Block Management
Communal roofing for Maidstone blocks, with the survey detail and estimate format that Section 20 consultation and reserve fund planning actually require.
Communal Roofs Across Maidstone
Where the flat stock sits
Maidstone's leasehold stock concentrates in identifiable places. The town centre carries flats above retail along the High Street, Gabriels Hill, Bank Street and Earl Street, many in converted period buildings with parapet gutters and lead-lined valleys nobody has inspected in decades.
Purpose-built blocks appear through the inner suburbs and along the main approach roads, typically 1960s to 1980s construction with flat or shallow-pitch communal roofs originally covered in built-up felt.
Converted houses split into flats are common through Fant, Tovil and around Week Street, where the roof is communal but the building was never designed as a block, and responsibility for the roof and the guttering is often unclear until there is a leak.
Key Fact
Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires landlords to consult leaseholders before carrying out qualifying works where any leaseholder would contribute more than £250. Failure to consult, or to obtain a dispensation, limits recovery to £250 per leaseholder regardless of the actual cost of the works.
Parapet gutters and the town centre problem
The older town-centre buildings are the ones that generate the expensive claims. Parapet and box gutters concealed behind the front elevation take the whole roof's drainage through a hidden channel, and when they block or the lining fails the water goes into the structure rather than over the edge where anyone can see it.
By the time it shows in a top-floor flat, the damage is usually into ceilings and sometimes into the structural timbers. These gutters need clearing on a schedule and inspecting properly, and they are the single item we would put first on any Maidstone town-centre block maintenance plan.
Access, scaffold licences and residents
Scaffold on the narrow town-centre streets — Gabriels Hill, Bank Street, Earl Street, Upper Stone Street — needs a licence from Maidstone Borough Council, and on a block that means notice to residents, agreement on bin and access arrangements, and often traffic management.
We handle the licence and provide a written programme and access notice that agents can circulate directly. Getting resident communication right before scaffold arrives removes most of the complaints that otherwise land on the agent.
Reserve fund planning
A condition survey that says the roof is in poor condition is of limited use for reserve planning. What a freeholder or RTM company needs is a prioritised schedule with indicative costs across five and ten years, so contributions can be set against a known liability rather than a guess.
Our block surveys set out what needs doing now, what needs doing within five years, and what is monitoring only, with a cost band against each. That is the document that supports a defensible service charge budget and, when major works do arrive, the evidence that the consultation was properly grounded.
Block and Communal Roofing Services
| Service | Basis | Notes |
|---|
| Communal roof condition survey | £450 - £1,200 | Photographed, prioritised, 5 and 10-year forecast |
| Section 20 specification | £350 - £900 | Issuable to multiple contractors |
| Itemised estimate for consultation | No charge | Provided as part of tendering |
| Parapet and box gutter clearance | £250 - £700 | Per visit, scheduled maintenance |
| Communal flat roof recovery | £65 - £120 per m2 | Single ply, built-up or liquid applied |
| Planned maintenance contract | Quoted per block | Annual schedule plus documented reports |
Works are quoted per project following survey, with written specification, RAMS and programme provided before commencement. We invoice managing agents on standard 30-day terms with VAT invoices for service charge accounting.
Planning major works? A condition survey with a costed forecast is where a defensible Section 20 starts.
0162 229 6232
