According to Ringley, the most common complaint by leaseholders is that they never see the managing agent on site. When asked how often do you think the Managing Agent visits site 52% of leaseholders believed that their Managing Agent did not visit site at all, 24% believed that their Managing Agent hardly ever visited site and 1% believed they visited regularly and 23% did not know. At Ringley, residents are informed of a managing agent visiting the site in advance and they can also download site reports further to this visit, which includes pictures and information which form the evaluation of the site visit. In this way, residents can see for themselves what a managing agent thinks of their block.

For every 36 people who pay their service charge on time, Ringley use their cost savings to donate £15 to Wateraid. This is enough money to provide one person with a lasting supply of safe water and sanitation.

At Ringley, in order to improve customer satisfaction, all incoming post is scanned for issues and allocated a unique number, for which a member of staff is responsible for monitoring the situation and resolving it until the issue is closed. In 2007, the company were dealing with 490 issues and every year since, this number has declined and is currently 104.

Teams are encouraged to ‘prefer’ contractors who also offer a money back guarantee.

Ringley sponsors the learning of a range of careers including accountancy, legal services, surveying, engineering, property management, operations, customer service, sales and letting. Staff are given competency tests and on-line learning materials to help them improve their working efficiency. Staff who feel they worked well on a situation that they were working on, or by helping a colleague on something, can be awarded £20 as a Customer Loyalty Award too.

The company has also introduced a ‘mystery’ shopper scheme. In this, members of staff take on the role of a leaseholder. They receive all documents a real leaseholder will get, along with demands for payments, budget planners and newsletters. The member of staff has the option to extend their lease and rate the professional services team at Ringley. In this way, staff performance can be measured and members of staff can ‘feel’ as closely as possible what it’s like being a leaseholder and how effective Ringley is doing its job.

Cutting the length of customer survey’s by a third means the company can focus on fewer questions which directly ask the resident what they want.

Ringley created www.ringleypanel.co.uk to ensure work is distributed fairly. It saves office space as paperwork is put online and saves time looking for invoices as these can be searched for in the online database. Contractors are able to see which Property Manager is dealing with their invoice and our jobs placed by staff go to contractors with the highest stars. Heather Smith of Bundle Service Ltd adds, “We have been experiencing the use and functionality of Ringley Panel for a number of months and find it an excellent interface between contractor and Ringley. It produces excellent time saving and removes the risk of invoices being lost in the post. Because of its transparency we are able to see the processing of the invoices on a daily basis. This is a great tool for our business as we are able to manage our finances based on the information readily available. It is the most user friendly and best upload system we are currently using. Credit must go to Ringley for such innovation. We are glad to be part of Ringley’s evolving environment.”

Every cleaner on a Ringley managed block wears a glove with 5 stars. Their performance is tracked by a Site Inspector or Property Manager and at the end of an inspection, the cleaner retains 5 stars, or fewer if their performance is under-par. Our people can see how many stars each cleaner or contractor has and a few cleaners have had to pull their socks up on their performance!

On winning the London Property Management Company Of The Year award, Ringley Managing Director Mary-Anne Bowring said, "We are delighted to receive this award as it recognises that we are a customer centric organisation. It's the second award in a month for us and I believe shows that we are living up to our brand promise of 100% transparency. We are committed to implementing any customer idea that will benefit all customers. From little things like awarding 'stars' to cleaners, to preferring contractors who like us offer a money back guarantee and promoting sustainable restoration when block redecorations are contemplated. We look forward to working with property owners to ensure they get value for money in the new year."

Ringley picked up the ‘Highly Commended’ award to reflect the work their valuation team do in the specialist field of Leasehold Enfranchisement. “We work mostly for".

In fact Ringley were finalists in two categories – the other being Individual Valuer Of The Year. Mary-Anne Bowring, Ringley Group Managing Director says “we are deeply proud of what we have achieved in a modest 10 years. We work the harder side of the fence, mostly championing cases for leaseholders, employing tactics and good negotiation skills.

The notable case that showed how far we can go for clients was a block of 52 flats in Forest Hill Road. Ringley were not the original valuers on this case. We met Mundania Court at the point of the collective enfranchisement group giving up all hopes having spent £15,000 in fees to other advisers. The residents could afford to buy the freehold, but not the roof masts and couldn’t see any way around this issue.

