JFM Block & Estate Management  Reviews 

We had a leak affecting our property. Jamesie was excellent at expediting for a contractor to come and assess the issue in order to get a speedy resolution. They were incredibly responsive to emails and happy to answer any questions we had. Many thanks for all your help!

I had a question about level of service charges so I sent an email to the property manger. The email was sent round to credit control, account and some other people but no reply from any one. Poor customer service. Thinking applying to tribunal

10/01/2024 update

I had a call from JFM and we managed to settle the dispute in service charges. It was a nice gesture and they went out of their way to sort the problem.

They have provided helpful responses. It took a couple of weeks to get the management pack but overall their staff (Nathaniel) is friendly and supportive!

I'm on the Board of Directors for our development. We selected JFM because their fee was competitive and their service personable. Our development is RTM so the Board is made up of leaseholders. I see some criticism and 1 stars below that reflect a lot with what some of our leaseholders complained about. I need to give leaseholders a bit of insight into the behind the scene.

When JFM receive complaints in our development, if it's nothing to do with costs or legal elements it's within their remit to respond. But if it's relating to costs and legal queries, JFM needs to consult the Board on what and how to respond. As volunteers board members, we are all extremely busy. Therefore delays for JFM responses could be an internal problem or a delay from the board. Expect instant reply to issues isn't realistic. But expecting acknowledgment of receiving the email should be done within 24hrs, depending on JFM's contract.

If there's a maintenance problem that's even more complex and lengthy, because JFM needs to get at least 3 competitive quotes before approaching the board with a solution to these problems. There is a lot of back and forth between JFM and the Board before engineers get instructed. Unless it's an emergency.

As for asking about access to accounts via section 22 to review the service charges, all leaseholders have a right to these except those we are in midst of legal action. If in midst of legal action then such request have to be done through the court and JFM and the board will comply. But getting together all these info and at the same time making sure there's no commercial sensitive info in the data provided is time consuming. Payments of invoices, invoices presented, payments made and accounts get updated are constantly dynamic. Unless you're asking for the previous year YE accounts then that's easier to provide because such info have already gone through and certified. Also it depends on the time of the year section 22 is served to JFM. If it's directly after 5th April the craziest period in accounting, middle of the year or near end of the year which are also craziest accounting time for our development, then response will be slow. People need to be more aware of their timing and the reality of the chain of events before they can receive a response with the answers and details they need.

At our development we also have an escalation channel for all leaseholders to contact the board directly.

Is JFM perfect? No. But tell me which firm is and I'll call you a liar. Every working relationship is a give and take. And we have that with JFM. On top, we have an honest and personable relationship with JFM. They are always happy to receive feedback on how to improve their services and not give empty lip service. So I recommend those that leave negative comment to approach JFM like how they would at their own work place: state problem, give desired solution or outcome and date you need to hear back by. JFM will meet those requirements.

What leaseholders don't see is the craziness behind the scene every day. So instant response or 24hr or 48hr responses are sometimes not doable. That's why JFM gives a promise of aiming to reply to queries within 48hrs. Emphasis is aim to not will or can. Why? Because sometimes they're dealing with emergencies behind the scenes.

So stay real in your expectations. There are lots of channels for feedbacks at our development include invites to those leaseholder who thinks they can do a better job to join the Board and do the job instead of just whinging about things all the time. To date, I've invited all leaseholders multiple times to join, especially those making waves on various chat channels, yet not a single person joined in the last 2-3 years we have been in charge and JFM has been with us for 2 years.

As a member of the Board of Directors and as a leaseholder within the development I'm happy with JFM's service and to show that we mean this, we have renewed JFM's contract. The proof is in the pudding as they say. There are rooms for improvement but in general JFM deserves a 4 star from me. JFM team at our development deserves a 4.5 star on average, sometimes even a 5 star and a 6 star.

