ABSTRACT
The owner of a commercial property investment usually has the ultimate right to decide which individual organization will implement the management of the building and the service charges. Some landlords prefer to deal with the management of their own properties direct or in-house. A distinction should be made between the subsidiary companies of landlords who act as managing agents and those companies set up to manage property on behalf of a group of individual freeholders, each of whom will have a shareholding in the management company. As a point of good management practice, service charge expenditure budgets should be made, and, where possible, adhered to, for each service charge accounting year. Once it has been decided who manages, and the parameters of expenditure have been set to a budget, the purchase of services can proceed, albeit with due regard to common sense, case law, and statutory requirements, as well as the all-important lease provisions.