Getting the leaseholders re-motivated was not hard. By the time the case came to Tribunal due to leases getting shorter, the contribution per participating flat was circa £14,000 compared to the cost of a lease extension at circa £17,500 per flat. The saving to push forward was significant.

The freeholder was a difficult, or should I say ‘a strategically clever landlord’ who was using the leverage of 4 no. telecommunications masts, roof top, to obstruct the deal in anyway possible.

We had 2 working days to prepare for the Tribunal hearing. The Tribunal was a success. We were able to prove that acquisitions and mergers in the telecoms industry had devalued the masts also the Roman Road case suggested capitalizing 50% of the rents only. The freeholder’s expectations or value they put upon the telecoms income was clearly significantly out of kilter with the market. As was the original valuers!

• Hutchinson and T-Mobile;
• Orange and T-Mobile; and
• Vodafone and O2.

As is often the way a deal was done in a private room at the Tribunal. It was agreed the roofspace and telecoms masts would be leased back to the Freeholder.

The freeholder was defending a position of £925,000. The deal agreed at £356,000 saved the freehold purchase group £569,000.

Leaseholders at Mundania Court were so relieved to be put back on tract as the comments below show:

As a block of lease holders with little understanding of the law and our right to take ownership of the freehold, it is very difficult to know who or where to turn for honest, straightforward advice. Our first attempt, with the wrong lawyer and surveyor, sent down an expensive hall of mirrors as we tried uncover the facts of block enfranchisement; particularly as we had a number of telephone masts on our roof that the Landlord was insisting we included in the purchase. It wasn't until the 11th hour, in an desperate attempt to rid ourselves of a very difficult Landlord and their management company, that we came across the expertise of Ringleys Chartered Surveyors. Quickly, and without a fuss, they prepared the documentation and evidence for our appearance at the LVT (Leasehold Valuation Tribunal). We had been told to give up because we couldn't afford it by our previous lawyer and surveyor, but Ringley gave us the courage and belief to carry on, without misleading us on costs. We won at the LVT, thanks to Ringley. If you are in a leasehold block and are considering buying the freehold then my first bit of advice would be go to www.ringley.co.uk.
Danny - Mundania Court

Before we found Ringley, we were clearly being taken for such a ride. Please pass on our thanks to all those involved in achieving this victory in such as short period of time.
Kate - Mundania Court

Can't thank you enough. Please pass on my thanks to your team of experts. This has been such a lengthy process and mostly because of the jargon, and no one being able to break it down in the layman's terms like you did a few weeks ago. Thanks again for everything.
Janice - Mundania Court

Mary-Anne, I am so appreciative of the hard work you and your team, including Peter, must have put in to get such an amazing result this week. It felt like the cavallry were coming over the hill at the last moment. Many many thanks
Kate - Mundania Court

This is wonderful news. Thank you very much Ringley Chartered Surveyors, for all your efforts. This is such a relief.
Ruth - Mundania Court

This is really exciting. Thanks so much, everyone who's been working so hard on this!
Clare - Mundania Court

Wow, this is brilliant news. I have to say that I had lost my faith in the Freehold but thanks to Peter, Mary-Anne and Ringley team, this is very good news indeed.
Silvia - Mundania Curt

With Ringley Chartered Surveyors we today achieved a fantastic victory at the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal and Hamilton King/Southern Land Securities are now legally bound to sell us the freehold of Mundania Court for just £356,000! A £569,000 saving on their notice and clever strategy to force them to take a leaseback of the telcoms which they were using to frustrate the process. This is a superb result.
Peter - Mundania Court

Excellent news. It's clear that your team have worked tremendously hard on this. Thank you, and please pass on my/our thanks to the rest of the team. Additional thanks are due to you for cutting through the jargon for us laymen!
Duncan - Mundania Court Freehold Purchase

The at the News On The Block Enfranchisement and Right to Manage Awards, where the company’s Managing Director was also a Finalist for Individual Valuer Of The Year after just being pipped to the post by Knight Frank. Last year, Ringley also picked up a Green Champion award from The Negotiator Magazine and London Property Management Company Of The Year from the News On The Block Magazine.

