Regalty Blog
Welcome to the start of our blog - where we keep you updated of what is happening in the world of Property Management (How Exciting!)
Return of the Prodigal Daughter - April 2011
In the words of Eminem - "Guess who's Back…" - Well it isn't Slim Shady but she is Slimmer - Yes - Rab is back and has brought, untypically, some cake with her (albeit of the variety that was unpopular with the majority of the office - clearly has someway to go before returning to her former self). Having giving birth to baby Zara, Rab has now rejoined the team and is showing us what we have missed all this time… Cake (only joking of course). You may be forgiven for thinking that all that Rab brings to our Property Management department is cake - but she brings years of experience and a professional approach and an extra pair of hands that are much required in this demanding business. We extend our warm welcome back to Rab and hope that you get to speak to her soon - I am sure that you agree she has been warmly missed.
Has the Coalition Abandoned Leaseholders? - July 2010
Hard on the heels of the Housing Minister's announcement in early June that he would not be introducing regulation of the private rented sector and managers of leasehold blocks of flats, Grant Shapps has now announced he will not be introducing the long awaited new accounting requirements that would have protected lessee service charge funds.
Under the provisions of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 lessees' money was to be held in separate designated bank accounts and lessees would have the right to automatically receive a full set of annual service charge accounts along with an accountant's report.
"At the end of June the Communities and Local Government department informed us that, after eight years since the Act was passed and three years of intensive work to produce the regulations, matters were not going to be progressed," states Brett Williams, chairman of the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA). "The law was in place, the regulations near to completion and simple parliamentary processes left to complete - we were so near to giving lessees some really worthwhile protection and then 'for the want of a nail', nothing! Grant Shapps, has still to make a public statement on this, but we are given to understand his reason is to reduce the regulatory burden. On whom? The very rogues who do not handle lessee money properly. Good leasehold landlords and managing agents are fully accounting for lessee money already so where is the burden on them?
"The end result is we are back to self-regulation and ARMA will play its part in filling the dreadful void in lessee protection this Coalition has created. Not least we will be looking to produce detailed guidance on good accounting practice to supplement the existing Codes. And, to at least give lessees a 'fighting chance', we are calling for all managers of leasehold property to be subject to independent redress through an Ombudsman Scheme as is already the case for members of ARMA and our fellow trade and professional bodies."
World Cup Blues - June 2010
OK so England are out of the world cup, the flags can come down and we'll redirect our attention to Andy Murray at Wimbledon.
Never let it be said that Regalty aren't a managing agent who support our country so we promptly wheeled in the TV, put down our LVT and Section 20 notice forms and watched. Thankfully our satellite systems worked perfectly in our apartment blocks and for the first time in years of business our Maintenance Teams and Property Managers reported zero calls received. You must all have been watching too.
Ah Well.... C'mon Andy.
April Fool! - April 2010
The launch of our 'April Fool' campaign has started as we ask apartment owners whether they are getting the best deal from their Managing Agent. We are excited at the opportunity of working with new customers, but mindful of our existing customers - and our relaunch of YourSpace by Regalty Estates has been a resounding success. Feedback has been excellent and we are grateful for the time taken by leaseholders in letting us know what you want from our service. There are one or two final development tweaks to the website which are due to be installed - in particular the feature to have multiple apartments registered to a single email address - and this should be live in a week's time. Once again, thank you to all our customers for doing business with Regalty, we appreciate the business, the references and the support and we will continue to work hard to ensure that a Premium service is delivered to you and your fellow residents.
22nd March 2010
Finally our website sees its full official launch this week after months of painstaking beta testing across all the primary browsers. Sagepay is finally live and the full functionality of the new service will see us transform the way we and our customers work - to make it simpler and easier for our customers to report faults, provide feedback and pay service charges. We would welcome feedback from everyone how you find the service and ways in which you think it can continue to be improved.
Happy New Year - January 2010
Our First blog of the year, and this is primarily down to a very frustrating start what with all the recent weather conditions. Our aspirations of completing the website glitch free look ambitious and work still continues in this regard - primarily due to the complexities of Internet Explorer being a browser all on it's own. Our designers have therefore had to re-write the web code primarily with IE in mind, and this has led to delays for us relaunching YourSpace with Credit Card payment facility. We now anticipate a launch of our website in full working form in early February, however this is also an ambitious deadline, in reality it is likely to be nearer the end of February. At least we will have the February Valentines Campaign to look forward to...
