The week after the demands go out
The quarter day demand run has gone. Within days the phones are busy. One leaseholder has received a demand for a flat they sold last year. Another's figure has doubled because an apportionment was entered wrongly. A whole block's demands went without the summary document your procedure requires. A batch of post came back marked 'not known at this address'.
Each mistake means a phone call, an apology, a corrected demand and sometimes a delay in when payment is due, which pushes the block's cash flow back.
Why errors slip into demand runs
Demand runs are generated from the data in your block management system, and they are only as good as that data. Owner changes that were not entered, apportionments edited by hand, budget figures typed in with a slip, correspondence addresses that were never updated: each is a small data issue that becomes a visible error once the run goes out.
Before the run, most firms do a quick visual check of a few demands. With thousands in a run, the odd one out is easy to miss.
What a bad run costs
The obvious cost is the calls and reissues. Beyond that, leaseholders lose confidence in figures they receive, and are more inclined to question or delay payment. Where a demand needs certain information to accompany it, missing enclosures may raise questions about whether it was properly served, which is a matter for your advisers but one you would rather avoid entirely.
The pre-run checks we build
We build a checking step between generating the run and sending it, reading from the same data your block management system uses. Which enclosures and wording are required is set by your procedure and advisers.
- Draft run capture: the demand run is generated as normal and exported or read before sending, so nothing leaves until the checks pass.
- Figure checks: each demand is compared with the approved budget and the leaseholder's apportionment, and with their previous demand. Large or unexpected changes are flagged with the reason.
- Owner and address checks: recipients are compared with recent completion notices, returned post and email bounces, so demands to former owners or bad addresses are caught.
- Enclosure checks: each demand pack is checked for the enclosures your procedure requires for that block and demand type.
- Anomaly list: everything flagged appears in one list per block, with the demand, the reason and a link to fix the underlying record.
- Send and track: once cleared, demands go by email and post as usual, and bounces and returns are logged against the leaseholder for correction.
| Check | Catches |
|---|---|
| Change against previous demand | Apportionment and budget entry mistakes |
| Recipient against recent sales | Demands to former owners |
| Address against returns and bounces | Post and email that will not arrive |
| Enclosures present | Demand packs missing required documents |
| Total against budget | Run totals that do not match the approved budget |
What the week after looks like
Instead of a wave of calls, there are a few queries about genuine issues. Property managers deal with anomalies before the run instead of apologising after it. Over time, the data behind the run gets cleaner, because each flagged problem is fixed at source rather than patched in a single demand.
Your accounts team also gets a record of what was checked and cleared for every run, which is useful if a demand is ever questioned later.
Signs your demand runs need checking
- Every demand run is followed by a wave of correction calls.
- Demands have gone to former owners.
- Figures have been wrong because of manual apportionment changes.
- Enclosures have been missed for whole blocks.
- Returned post is not always used to correct records.