London Block Management Reviews 51

Responsive, knowledgeable, efficient, and perceptive. What more could one ask for in a building management company.

We have had a very positive experience with Block Management, especially with Susan Ripp. She is professional, responsive, and always helpful in resolving matters efficiently. Communication is clear, and issues are dealt with promptly.

Great service from all involved

London Block Management have been a steady and reliable presence for our building. Sue Ripp is approachable, professional, and always willing to help when needed. Communication is clear and matters are dealt with efficiently.

Overall, a positive experience and much appreciated support.

Everyone is great to work with and nothing is ever too much. A fabulous team!

Would give zero stars if I could! Absolutely appalling service. There has been no hot water or heating in the block of flats we live in which is owned by London Block management and they don’t seem to care to fix the issue. Every day we are sent a blanket email saying an engineer will be out to fix the issue in the morning but this never gets resolved. Hot water is a basic human need and they fail to understand this or care about this. Every time I call the office, I am told a different story and most recently was told that all 3 pumps that pump heating and hot water around the building are faulty and waiting for parts. Saying this, the building has had this issue since 2022 and they’ve never actually fixed the faulty pumps. Now it seems they are beyond repair. Absolutely appalling. Staff do not care and this company should be shut down. To top this, when you call the emergency out of hours line, calls are ignored. Disgusting people who are going to have many lawsuits at their front door.

From a contractor’s point of view, it’s clear this management company genuinely cares about the properties they look after.

I’ve recently completed works for Aarti Varma, and from start to finish, her attention to detail was clear. Even at the quoting stage, the level of information required was very thorough — everything had to be clearly broken down and justified before the quote could even be considered. It really showed me how committed they are to transparency, quality, and doing things properly.

Shout-out to:
Aarti Varma
Lola Stalker
Katie Riches
Hazem Elabd
Ryan Atkinson
Solomon Oguntoyinbo

Horrendous Company
Do not give them properties to manage
They have basically not paid the freeholds cost, nor fo they return calls or emails

For anyone running an RFP for your Board or considering engaging this company LBM for the management of your Leaseholder premises, stay away from London Block Management. There are great companies out there and this is not one of them. Our Board and Leaseholder experience with them has been short of chaotic and it is not pleasant to engage with them. On top they have a pattern of charging above market rates and increasing service charges year on year.

Areas worth flagging as concern:

1. It is quite concerning how inexperienced the LBM team are on large scale projects. When the building requires a capital improvement, it seems there is wastage. They lack project management skills and usually this results in overages of budget as well as creep in the timelines for completion at the tune of 1 year to 18 months more than originally planned. Time and again, their projects are delayed, had errors in planning and need resets and restarts. This will eat into your reserves.

2. They tend to employ aggressive business practices. Usually, their teams will send ad-hoc and delayed communications or notices that contain errors. Their staff will not respond. They will decline to confirm precise timelines, lack clarity and precision over construction processes. When they bill with errors, they may harass owners by relying on third party providers who will create complex processes.

3. They carry out unprofessional tenders or ran a project of selection without rigor or with some confusing planning. A couple occasions, vendors who were selected after months of tenders are surprisingly found to be in breach of license and cannot carry out the works. Contracting corrupt third parties to run important projects which are later exposed in media. In one occasion, one of their vendors lost a license. They will then rebill the Leaseholders and cite that as time lost and restart the process again taking up additional funds for the search. They had to re-start multiple months of consultation process at the cost of the Leaseholder.

4. Their teams are not responsive. They answer where they care to and often require multiple calls and emails. They do not operate like a private company with service agreements. They fail to bill on time or without errors. Usually, bills need to be reviewed and when questioned, they lack clarity. They need to be chased for clarity several times. Over 40 to 60 days delayed in responding to queries is not unusual.

5. They charge premium fees for all their services. They charge premium rates, add costs for line items that carry year on year. The cleaning gets done at surface level and property is not properly looked after in spite of bills that confirm it should.

7. They are not a positive company with a constructive culture. They engage with Solicitors and harass our leseholders rather than keeping open channels of communication.

8. With the above said, they do one thing consistently which is to raise the billing costs. Year on year, the increases have been nothing short of shocking.

It is a shame that there are companies who use these type of practices. Leaseholders are looking for peace of mind and to have a partner to run property. But it seems this company has gaps in the execution on the day to day or hires the wrong talent. It is unclear. But I would continue looking.

Follow-up from my previous review of this property management company. It is now a year since we served notice to LBM and 9 months since the new company Rendall & Rittner took over the management of our block, nevertheless, LBM are still stonewalling requests for important financial information. This is seriously unprofessional behaviour and a sad reflection of the lack of effective regulation of this industry. Don't repeat our mistake of appointing LBM and if they are managing your property and you are experiencing problems, consider sacking them sooner rather than later, I wish we had.