We have also seen the recruitment of a new Senior Property Manager to support Colin Stokes and Julianne Cott. Rabinderjit (or Rab has she likes to be called) will no doubt prove an essential part of our team following her experience with DTZ before us. We welcome Rab to the fold and hope you get to meet her at some point. We look forward to the relaunch of the website, glitch free with an improved YourSpace as soon as possible. Special thanks go to Dawn, Muditha and Julie who have been equally as frustrated at the delays experienced.
Busy Busy Busy - December 2010
The launch of our website and New Year Campaign begins in earnest - Julie has created a great Postcard campaign and this is due to go out today... Lots of Sticking of labels and sticking of 2nd class stamps later... Lindsey can finally go home and prepare to enjoy her mince pie!!
Alan is taking some well earned time off with his Son and they are due to go Xmas shopping at long last! Talk about cutting it fine…!
Christmas is coming all too soon... We wish all our customers and prospective clients a very happy Christmas and a fantastic New Year! As you know - we never close - so if a Xmas emergency does pop up you know you can rely on us... We look forward to seeing you all in a hopefully prosperous 2010 :-))
Nigel Mansell Eat Your Heart Out - December 2010
It has been a challenging year however we have gone from strength to strength. So what better way to celebrate than drag the Regalty team off to Daytona Kart Racing in Manchester!
A fierce F1 battle ensued (ok – we are making this far more dramatic than it was) where Ellis led the race until lap 40 when the mighty kart master (Alan made us type this) overtook him and claimed 1st Place. Ellis followed 2nd on the podium and Carl 3rd. Steve was just happy to finish the race intact!!Thanks to everyone who attended making for a great end of year event.
Website Update - December 2010
Alan, Julie and, Muditha and Dawn are all emailing each other left, right and centre in the hope of meeting our Web launch date of Friday 18th December 2009 - it looks like that SagePay have let us down in getting the payments online systems working and so we are going to have to wait until the New Year to get this feature operational - however everyone is busting a gut to get things just right for all our customers.
Birthdays and Black Ties - December 2009
Julie's birthday and a trip for Alan & Jules to London to the National Property Management Company of the Year Awards 2009. After a flight to London where Alan insisted the plane had no right to be in the air as it was too heavy (Alan is scared of flying!) - we finally arrived at The Grange Hotel to the Awards Ceremony. A glass of wine (or 5!) later - we enjoyed the company of some great property managers and had a really enjoyable time.
The launch of our 'April Fool' campaign has started as we ask apartment owners whether they are getting the best deal from their Managing Agent. We are excited at the opportunity of working with new customers, but mindful of our existing customers - and our relaunch of YourSpace by Regalty Estates has been a resounding success. Feedback has been excellent and we are grateful for the time taken by leaseholders in letting us know what you want from our service. There are one or two final development tweaks to the website which are due to be installed - in particular the feature to have multiple apartments registered to a single email address - and this should be live in a week's time. Once again, thank you to all our customers for doing business with Regalty, we appreciate the business, the references and the support and we will continue to work hard to ensure that a Premium service is delivered to you and your fellow residents.
22nd March 2010
Finally our website sees its full official launch this week after months of painstaking beta testing across all the primary browsers. Sagepay is finally live and the full functionality of the new service will see us transform the way we and our customers work - to make it simpler and easier for our customers to report faults, provide feedback and pay service charges. We would welcome feedback from everyone how you find the service and ways in which you think it can continue to be improved.
It has been a challenging year however we have gone from strength to strength. So what better way to celebrate than drag the Regalty team off to Daytona Kart Racing in Manchester!
Alan, Julie and, Muditha and Dawn are all emailing each other left, right and centre in the hope of meeting our Web launch date of Friday 18th December 2009 - it looks like that SagePay have let us down in getting the payments online systems working and so we are going to have to wait until the New Year to get this feature operational - however everyone is busting a gut to get things just right for all our customers.
Julie's birthday and a trip for Alan & Jules to London to the National Property Management Company of the Year Awards 2009. After a flight to London where Alan insisted the plane had no right to be in the air as it was too heavy (Alan is scared of flying!) - we finally arrived at The Grange Hotel to the Awards Ceremony. A glass of wine (or 5!) later - we enjoyed the company of some great property managers and had a really enjoyable time.
