Questions, answered.

Independent block management for London leaseholders who run their own building: right-to-manage companies, residents' associations, and organised leaseholder groups. It is founded and run by a turnaround finance director of 15 years who has been an active RTM director since 2018. The leaseholder portal is the tool we use to run a block openly; the service itself is the management.

Howard Stone, a turnaround finance director of 15 years, revitalising companies in distress, and an active RTM director since 2018, with a career as a turnaround CFO across seven companies. London-based.

Yes. We are not owned by a developer, a freeholder or a contractor, so the only people we answer to are the leaseholders who appoint us. We take no introduction fees or commissions from the contractors or partners we instruct; they are chosen on merit, and every one of them contracts directly with your company.

Residential and mixed-use blocks across London, whatever the legal structure: RTM company, residents' association, or an organised leaseholder group.

There is no minimum block size. The fee is £350 per flat per year with a minimum of £3,600 a year for the block, because the work of running a building is much the same whatever its size: the accounts, the compliance calendar, the insurance, the consultations, and the board meetings do not shrink with the unit count. Below about ten flats, the minimum is what applies.

One flat fee per unit per year, published in full on our fees page. Every charge is listed there, the annual fee and each specific extra, with its price.

A fee that rises with spending rewards a manager for spending more of your money. A flat fee per unit does not, so our incentive is to run the block well rather than to run up the bill. Major works carry a transparent 5% administration charge, against the 10-15% large firms typically take, and every other charge is listed on the fees page with its price.

No. We take no introduction fees or commissions from the contractors or partners we instruct. Insurance is placed through an independent broker, and we do not take a cut of the premium out of your service charge. Every partner we introduce contracts directly with your company, so the agreement and the money are between you and them.

A small number of specific items are charged separately and listed openly: administering major works (5% of the works value, against the 10-15% large firms charge), advisory work such as tribunal and legal preparation (£50 an hour, timesheeted and agreed in advance), and a sales enquiry pack when a flat is sold. The full list and rates are on our fees page.

Three steps. A conversation and a review of your documents, so you see exactly where you stand before committing to anything. A managed handover of the records, funds, contracts, and compliance from your current agent. Then full visibility from day one, with every action logged in your portal.

We run the handover ourselves, so it is managed rather than left to the outgoing agent, and you are never exposed while control passes across.

We give a six-month service guarantee. If we fail materially or persistently to manage your building to the standard written into our agreement, you can end it inside the first six months and we return every management fee and the onboarding fee you have paid. Your directors decide whether we met that standard. If we disagree with your directors, an independent chartered surveyor settles it and we split the cost. It does not cover a change of mind, or a failure caused by something your directors withheld from us, by a decision we asked for and did not get, or by the outgoing agent holding on to the records. The full wording is clause 9.5 of the management agreement, which you read before you appoint us.

Yes. If you are not yet in control of your block, we can help you set up a Right to Manage company under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, then manage it for you.

Fire risk assessment, asbestos, electrical, water hygiene, lifts, and fire doors - the duties that carry personal liability for directors - kept current on a tracked plan.

We keep the statutory duties met and surface anything that needs a board decision before it becomes an incident, so directors are not carrying liability they do not know about.

Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 is the consultation a block must run before carrying out qualifying major works or entering a long-term agreement. Run properly, it keeps the cost recoverable from leaseholders; run badly, recovery can be capped.

Works are scoped and administered with chartered building surveyors, with the Section 20 consultation run properly so the cost stays recoverable, and a reserve built steadily against the big jobs so leaseholders are not hit with sudden, painful demands.

No, and that is deliberate. The surveyor who scopes major works and checks what they should cost shouldn't work for the firm running them. So we use independent external chartered surveyors, appointed by the RTM. Our 5% administration fee covers running the programme and the consultation; the surveyor is a separate appointment.

Every supplier invoice is checked against contracted scope, prior invoices, and a market comparator. A quarterly expenditure report goes to the directors. The annual service-charge accounts are filed on time and independently certified by a qualified accountant.

Service-charge debts are pursued proportionately and firmly, and disputed items are revisited against the lease rather than carried over from the previous agent's figures. The aim is to keep the block solvent while treating leaseholders fairly.

A Right to Manage company is a leaseholder-controlled company that acquires the freeholder's management functions under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002. The leaseholders elect the directors, so management passes from the freeholder to the people who live there. Proper Blocks works for the RTM company, accountable to its leaseholder-elected board.

Yes, where the residential floor area exceeds the commercial. The statutory Right to Manage threshold under the 2002 Act requires residential to be the majority. Commercial leaseholders pay into the same service-charge account on the proportions set by their leases.

The RTM company is the contracting party for compliance and its directors are statutorily exposed. Proper Blocks carries professional indemnity insurance, but the responsibility chain ends with the RTM board. Our job is to keep directors out of unknowing liability and to surface anything that needs a board decision before it becomes an incident.

A proprietary portal that logs every message, every action, and every response, visible to the leaseholder it concerns. Director meetings are minuted, contractor visits are documented through a transparent flow, and a regular newsletter goes to approved residents and directors.

Yes. The RTM company is the data controller for leaseholder information and we handle it under UK data-protection law. Our full privacy notice sets out what we hold, why, and your rights.