Mixed use
Shops and offices below flats, with the costs split so commercial and residential occupiers each pay what their leases say.
Case study · Brentford, TW8
A 129-unit riverside block in Brentford.
A modern riverside block with commercial units on the ground floor and a service charge split across schedules. We took it over from another agent in March 2025, including the records and the questions about its external walls.
129
Units
123
Flats
6
Commercial units
2025
In our care since March
Taking over a large block mid-stream
A handover on a building this size is where things go missing: funds in the outgoing agent’s account, arrears nobody can explain, contracts nobody has a copy of. We ask for everything on a written schedule, chase it item by item, and tell the directors what has arrived and what has not. Opening balances are checked against the previous agent’s figures before the first demand goes out, so every leaseholder starts from a number that can be explained.
Residential and commercial, apportioned properly
Six commercial units share the building with 123 flats. The service charge is split across schedules so each pays for what its lease says it pays for, and budgets, accounts and statements all follow the same split. That is the part of a mixed-use budget most often inherited wrong, and the first thing we check.
External walls and the paperwork a sale needs
Buyers’ lenders ask about the external walls on almost every sale. We hold the fire risk appraisal of the external walls and the EWS1 information for the building, and answer the enquiries from buyers’ solicitors with the documents attached, so a sale is not held up waiting for the managing agent.
At this building
The complications we handle here.
Cladding and external walls
Fire risk appraisals of the external walls and EWS1 forms on file, and ready answers for buyers’ solicitors and lenders.
Behind the scenes
Run on BalanceBuddy.
- Service charges split schedule by schedule — six at the Putney estate, two in Brentford — with every leaseholder’s share worked from their lease.
- Budgets, budget-versus-actual reports and year-end accounts from one ledger, so the figures directors see during the year are the ones in the accounts.
- A register of who maintains each system on each building, with the emergency number to ring out of hours.
- Fire safety checks recorded on site, with failed checks raised as defects and followed up until they are closed.
- Each leaseholder’s documents in their own secure vault rather than sent as attachments.
- Reports for directors on what residents have raised and how quickly it was answered.
Residents reach us through the Gena Go app. See how the two fit together on the large block management page.
Let’s talk
Managing a block like this one?
Tell us about the building and we’ll show you how we would run it, with no obligation.