Accordant Estates, Basildon, Essex

Welcome to Accordant

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We started Accordant Estates to improve and enhance your community – to make it a better place to live. We are committed to enhancing your environment and to keeping it that way.

We will break with the existing approach of companies in this sector and will put residents first. The needs of any community should be identified from within and the services provided should reflect what the community wants, not be imposed from outside. Residents know what’s needed to create, improve and maintain the environment in which they live. We will work with you to create specifications that match your requirements, ensuring value for money and active supervision of work are applied at all times.

It is our aim to provide a consistent and high-quality service which satisfies and exceeds your requirements and expectations. We understand the importance of the environment in which we work, that the condition of resident’s physical surroundings can be as valuable to them as that of their own property. We acknowledge and accept that the quality of our service will be reflected in the work conducted and we will ensure that our values are acknowledged and understood by all in our employ.

Accordant Estates, Basildon, Essex

Our Customer Care Charter

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Correspondence:

  • Acknowledge receipt of all emails and online enquiries within 1 working day.
  • Answer online enquiries, emails (and letters) with a full and satisfactory reply, with suitable urgency and within 10 working days.
  • Where it may take longer than 10 working days to research and provide a full answer, provide an acknowledgment within 5 working days with the contact name and estimated timescale for a full reply.

Telephone Calls:

  • Respond to telephone calls courteously and promptly, i.e. within 5 rings (08:00 – 18:00).
  • Provide a full response where possible or arrange for the appropriate person to contact the caller within 1 working day.
  • Provide the name of the person answering and, if appropriate, of the person who will respond or should be contacted in future.

Estate Inspection:

  • Weekly inspection of communal parts of the estate.
  • Report repairs and other matters identified through inspections, to the appropriate interested party or parties, within 5 working days.

Complaints:

  • Comply with the timescales in the Complaints Procedure (available on request).
  • Resolve complaints where possible within 10 working days and otherwise as quickly as possible.
Accordant Estates, Basildon, Essex

Service to residents

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Accordant recognises that residents are its customers and we are committed to delivering a high quality and responsive estate management service.

Detailed and comprehensive Service Level Agreements (SLAs) have been drawn up by Accordant and agreed by our clients. The SLAs are organic by design and will be developed as appropriate. We will work with our clients and residents to create the specifications they require.

Accordant will measure the quality and performance of all services to ensure the maintenance of high service standards. This will be achieved through the inspection and assessment of service delivery against targets set out in the appropriate SLA or contract specification. Performance information will be collated monthly and reported at agreed frequencies to the our clients.

Residents will be consulted through satisfaction surveys and will have the opportunity to provide feedback at regularly held meetings.

The SLAs reflect the following categories:

  1. Customer Care, Supervision and Management
  2. Property Maintenance
    1. Planned maintenance
    2. Reactive maintenance
    3. Priority Scheme
  3. Cleaning
    1. General cleaning services
    2. Window cleaning services
  4. Open Spaces
    1. Landscape maintenance
    2. Car parks and private roadways
    3. Swales
  5. Major Works
  6. Service Charges
Accordant Estates, Basildon, Essex

Re-mortgaging my property

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We must stress that we cannot give legal advice, so residents who are re-mortgaging should always seek advice from their solicitors.

  1. Restrictions are placed within the leases/transfers (purchase) by the developer when the first documents regarding your property are drawn up. These restrictions should have been explained to you by your solicitors at the time of purchase.
  2. The restriction is in place to ensure that whoever buys (owns) a property will carry out the terms of the lease/transfer (purchase) including paying of the service charge (both leasehold and freehold) and in most cases requires that the incoming purchaser enters into a Deed of Covenant stating they will abide by the terms of the original lease/transfer (purchase).
  3. The restriction requires that the buyer/owner (in the case of a re-mortgage), usually through the solicitors acting on their behalf, informs the Management Company via Accordant of what is happening with the property. In the case of a re-mortgage a Notice of Charge and copy of the Mortgage Deed is required. These documents give us details of the lender so that in a default (e.g. arrears with service charge) we can approach the lender for payment.
  4. Once the documents have been supplied, Accordant issues a ‘Certificate of Compliance’.  This certificate tells the Land Registry that the purchaser/owner has complied with the terms of the lease/transfer and is sent to the Land Registry by your solicitors with the application to register the charge (mortgage).
  5. Not all leases / deeds are the same. Your documents will show the restrictions as follows:
  • In a Lease they are usually in a clause headed Alienation and another headed Registration.
  • In regard to a Freehold Property the clause will likely be headed
  1. The fee charged by Accordant has been set by the developer and is to cover the cost of processing the transaction and sending the “Certificate of Compliance” to your solicitor. Your solicitor will likely also charge a fee. Accordant is exploring ways to reduce (or even eliminate) this fee with our legal advisors.

Fees will be incurred each time you re-mortgage your property.

  1. The restriction, insofar as it relates to shared areas, refers to all communal areas (not just shared drives for example). The service charges are collected to pay for services provided by Accordant and for those of the various contractors maintaining the estate.

We strenuously advise residents not to withhold service charge payments, not least because of the implications on the ownership of your property as well as the impact on your credit rating with the resultant complications that can ensue. Residents who have completed this process have advised:

  1. Tell your solicitor about the restriction and the need to contact Accordant so as to avoid delays further down the process. Please contact accounts@accordantestates.com
  2. The new mortgage provider will need evidence that you are not in arrears with your service charges. Accordant can provide details of your account on request. Please call 01268 816 829 for assistance in this matter.
Accordant Estates, Basildon, Essex

Selling my property

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When you sell your property, your membership of the Management Company is cancelled and a membership certificate is issued to the new owner after some legal steps are completed. These include checking that you are up to date with your payment of service charges and issuing the last Service Charge Accounts to your buyers. These steps will be handled by our solicitors – currently Palmers in Basildon.

Palmers will interact with your buyer’s solicitors to resolve any queries and will charge a fee for this service.

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