Queries

ARMA is able to give advice on its members and issues relating to blocks managed by members.

Queries about other property issues or 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 your query is regarding retirement housing then the Association of Retirement Housing Managers (ARHM) 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.

ARMA members

If you have a problem with a member of ARMA over compliance with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' Code of Practice relating to service charges you can call ARMA on 020 7978 2607 for advice, however you will be expected to have been through the full internal complaints procedure of the member first and, where appropriate, raised the issue(s) with any outside freeholder or the directors of the residents management company.

Complaints against members are taken very seriously. A copy of the formal Complaints Procedure is available upon request.  This procedure ultimately offers an Adjudication Scheme run by IDRS Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators – details of the Scheme can be provided on request.  However, ARMA often finds that many issues can be dealt with without the need to go through the formal complaints process and encourages potential complainants to discuss such issues with the Secretariat first to see if an informal solution can be found.

Freeholders, managing agents and lessees have legal duties and obligations to each other. The ARMA complaints procedure is not intended to be a substitute for any other action. All existing channels of communication 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.

ARMA is unable to comment on matters concerning residential lettings or where the complaint is based on a variance of opinion concerning the interpretation of a lease or management policy or where litigation is taking place. Neither does ARMA act as an arbitrator.

ARMA is not empowered to consider complaints against firms that are not members nor can it deal with issues that are more properly matters for the Leasehold Valuation Tribunals or the Courts.