When a block of flats requires significant maintenance work, property managers can swiftly find themselves overwhelmed with tasks.
Such complex and unpredictable major projects often keep everyone on their toes. This makes it all too easy to forget to focus on safety and quality of works. Here we’ll be giving you a reminder of how you can ensure the safety of your staff, residents and independent contractors, while also ensuring any work the latter complete is to a high standard.
What Are “Major Works”?
Major works are substantial projects such as large-scale maintenance, repair work or significant improvements for the block of flats. Such works are carried out to ensure the proper functioning, safety and value of your block of flats. Typically this requires careful planning, budgeting, and coordination. They often involve hiring contractors, obtaining necessary permits, and communicating with residents to minimise disruptions during the project.
Some major works are needed to ensure the health and safety of residents. Fire alarm systems, door entry security and damp-proofing must be maintained and upgraded as necessary to avoid any harm to residents too. Besides the obvious necessity for structural and security-related repairs, major works also include planned improvements and refurbishment. These are just as important for the sake of resident satisfaction and maintaining the value of the block of flats.
Risk Assessments and Planning
Challenges that arise with major works can be predicted and overcome during any planning stages. A generally proactive and strategic approach will also help to avoid any emergency works becoming necessary. Thorough planning is key and should include:
- Conducting thorough inspections to assess the extent of the work needed and potential issues that might arise.
- Identifying the scope of the works and creating a detailed project plan; breaking down the tasks, timelines, and required resources.
- Allocating budgets and resources appropriately, considering both direct costs (materials, labour) and indirect costs (permits, administrative expenses).
Cyclical inspections including Health & Safety, Fire Risk, Gas Safety, Electrical Safety, Legionella and Asbestos should be carried out as normal if reports are unlikely to be changed by the works being carried out.
If, however, the works may well alter the outcome of an inspection, then these should be booked in immediately after the works have been completed.
The Work at Height Regulations 2005 will need to be observed. This is if any of the works will require contractors to work above the ground. These should be fresh in mind from being observed for anything from lightbulb changes to gutter clearances. A full working at heights risk assessment must be carried out for any contractors who will be working off the ground. This is usually done by the contractor themselves, but the whoever is arranging the work has the legal responsibility to ensure this is done.
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) are also worth a reminder. These regulations require “The ‘responsible persons’ to report deaths at work, major injuries caused by accidents at work, injuries to members of the public that require hospital treatment, injuries arising from accidents and dangerous occurrences.” So even a near-miss must be reported via the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website: hse.gov.uk/riddor.
Choosing the Right Contractors
As you’ll most likely be relaying on independent contractors to complete the necessary works, it’s vital that you do your due diligence. If the works will be costing each leaseholder more than £250, they will also have their say on your choice of contractor via the Section 20 Consultation procedure. This consists of three stages:
- Notice of Intention: This notice must detail the proposed works and the reasons behind them, inviting leaseholders to submit their responses within a specified timeframe.
- Obtaining Estimates: Once the timeframe has elapsed, you must provide leaseholders with at least two estimates for the proposed works. These estimates should come from different contractors and be sent to the leaseholders along with a summary of the responses received following the notice of intention. Leaseholders should then be given another opportunity to submit their comments.
- Notice of Reasons: After considering the estimates and the observations of leaseholders, you must provide a “Notice of Reasons” that includes details of the chosen contractor, the costs involved, and any other relevant information. Leaseholders have the right to seek further information and potentially challenge the choice of contractor or the costs.
So, when you’re shortlisting contractors to quote for the job, make sure you’re first checking their:
- Insurance
- Reliable reviews
- Accreditations, qualifications and certificates
- Previous work on other buildings and the relationship they had with RMC or property manager there
- General manner (you may be working closely together for some time!)
Always approach at least 3 different suppliers for quotes and compare them with the results of the above checks in mind. Simply choosing the cheapest option may not serve you well at all. Once you have a shortlist, it’s worth meeting with contractors on site. There’s a lot to be said for gut instinct after a face-to-face meeting. If a contractor is open, clear and concise in their responses to your questions and seems willing to spend the time with you, you’re likely off to a good start.
Quality Assurance
The Leasehold Advisory Service produced a good practise guide in 2016 that contains very relevant advice on the subject of quality control for major works in blocks of flats. They say themselves that “One of the biggest areas of dispute that ultimately ends up at the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT) is where a leaseholder believes they have received poor value and poor quality services or work.”
Top tips for ensuring the work carried out is of consistent quality:
- Set out clear standards for the completion of the works themselves, on-site behaviour, arrival and departure times, regularity of communication and how the site should be left at the end of each working day. Set all of the above out in writing so all parties can refer back if agreements are not adhered to.
- Set out key milestones with your contractors so that a timeline can be agreed to for all parties. Obviously, some delays due to unforeseen circumstances may be unavoidable. If so, the plan should be adjusted and the new completion dates should be communicated to all leaseholders and contractors.
- Ensure that all leaseholders direct any comments or complaints to you, rather than to the contractor. This ensures that you’re consistently aware if things are falling below par. Encourage all communication with your leaseholders- some complaints may be by-the-by, but allowing all residents to be heard will help you keep your finger on the pulse.
- Once work is completed, surveyors reports should be requested and scrutinised, before and after photos should be compared and leaseholders should be invited to comment via individual discussions or surveys. Make use of included ‘snagging’ visits from contractors to bring any sub-par work up to standard.
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