Sixty flats, one car park, endless email
A managing agent has asked you to look at charging for a residential block. There is a car park with allocated bays, a freeholder who must approve, a residents' committee with opinions, and residents who each want to know what it will cost them, whether they can have a charger in their bay, and whether a grant applies. Some are owner-occupiers, some are landlords renting out their flat.
Every question arrives by email, sometimes through the agent, sometimes direct. Within a month there are hundreds of messages and no clear answer to how many residents have signed up.
One project, many decision-makers
A house is one customer. A block is a small institution. Approvals come from several parties, each on their own timescale. Bay allocation is in the leases or a car park plan that may not match reality. Individual residents need their own paperwork, and some need their landlord or lender to agree. None of it fits a job management system built for one customer, one address, one charger.
- Freeholder, managing agent and committee approvals are tracked in email threads.
- Bay numbers in the car park plan do not match those in the leases.
- Residents' interest is gathered by reply-all.
- Each resident's documents and permissions arrive separately and incompletely.
- Shared infrastructure and individual chargers are priced and invoiced differently.
Why these projects stall
Without a clear record, projects stop at the approval stage because nobody can show the freeholder what was agreed. Surveys and designs are redone when the number of chargers changes. Residents lose interest when their questions are not answered. And you spend unpaid time on a project that may never reach install, simply because the admin overwhelmed it.
Managing agents also compare installers on how much of their time a project takes. An installer who keeps residents informed and hands the agent a clean summary is the one invited back for the next block, and the one recommended to other agents.
The project hub we build
- The block is set up as a project with its parties (freeholder, agent, committee contacts) and each flat and bay as a record, linked where known.
- Approvals needed from each party are listed with status, documents and dates, so everyone can see what is outstanding.
- Residents get a simple project page with the agreed information, answers to common questions approved by you and the agent, and a form to register interest against their flat and bay.
- Individual paperwork (permission from a landlord, consent forms, any grant evidence your team requires) is collected through the page and tracked per flat.
- The hub shows totals by status: interested, documents complete, approved, scheduled, installed. That feeds design decisions on shared infrastructure.
- Questions from residents arrive in one inbox linked to their flat, and the managing agent gets a regular summary.
| Project element | Held now | Held in the hub |
|---|---|---|
| Party approvals | Email threads | Listed with status and documents |
| Bays and flats | Car park plan and leases | One linked record per flat and bay |
| Resident interest | Reply-all emails | Registration against flat and bay |
| Individual paperwork | Scattered attachments | Collected and tracked per flat |
| Progress | Nobody can say | Totals by status |
Who is entitled to approve what, under the leases, is a question for the freeholder, agent and their advisers. The hub records their decisions; it does not interpret the leases.
A project people can follow
The managing agent sees where the project stands without asking. Residents get consistent answers and a simple way to take part. You know how many chargers to design for, and can show the freeholder a clean record of approvals. The unpaid admin shrinks, which makes blocks of flats a market you can take on deliberately rather than reluctantly.
Signs you need a project hub
- A flats project has generated hundreds of emails and no clear sign-up count.
- You have redesigned shared infrastructure because numbers changed.
- Residents ask the same questions repeatedly.
- Approvals from the freeholder or agent are hard to evidence.
- Bay numbers in different documents disagree.