Views sought on proposals to improve property management services

The study, which was launched in March by the CMA’s predecessor, the Office of Fair Trading, looks at whether the market is working well for leaseholders and whether there is effective competition in the sector. Some of the main issues that have been identified as affecting leaseholders include excessive or unnecessary charging for services, poor service quality, insufficient transparency and poor communication.

The CMA will publish its full report by the end of 2014. Rachel Merelie, CMA Senior Director of Delivery, said: “Whilst the market works well for some leaseholders, our emerging findings suggest that improvements may be needed in a number of areas. Given the broad range of issues we are considering, we have decided to seek views at this stage on a range of possible remedies to the problems we have identified. This will help us to develop recommendations that are both effective and proportionate.”

ARMA has welcomed the CMA’s proposals. Its chairman, Ben Jordan, said: “This is a welcome initiative by the CMA that could improve the situation for leaseholders and managing agents alike. They have captured the need for balance between regulation and consumer education and it’s particularly good to see that the industry’s efforts to raise professional standards through ARMA-Q have been recognised.

“Although ultimately we believe that statutory regulation is the key, we certainly support the CMA’s intentions and recognise the need to act to improve accountability and disclosure across the leasehold sector. We will be examining the proposals in detail and look forward to working with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and other leasehold interests to achieve good outcomes for everyone.”