'We get it right' by following best practice in the industry.
Our dedicated team assists Property Management Companies and Residents’ Management Companies (RMCs), including Right to Manage Companies (RTMCs), to meet their service charge obligations by providing them with proactive straightforward advice and a value for money service.
We understand that landlords and managing agents have a duty to demonstrate the integrity of service charge accounts and to show that funds have been spent appropriately.
We act for a considerable number of managing agents and independent Resident Management Companies (RMC) and provide the followingservices:
· Preparation and the certification or audit of annual service charge accounts;
· Preparation of statutory accounts;
· Advise managing agents regarding service charge monies, systems and documentation;
· Company secretarial services.
We are fully conversant with the guidance on Service Charge Accounts and work closely with managing agents, many of whom are ARMA members and also ARMA-Q compliant, to ensure that expenditure is thoroughly examined and verified in line with the guidance and the lease for the benefit of all parties.
Whitley Stimpson are affiliates of ARMA.
Clients include: Inspired Property Management and Scribe Property Management.
Key Individual:
Jonathan Walton
E: jonathanw [at] whitleystimpson.co.uk
Profile:
Jonathan has been a director for over 27 years, helping mostly SME enterprises grow and reach their aims, including several business sales, and acquisitions along the way, where knowledge, skills and interpreting the ‘emotions’ of deals from both buyer and seller perspective is key. Like many of his clients, Jonathan also owns his own business, which adds to his understanding of the challenges they face. Jonathan heads up the firm’s dedicated Service Charge Accounting team, which deals with the preparation and audit of service charge accounts, act on behalf of companies who collect ground rent and service charges and prepare statutory accounts for Residents’ Management Companies including Right To Manage Companies.
What we say about them:
Getting financial reporting right is a must for any landlord. But like any accounting process, residential and commercial service charge accounting can be complicated and confusing. In recent years, the way services charges are held and used has been the subject of much discussion within the industry. Regulation and best practice advice don’t stay still. So, the best way to ensure you are meeting your obligations and stay the right side of the law is to engage the services of an accountant with expert knowledge in this field.
Whilst there is no shortage of chartered accountants, not all count service charge accounting as a specialist area. With experience and expertise gained through helping numerous Residents Management Companies and managing agents to meet their legal obligations, Whitley Stimpson can demonstrate they have the expert knowledge and understanding needed to navigate through the complexities of service charge accounting.
Based in south-central England, they even have a specialist Service Charge Accounting team, headed up by director Jonathan Walton MSc (Oxon), FCA, which is committed to helping clients to stay up to date with changing regulations. As well as meeting legal requirements, their in-depth understanding of the sector could also help you to identify new efficiencies of working and ensure your reporting follows best-practice standards. With three offices across Oxfordshire in Banbury, Bicester and Witney, and a further office in High Wycombe, Whitley Stimpson is a well-established, independent practice that is one of the largest in the area. Their history dates back over 90 years, so you can be reassured this is a chartered accountancy firm that won’t vanish overnight and leave you in the lurch.
Service charges are one of the principal subjects of dispute between leaseholders and landlords. The holding of service charges can be an especially tricky area to negotiate through, which landlords have a duty to hold in trust correctly and must be able to demonstrate on request, as laid out in Section 21 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
Even if you’ve got the in-house expertise, if the service charge is payable by the leaseholders of more than four dwellings, your accounting summary must be certified by a qualified accountant who is independent of the landlord, unless you are a public sector body.
