Stakeholder Relations, Communication and Customer Service
Mapping the stakeholders
Every block has multiple audiences with different legal relationships: the client landlord or freeholder; the RMC or RTM board, who are volunteers making decisions; leaseholders and subtenants; residents who are not leaseholders; contractors; insurers; and statutory bodies. The agent's contractual duty runs to the client, but the leaseholders are the people who pay and who hold statutory rights. Communicating as though the leaseholders were the client's adversaries is a fast route to complaints and tribunal applications.
Good practice
Plain English, timely and evidence-based. Statutory notices must be served correctly but should be accompanied by an explanatory covering letter. Section 20 consultation observations should be acknowledged in writing and the reasons for decisions recorded. Budgets should be explained line by line at a residents' meeting. Complaints should be logged, acknowledged promptly, investigated and answered, with escalation to the redress scheme if unresolved after eight weeks. Vulnerable residents, accessibility, language and digital exclusion must all be considered.
Traps: acting on a single leaseholder's informal instruction; sending a statutory notice without explanation and triggering disputes; failing to record verbal advice; dismissing a genuine complaint as a service charge dispute; breaching confidentiality by discussing one resident's arrears with another.
Rule of thumb: acknowledge a complaint within two working days, give a substantive response within ten working days, and aim to issue a final response within eight weeks so the complainant can escalate to the redress scheme. Keep every communication in the file.