Ringley spend over £7 million each year on maintenance and refurbishment, preferring to restore than replace, buy locally and switch to energy saving lightbulbs. They insulate lofts as much as possible and ensure recycling facilities are as close as possible to blocks they manage.

The Ringley Group’s customer service initiatives include an offer to reimburse a client’s block management fee if they opt to communicate with the firm via a teleconference instead of using their car.

They have made a commitment to recycle all paper, which they estimate helped save 244 trees between 2006 and July 2010 and to switch off its air conditioning/heater for at least 100 days each year to help reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

The company has done a lot of work in the last year to be innovative, environmentally friendly and value those who live in properties they work on. When proposed works are expensive, they make a point of asking resident to vote on alternatives. This has resulted in re-using brick bins as bike sheds. They want to include energy-saving lightbulbs in properties but this is impossible to be rolled out at once, so during the process they rotate old bulbs around so that gradual energy saving is used throughout the process. They have installed bike racks, which can be vertically mounted so take up little space, asking their cleaners if they are using environmentally friendly products, using ‘green’ transport and buying as locally as possible.

One judge says: “The thing I like is that not only is the firm looking after buildings, but it is also looking after residents.”

Another judge was impressed with the firm’s commitment to sourcing staff and services locally, but particularly its bravery in phasing out its company cars and reducing its pooled cars from six to four.

Managing Director, Mary-Anne Bowring says “winning this award is immensely encouraging. We are humbly at the start of our green agenda and spent much of 2010 capturing key data on all the developments of flats and houses we manage for our Clients so we truly know who has un-insulated pitched roofs and where grants are available. We have pin-pointed the nearest car club to each development, recorded what recycling facilities are on site.

Life cycle costing is also being used to promote PVC-U windows where the break-even point on redecorations is normally 3 or less decorations cycles and three major sites now either in funds or having just completed installing double glazing. For traditional Victorian buildings we deal with prior to paint timber repairs to windows by using resin repair systems ie, restoration as opposed to timber replacements or throwing away good quality Victorian window components which so greatly outlast modern softwood equivalents. In 2011 have plans to roll out to composting to larger sites, divert rainwater goods to water buts to re-use for garden watering, washing cars and installing simple low cost irrigation to flower beds.

It’s a tough agenda and there has to be proven benefits as it is hard to gain leaseholder’s support if initiatives mean that service charges will rise even if just short term. We do recognise the importance of the role the Ringley Group plays in influencing a lot of people and packaging just what is possible so that gradually the green agenda can filter down to the annual service charge budget and action plan we hold for each development we manage.”

Ringley collected GOLD for Best Block Management Company at The Times/Sunday Times Lettings Agency Of The Year Awards 2011 on Tuesday 7th June 2011.

The judges report describes Ringley’s Block Management Service as “A transparent, knowledgeable and approachable attitude means Ringley Chartered Surveyors stood out as gold winners. This company has a clear vision from the top and the entire team act accordingly to ensure they are all headed in the right direction. The number of services on offer is excellent and each service can be fully tailored to adapt to the size of the site being managed, completely necessary when one considers the range of properties managed runs from 3 units to 350 units. The back office systems for budget, maintenance and accounting have been developed and designed by Ringley and as such, the fully bespoke system is totally efficient and captures exactly the information needed for a slick and straightforward operation. The MD is passionate about IT and using this appropriately to minimize procedure whilst maintaining standards, leaving the team more time to focus on the personal touch. The website is fully comprehensive and any information one might need with regard to block management is covered including templates of useful forms and downloads. The team are all highly qualified and expert and it is clear they view block management as a collaborative effort between themselves, the freeholders and the tenants – an attitude which can only reap reward for all.”

Managing Director Mary-anne Bowring says “I simply could not be more delighted for our teams. At Ringley 2011 is officially the year of ‘leaseholder love’. Everyone at Ringley knows we are on a journey to deliver a 5 star service, every-time. Our people have truly raised their game to adopt the attitudes and behaviours that 5 star service requires and we shall continue to roll more ‘leaseholder love’ initiatives the true reward is the growing recognition and recommendations from our Clients.