Cities we serve · United Kingdom

Condominium management software for London

CoCollab gives London condominium boards, managers and residents one shared platform for weighted voting, issue tracking, transparent finances and AI-searchable documents.

In London, most flats are held on long leases, so the block is run by a freeholder, a residents' management company or an RTM company — and the recurring flashpoints are service charge transparency, major works under Section 20 and building safety paperwork. CoCollab sits above whoever manages the block: shared documents, weighted votes, live quorum and a signed record of every decision.

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What we solve

Legally-defensible online AGMs

Weighted permillage voting, live quorum, proxies and a signed audit trail — meetings that stand up to scrutiny.

Nothing gets lost between meetings

Issues, decisions, minutes and documents all live in one place, searchable by both managers and residents.

Owners actually know what's going on

Transparent finances, announcements and an owners registry — no more WhatsApp-group governance.

Why condominiums in London use CoCollab

London leaseholders and RTM companies juggle service charges, AGMs and complex block layouts. CoCollab keeps the paper trail auditable without hiring a bigger managing agent.

Leasehold, RMC and RTM: who actually decides

Unlike most of Europe, a London block usually has three parties: the freeholder who owns the building, the managing agent who runs it day to day, and the leaseholders who pay for it. Where leaseholders have set up an RTM company or hold shares in an RMC, decision-making moves to them — but the legal duties (accounts, consultation, insurance) move with it.

That split is why records matter more here than almost anywhere: a leaseholder can challenge the reasonableness of a service charge at the First-tier Tribunal, and the defence is documentary — quotes, consultation notices, minutes and the vote that approved the spend.

The issues that dominate London blocks

  • Section 20 consultation on major works: miss a stage and recovery per leaseholder is capped at £250, whatever the works cost.
  • Building safety and cladding: remediation, EWS paperwork and the accountable-person duties introduced by the Building Safety Act for higher-risk buildings.
  • Insurance premiums and commission disclosure, now a standing item at most AGMs.
  • Ageing Victorian and Edwardian conversions with shared roofs, single-stack drainage and no lift, alongside 2000s-era blocks facing their first big reserve draw.
  • Short lets and subletting breaches, and the enforcement route through the lease rather than a vote.

What actually goes wrong, and the fix

The failure mode is almost never the meeting itself — it is that quotes, the consultation notice and the budget arrived by scattered emails, so nobody can reconstruct who agreed what. Six months later the same block is arguing about whether the works were ever approved.

The habit that fixes it: publish every quote and notice in one place the moment it exists, collect proxies explicitly with the notice, and record the vote with weights attached so the tally is reproducible from the record alone.

London block benchmarks (orders of magnitude — check against your own accounts)
BenchmarkTypical position
Dominant stockVictorian/Edwardian conversions plus 1960s–2000s purpose-built blocks
Typical block size6–60 flats; large regeneration estates run to several hundred
Section 20 threshold£250 per leaseholder for works, £100 per year for long-term agreements
AGM noticeUsually 14–21 days, set by the company articles or lease
Service charge accountsAnnual, with leaseholders entitled to inspect supporting invoices
Heaviest cost linesBuildings insurance, lifts, communal heating, external redecoration cycles

Statutory thresholds are national; everything else varies by lease. Always read your own lease and the latest service charge budget before relying on a benchmark.

Frequently asked questions

Can CoCollab run a formal AGM vote for a London block?
Yes — weighted votes, live quorum, proxy handling and a signed audit trail are built in, so meeting minutes stand up to a First-tier Tribunal challenge.
How much does a managing agent cost in London?
Agents in London typically charge a per-flat annual management fee, at the upper end of UK rates, plus separate fees for major works supervision, company secretarial work and sales packs. Those extras are where budgets slip, so compare the full schedule of fees rather than the headline per-flat figure, and check what is included in the base management fee before switching.
How do leaseholders change their managing agent?
If an RMC or RTM company controls the appointment, the directors can terminate the agent under the management agreement's notice period and appoint a replacement, usually after a members' vote for legitimacy. Where the freeholder appoints the agent, leaseholders can pursue Right to Manage, or apply to the tribunal for the appointment of a manager where there is fault. Either route depends on documented decisions, so record the vote properly.
What is a Section 20 consultation and when is it needed?
Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires formal consultation before works costing any single leaseholder more than £250, or before long-term agreements costing more than £100 per leaseholder per year. It runs in stages — notice of intention, then notice of estimates — and failing to follow it caps what can be recovered at those thresholds unless dispensation is granted.
Does CoCollab replace our managing agent?
No. CoCollab sits alongside your agent, giving leaseholders transparent access to documents, finances and votes without disrupting the agent's workflow.
Is CoCollab GDPR compliant?
Yes. Data is hosted in the EU with role-based access and full audit logs, meeting UK GDPR obligations for personal data held about leaseholders.

Related terms

Managers and boards often ask about: