37 Cross Street
Residential Case Study
"We have come to the conclusion that good Managing Agents are rare gems... and Casserly Property Management is certainly one of them"
Marika & Hamish McGregor, Former Directors | 37 Cross Street
The Client
37 Cross Street is a listed building in Manchester City Centre. The upper three floors are apartments, with commercial premises on the lower floors.
The Problem
In 2012 the Directors of the Residential Management Company and the leaseholder were exasperated at the high service charges levied by the freeholder. This had resulted in service charge debtors of more than £95,000 and creditors of £71,000, and was rendering the apartments almost impossible to sell. Three different managing agents failed to resolve the situation, and in early 2012 the Director of the RMC appointed Casserly Property Management in the hope that these issues could finally be resolved.
Our Solution
After a detailed review Casserly negotiated the residential tenants’ share down to just 3.73% of expenditure in the basement/commercial area as opposed to 55.83% in previous years. This reduced the annual overriding service charge from £18,100 p.a. to £5,062.
In addition …..
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We pursued refunds for historical charges which totalled £40,908.
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We discovered an electricity meter for the commercial basement area was being billed to residents erroneously. This refund totalled £5,982.
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We secured a buildings insurance refund of £1,700 for incorrect billing of VAT for the previous 5 years.
As a result of Casserly Property Management’s interventions, the leaseholders now have a considerably lower service charge budget without any reduction in service, making it a very successful addition to our block management in Manchester portfolio.
In 2015 Casserly received a highly coveted ‘ARMA-Q’ Award for their outstanding work on the development.
