Residents’ Management Company of flats blocking urgent safety work?

12:00 AM, 3rd November 2026, 12 hours ago

4

Hello, I am the leaseholder of a flat in a purpose-built block in central Reading. My flat is fully managed by a local estate agent. The block itself is managed by a Property Management company.

Additionally, there is a company that acts as a Resident Management Company (RMC) for this property and they are registered at the same address as the Property Management company.

The Property Management company serves as the appointed corporate managing agent handling day-to-day operations, service charges, maintenance and administrative obligations for the building.

A serious problem arose initially in August of this year where the garage roller door has been vandalised by homeless drug addicts who are entering the block car park and leaving bedding, hypodermic needles and drug paraphernalia next to my tenants’ car. These drug addicts have also gained entry into the main building and broken the bin store door.

This was reported continuously over the last few months to the Property Management company and nothing has been done. It transpires that the Property Management company has obtained quotes for repairing the roller garage door and the bin store door, but these quotes have been rejected by the directors of the RMC who say they are too expensive.

The Property Management company now are unable to act to remediate this very serious problem which does not only invalidate my tenants’ insurance, but could potentially lead them to refuse payment of the rent due to the unsafe nature of their residence in this block of flats.

There are also families with children living in this block! I have reported it to the Environmental Health Department and the police (who are unwilling to act).

What can be done now? I am no longer getting responses from the Property Management company and a solution to the problem needs to be found before a worse situation occurs – it seems it’s in the hands of this RMC who are looking for a cheaper (but not necessarily) better solution which could make the whole situation drag on for very much longer.

Thank you,

Janette