Management terms
The terms on which KENYON PROPERTIES YORKSHIRE LTD looks after a building for its owner, in plain English. A building is taken on only under a written agreement signed by both sides; the agreement adds the detail of one building and never takes away what is written here.
1 · The agreementWho these terms are between, and how it begins
These terms are between the company and the owner who instructs it: a person who owns a house or a block, a freeholder, or a residents’ management company. The people who live in the homes are not party to them; their tenancy or lease is with the owner, and what they can expect from the company is set out on Opened up.
An instruction begins with a written agreement that names the building and its homes, the services chosen, who books each safety check, the repairs the company may instruct without asking first, and how and when it reports to the owner. It starts on the date written in it.
No building is taken on before the company belongs to a government-approved redress scheme.
Every property manager in England must belong to one (SI 2014/2359). The agreement, and the page on making a complaint, will name it.
2 · The companyWhat it does under an agreement
- Walks the building. A first walk-round when it comes into care, every element seen and photographed, then one every season.
- Keeps the checks in date. Gas, electrics, alarms, the energy certificate and, for a block, the fire risk assessment: each date known before it arrives, and booked where the agreement says so.
- Follows faults to their cause. Each report is sorted into a class with response targets and moves through eight steps, from Reported to Written down. The classes and targets are on Opened up.
- Looks after the shared parts. Stairs, halls, lighting, fire doors and their closers, windows, bin stores, paths and grounds.
- Readies empty homes. A condition check, checks brought into date, works done and the home cleaned, between one household and the next.
- Keeps the building’s history. What was found, what was done, by whom and when, handed over in full if the agreement ends.
- Consults leaseholders when asked. The notices and stages section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires before major works.
3 · The ownerWhat stays with the owner
- Giving the company the papers and keys it needs, and telling it about anything that affects safety.
- Keeping the building insured.
- Deciding promptly on any repair the agreement does not let the company instruct alone.
- The duties the law places on an owner or landlord, which an agent can carry out but cannot take away: the company arranges, the owner stays responsible, except where the law puts a duty on the agent itself.
- Finding the people who live there, their tenancies, and anything to do with a sale.
Safety checks: who books what
The agreement says, check by check. Where it gives the company the gas safety check, the company carries the same duties for it as the owner. Gas work is only ever done by a Gas Safe registered engineer, electrical work by a qualified electrician, and the company does neither itself.
4 · Repairs and accessHow far the company acts alone, and entering homes
- Within the agreement
- The company instructs the repairs the agreement allows it to and tells the owner what was done. Anything beyond that waits for the owner’s word, except making something safe in an emergency, which never waits.
- Trades
- Trades are chosen for the job and are told the fault’s cause as far as it is known. They send their invoices to the owner; how that works for a building is set in its agreement.
- Entering a home
- To look at the condition of a home: at least 24 hours’ notice in writing and a reasonable time of day (Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 11). Only danger that cannot wait comes sooner, and the people living there are told afterwards what was done and why.
- Keys
- Kept locked away, tagged without the address, and signed out and back in each time they are used.
5 · Holding moneyNot part of these terms
The company does not hold money for owners or for the people living in their homes. If an agreement ever asks it to, it will hold none until it belongs to a government-approved client money protection scheme, which the agreement will name.
6 · Your rightsOwners who are consumers, and owners in business
If you own as a private person
- The service is carried out with reasonable care and skill, within a reasonable time, and what the company tells you about it is binding (Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 49, 50 and 52), with the remedies that Act gives you.
- An agreement made away from the company’s office, or at a distance, can be cancelled within 14 days of the day it is made, for any reason (Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013).
- The work starts inside those 14 days only if you ask for that in writing. If you then cancel, you owe only for what was done before you told the company.
If you own as a business
The service is still carried out with reasonable care and skill (Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, section 13), and the agreement sets the rest. Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.
7 · Ending, data, the lawThe rest of it
- Ending the agreement
- Either side can end it in writing, with the notice the agreement sets. Every paper, key and the building’s whole history go back to the owner within the notice period.
- Personal information
- How the company handles it is set out in the privacy notice. For the people living in a building, the agreement says whether the company acts on the owner’s instructions or decides for itself.
- Complaints
- How to complain, and where to go after that: Making a complaint.
- The law
- These terms and every agreement are governed by the law of England and Wales, and its courts can hear any dispute. A consumer who lives in Scotland or Northern Ireland can also bring a claim in the courts there.
8 · The keepUsing the owners’ and residents’ portal
- Yours to use for buildings and homes you own or live in, and for nothing else.
- Your password is yours alone; signing out on a shared device ends the session on the server.
- Never for emergencies. The portal is not watched around the clock; danger goes to 999 or the gas emergency line first.
- What you write about a fault is seen by the home’s owner and by the company’s repairs desk; the company may remove anything abusive or not about a building.
- Kept running as well as the company can, without a promise that it never stops. Deleting your account deletes everything kept with it, at any time.