided on request.

Homestead has a complaints procedure that follows the ARma and the RICS guidlines. We also subscribe to the Ombudsman: (property)

ARMA guidlines state that there should be 3 months’ notice.

A copy of our contact list can be provided upon request.

The following qualifications are held by our staff:

• MAAT Accountancy qualification (Member of the association of accountancy technicians)
• ACIS (Member of company secretaries and aministrators Association)
• FIRPM (Fellow of the institute of residential property management)
• AssocRICS (Associate member of the royal institute of chartered surveyors)
• Management and control of enviromental hazards: NEBOSH (National examination board in occupational saftey & health.)
• LLB (Batchelor of law)
• Bsc Marketing Management

Homestead is a corporate member of TPI

Our directors are members of ICSA (institute of company secretaries and administrators), the IRPM (institute of residential property management) and RICS (the royal institute of chartered surveyors)

Homestead subscribe to Ombudsman services: (Property).

Homestead carry a professional indemnity policy for the sum of £1,000,000. a copy can be provided on request.

Homestead have an excellent reputation with local solicitors for clarity efficiency and speed when delaing with sales.

Homestead also have an excellent credit rating which we would invite potential clients to check.

being members of the RICS provides our client companies with comfort of cover under the RICS clients money protection scheme which covers the loss of funds.

we use the standard ARMA model contract.

The allocated property manager has a planned schedule of quaterly visits to the development. they also makes periodic visits to check that contractors fulfil their obligations. All directors are notified of the quaterly visits in advance so that they are able to attend if they wish. with larger developments, the visits will be more frequent.