Our highly professional and experienced team will ensure your property is managed efficiently, and cost-effectively, with a clear focus on communication and customer service. You can rest assured we have the expertise to ensure that statutory requirements and other regulations will be met, and our strong accounting team will ensure your funds are never at risk while in our care.

We aim to be a one stop service for our customers. Our standard property management service, for which an annual management fee is charged, includes:

• Agreeing the annual budget
• Collection of service charges
• Instruction for the recovery of unpaid service charges
• Preparation of service charge statements
• Payment for general maintenance out of service charge funds
• Administration of building and other insurance required
• Attendance at Annual General Meetings
• Supervision of staff, such as concierge, cleaners and gardeners
• Administration of annual contracts such as lifts, communal boilers, water pumps etc.
• Arranging periodic health and safety and fire risk assessments
• Periodic property and estate inspections to check condition
• Arranging minor repairs to buildings, plant, fixtures and fittings
• Dealing promptly with enquiries from leasehold owners and residents
• Maintaining records on ownership

Every development has an appointed property manager, who will often be your first point of contact, but they are always supported by a large team with knowledge and experience in all the various facets of property management.

At Hazelvine, we recognise the importance strong financial management plays in a quality Property Management solution. We have an experienced accounts team based in Letchworth, operating on the industry leading Qube property management software. Confidence in our service comes from the following:-

• The annual S/C budget, on which the on-account service charge demands are based, is set in consultation with residents.
• We maintain individual bank accounts for every property we manage to ensure funds from different sites are never mixed.
• Regular monthly reports of expenditure incurred can be provided to nominated residents.
• Additional reporting on service charge receipts and debtors can be provided to residents authorised to receive it.
• Fully reconciled, and independently verified, service charge accounts are produced annually. These show all monies received and expended, and any amounts set aside to reserves.

Security of your money is very important to us, and so we have robust systems and processes in place. You can also be confident in the fact that Hazelvine and the Qdime Group have a very strong financial base.

Our maintenance division employs tradesmen with various disciplines including carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, painters/decorators and plasterers, who carry out routine maintenance on our developments. They are located throughout our areas of operation, so can attend quickly in an emergency.

We have a large network of contractors who carry out routine services including cleaners, gardeners, lift engineers, tree surgeons and entryphone engineers, all of whom have to sign up to our Contractors Charter which sets out the standards we expect to receive. All routine works are competitively tendered to ensure best value for money for our customers.

At Hazelvine, we understand the complexities of major works so we don’t ask our property managers to try and manage them, we get our experienced Building surveyors to do so instead. This leaves our managers free to focus on communication with our customers.

With Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) work, or complex roofing works for instance, a property manager is unlikely to have the necessary experience to discuss works of that nature let alone prepare a specification of works and administer a building contract through to completion. We manage simple contracts of a few thousand pounds up to more major works running into millions.

Our surveyors will carry out a detailed inspection and survey of the building or M&E installation, prepare a detailed specification of works and contract conditions and obtain competitive tenders. We will involve landlords or resident directors throughout the process and will meet with residents to discuss complicated works and any implications such as disruption or security concerns.

Working for you, and mindful of obtaining best value for money, we always look for alternative solutions to problems and the surveying team come together to pool experience where necessary. We are also careful to keep each contract as simple as it needs to be for the work involved, so won’t always recommend a JCT Form of Contract if a simple agreement by letter is adequate.

Using our buying power we have agreed a bespoke policy wording for our Block Insurance policy which is the most comprehensive in the market. Our policy wording is underwritten by one of the major insurers who operate in the property sector.

We guard the performance of our Block Policy very closely to ensure all claims are fully validated before acceptance.  This protects the majority of our customers from the few sits that have a major claim and helps those sites maintain a sensible premium level.

Every year we meet with our brokers to review the policy wording to ensure we keep up to date with changes in the market.  We agree with them which insurers we are happy for them to approach to quote and they arrange that and negotiate with us to achieve a sensible premium for the risk involved.  We meet with the insurers to finalise terms and then through the year to review how the policy is performing.