Aarti Varma at London Block Management has been incredibly helpful and efficient in sorting repairs to our flat since she became our portfolio manager for our building. Great Service, thank you!

They harass you for service charge you already paid and ignore your emails to sort the issue. I (and my solicitor) sent all evidence to them but this has been ignored. However they keep sending emails to "recover" the funds. Read the negative reviews carefully and take notes! AVOID

Great service and communications given by Aarti (LBM Portfolio Manager)

We had water leakage from the communal waste pipe which happened while I was abroad for a few months. I only noticed it when I returned.
The sides of the walls were wet and in some places mould had set in.
The inside and back of my kitchen cupboard was water stained and wobbly.
The waste pipe leaked was sorted fairly quickly.
A contractor (Jack) was sent round on Monday. He was excellent. Meticulous with attention to details.
Very pleased with the end results.
A very big thank you.

They do not provide any service but collecting their fees.

They are unreachable and do not reply to our questions. What they enjoy doing is speaking a lot and not making any point, they are brilliant.

The following employees treat their customers in a terrible way - Nathaniel Addei and Ryan Atkinson

It’s disappointing that I have to leave this review, but unfortunately, this company truly deserves a 1-star rating.

I am a director of an RTM company managing a small estate in London. After a hard-fought battle to remove FirstPort as our management company, we appointed LBM, hoping for better service. However, after 12 months, almost every promise made by LBM turned out to be false. Not a single service outlined at the beginning of the contract was completed—or even started.

We were promised a dedicated manager, but that never materialized. The company’s owner, repeatedly reassured us that improvements were on the way, but those promises amounted to nothing.

For the second time in two years, we, the directors, were forced to remove a management company. While we initially attempted to part ways amicably, LBM has resorted to unprofessional behavior reminiscent of FirstPort. They are now refusing to cooperate with the handover to our new management company, ignoring all emails, calls, and any form of communication.

This is a serious warning: avoid LBM at all costs. Their incompetence and lack of accountability make them an extremely poor choice for property management.

I'm a leaseholder in a block of flats they manage and I've been waiting nearly 3 years for them to repair a roof that leaks into my apartment. Not only do they not fix it, they usually don't reply to messages about new leaks or damp on the walls caused by the roof issue. They have even lied to me twice, telling me the repair was scheduled when it wasn't. Now the windows are also rotten, contractors have broken one of them while doing something else and I can't get any response at all about when they're going to repair these. To add insult to injury we just paid £16k in maintenance fees for one year and they wrongly tried to charge me eight times the ground rent due for this half year. They have at least apologised for that.

Crikey... where to start.
They asked permission to go into a vacant flat, which I gave them, saying "I assume I won't be charged anything"... and then they said I owed 720 pounds for something that had already been done.
I complained, they stalled, and said they would get back to me... and nothing...
until I discovered they had smuggled that charge in under a service charge arrears item

but it got worse... I told them something had already been paid, another conversation started, they again disappeared off promising to revert to me... and didn't...

their contract with the block of flats then came to an end and they passed both charges on to the new agents

and they have badly mishandled the complaints procedure, while the new managing agents blame them for the mess (probably quite rightly)...

an appalling experience generally

Like several others I would give zero stars given the choice.
LBM are by far and away the worst property management that I've ever come across. They were imposed upon our block by the freeholder and proved themselves totally incompetent both administratively and financially.
My advice to others would be that if you have a choice, then avoid LBM like the plague.

If I could give 0 stars I would. If you’re buying a property and these bandits are assigned as your management company - you’re in trouble. The fact that this ensemble can poison my enjoyment of my own living space makes me feel physically sick. Myself and fellow residents have not had a working lift for SIX MONTHS. I won’t bother expanding a list of problems from that (there are MANY) I’ll just leave that as a headline.

I deeply regret to express my profound disappointment with London Block Management. Their alarming lack of responsiveness to correspondence has left residents in a perpetual state of frustration. Issues within the building persist for extended periods without any sign of resolution, often stretching for months or even years.

Adding to the dismay, the company's failure to promptly issue charges showcases a blatant disregard for their duties, causing undue stress on residents. Their incompetence hits a new low when contractors remain unpaid, leading essential service providers such as cleaners and maintenance workers to abandon their responsibilities, resulting in a neglected building.

For over four agonizing months, we have grappled with a broken lift, unsecured entrance doors, and unsanitary communal areas, all posing significant safety risks. It is evident that London Block Management lacks the fundamental competence and professionalism needed to fulfill their obligations effectively.