You and Your Residents' Company

What does my residents’ company do

Your residents’ company owns the communal amenity assets on the estate. This may include green spaces, trees, hedges, play areas, roads, footways, surface water sewers, water mains and other associated infrastructure. Residents and any other stakeholders owning property on the estate are shareholders/members of the residents’ company.

There are mutual obligations between each shareholder/member and your residents’ company. These are set out in:

• the residents’ company memorandum and articles of association
• the transfer documents for each property sale
• the deed of covenant signed by the property owner at the time of the property purchase

Preim’s role in supporting your residents’ company

The residents’ company employs Preim as managing agent, to maintain and manage the communal amenity assets on the estate. Preim has a contract with the residents’ company.

Preim Customer Account Managers (CAM’s)

Each estate is assigned a CAM as first point of contact to assist and oversee all repairs, maintenance and ensure works meet specifications, as well as advising on any estate issues. You can contact your CAM by contacting us.

How these services are paid for

Service charge

Each household and other members of the residents’ company pays a service charge. To calculate this, we take the annual budget – the estimated cost of running the residents’ company and maintaining the estate for each coming year – and divide it by the  total number of properties, as an average.

The reserve fund

The service charges also fund a reserve (or ‘sinking fund’) that builds up over time to cover future needs. These may include provisions for repair and replacement (where owned by the residents’ company) of roads, footways, street lights, surface water sewers, play areas, tree works and amenity areas.

Keeping you informed

As soon as the budget details are finalised, they are made available to shareholders/members via the website.  At the end of each year, accounts are independently audited. The statutory accounts, showing exactly what has been spent, are also made available to shareholders/members via the website. Shareholders/members without access to a computer and our website may request a printed copy of the Statutory Accounts.

Involving members in the residents’ company

For estates that have not yet been ‘handed over’ to resident control we seek to appoint shareholders/members onto a steering committee. Draft budget details will be provided to steering committee shareholders/members so that they have the opportunity to consult with other members and provide comments before the budget for the year is finalised.

Managing the funds

Money collected through service charges is paid into the residents’ company bank account and is paid out only for services provided for the residents’ company. The account is held with Barclays Bank. Interest earned on any balance of funds is added to the bank account at the end of the year. Any monies collected through the service charges that remain unspent at the end of the year will continue to be the property of the residents’ company and will remain in the residents’ company bank account.

Your estate service charge budget can be found on the website. Please always check to ensure that you have the current service charge budget.

If you have further questions do check out our FAQs page here.