The 5 Best Property Management Companies in Manchester

A letting agent works for the landlord of a unit: finding tenants, collecting rent, arranging repairs inside the flat. A managing agent works for whoever is responsible for the building as a whole, usually a residents' management company, a right to manage company or a freeholder. They collect service charges from every leaseholder, insure the structure, maintain communal areas, run section 20 consultations for major works and, in a higher-risk building, support the Accountable Person duties. If you own one flat and rent it out you need the first. If you sit on an RMC board you need the second.

Almost always per unit per year rather than a percentage, typically £200 to £400 plus VAT per flat for a standard Manchester block, and more where there is a lift, a concierge, a plant room or a building safety case. It is paid from the service charge, not by you personally. Ask what the fee covers and what is charged as an extra, because company secretarial work, section 20 consultations, major works project management and insurance commission are frequently billed on top. Insurance commission is the one to ask about directly.

For higher-risk buildings, broadly those at least 18 metres or seven storeys with two or more dwellings, it creates duties on a named Accountable Person and a Principal Accountable Person, registration with the Building Safety Regulator, a safety case report, and a golden thread of structured building information. Below that threshold the duties are lighter but fire risk assessment obligations still tightened. The legal duty stays with the Accountable Person and cannot be outsourced. What you can outsource is the execution, which is precisely what to ask a prospective agent about.

The statutory process a landlord or managing agent must follow before charging leaseholders more than £250 each for qualifying works, or more than £100 each per year under a long-term agreement. It runs in stages with notice periods, and leaseholders can nominate contractors and make observations. Skip it or get it wrong and the recoverable amount is capped at those figures per leaseholder, however much the work cost. It is the most common way a managing agent creates a large hole in a block's finances, and the first thing to ask about a firm's track record.

Yes, more than in lettings, because block management involves holding and accounting for large sums of other people's money. RICS regulation brings mandatory client money handling rules and a complaints route. The Property Institute, which absorbed ARMA, sets the sector's competence standards and requires member firms to meet them. The RICS Service Charge Residential Management Code, updated for 2026, is the practical standard covering budgeting, accounting, procurement and consultation. Ask which code the firm works to and expect the current one.

Yes, and it is more straightforward than most boards assume. If a residents' management company or RTM company holds the management function, you appoint and dismiss the agent under your contract, usually on three months' notice. If the freeholder appoints the agent, leaseholders can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a manager where there is a failure of management, or pursue right to manage to take the function over entirely. Get the handover terms in writing before you serve notice, particularly who holds the service charge funds, the accounts and the building safety documentation.