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putting the property management pieces in place |
Complaints
ARMA members are expected to comply with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ Code (Service Charge Residential Management Code 2nd Edition) which is available from www.ricsbooks.com or telephone: 0870 333 1600.
If you wish to pursue a formal complaint against a member of ARMA for failing to comply with the Code or related issues you may wish first to seek free legal advice from the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) www.lease-advice.org or your local Citizens Advice Bureau. Thereafter, you should request a copy of the member’s own written complaints procedure and follow this through.
If after eight weeks, your dispute has not been satisfactorily resolved under the member’s procedure, you can take your case to the relevant ombudsman. Details of the ombudsman scheme that the member belongs to will be found in their procedure. The ombudsman is a free service to consumers and his/her decision is binding on the member if you accept such decision.
Click here for full details of ARMA’s complaints procedure relating to corporate members.
Landlords, RMCs, managing agents and lessees have legal duties and obligations to each other. All existing channels of communications and negotiation between freeholder, agent and lessee must be maintained. We recommend that, wherever possible, notifications, complaints and responses are put in writing and that written records are kept of telephone calls.
Other Queries
If you have a problem with a managing agent that is not a member of ARMA, then contact the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE).
If your query is not regarding the management of whole blocks of long leasehold flats but about the letting or renting of properties then The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) would be the appropriate body to contact.
If you have a query about managing agents in Scotland, then the Property Managers Association Scotland (PMAS) would be the appropriate body to contact.
Please see our useful links page for other organisations that may be of help.