I own a flat in a building managed by JFM. The building in South East London has got around 200k of unpaid service charges and JFM has been doing absolutely nothing to recoup this money when in fact there are well established legal procedures to force a non paying leaseholders to pay (including force him to auction his flat). So, because JFM are too lazy or too incompetent, I have been paying service charges over the odds on behalf of other people while the non paying leaseholders can enjoy a risk-free return of 5% on their money. Avoid!

Thank you to JFM and in particular Jamesie who managed to achieve the 'impossible'! We spoke to three other Estate managements to try resolve our urgent issue and Jamesie achieved within an hour what took over 3 weeks with others. Thank you thank you!

Credit control - Bianca

I just want to thank Bianca for her prompt response in resolving my query on the balance of my account even though she doesn’t manage the block, she was quick to assist.

Appalling management company. Their incompetence has delayed my house sale by a month at this point. They failed to follow up a simple enquiry and even after chasing and chasing I have been fobbed off with holding emails. I asked for a manager to step in and they did not action this. I asked to raise a formal complaint and I have been completely ignored. They have cost me hundreds of pounds and taken no accountability. I will never purchase a home managed by JFM again.

Bianca, thank you for always being so bubbly on the phone and always ask how I am doing and remembering that I have been ill and asking how I am when I call regarding my account, you make the entire process so much easier with your cheerfulness.

Shahnaz is very helpful, a pleasure to work with.

Getting all freeholders/leaseholders to pay service charges can often be a near impossible task and this leaves a shortfall every year with which to run a development. When Lauren took over in Credit Control at JFM, she faced an uphill task to get a considerable percentage of owners to pay their service charges before the end of the service charge year. Within a year she has got the number of people not paying by half way through the service charge year down to 5%! And she is determined to get it down further. She is hard-working, highly professional, knowledgeable and cares deeply about her work. All that with limited resources, ever-changing staff, client numbers and inappropriate systems. Barely short of a miracle. JFM is lucky to have her and now needs to increase her resources etc so she can finish working earlier in the day more often than she currently does.

We are electrical contractors that work with JFM. The Purchase Ledger Manager Shahnaz helped me out greatly and I cannot express my thanks to her enough.

We have been working with JFM for just over six months now and Daniel has made such a difference to the way our building is managed. He is thorough, responsive and extremely professional.

It is a thankless task and so many people moan about service charge levels, but what they don't realise is that many buildings have not had investment for many years and that's what causes service charges to escalate. What JFM do is work with us as a board to review what needs doing and then we are building a plan to improve the building over time. Thanks everyone at JFM: keep up the excellent work!

Experience of dealing with Lauren in JFM credit control is a pleasure compared to other agents I have dealt with in the past in other companies. She is on top of her work and executes instructions efficiently and diligently.

Avoid! Avoid at any cost! Awful company, absolute disgrace! The only thing they do well and fast – issuing you with a service charge bill, which will be rising continuously. People in our estate selling flats and move because they cannot afford to pay them anymore for the service they do not provide. They NEVER return calls and never answer emails. Unless they see the opportunity to get into your pocket for more money. A complete and utter shambles of a company, unprofessional and arrogant.
DO YOURSELF A FAVOUR, DO NOT EVER USE JFM.

The garage door in my apartment block has been broken for a number of weeks now and we have received no response from JFM Block & Estate Management despite paying them a hefty service charge!

Had an issue which JFM dealt quickly and were very responsive throughout.

JFM took over the running of the lease on my residential block in London a few years ago. The company is responsible for managing car parking spaces at Q Parks as part of that management contract. It has taken me 2 years and countless emails and calls to the company requesting that the car parking space was no longer needed by me. Despite this and repeated reassurances that this would be done the company has simply not facilitated this simple request and continued charging me for a space I did not need. These charges have accumulated over the last 2 years and now run into the many hundreds of pounds, with the company so far refusing to acknowledge their responsibility for overcharging for this. I have had to resort to legal proceedings to begin to resolve this issue which is costing a huge amount of time and expense. The arrogance and ineptitude of the Property manager at the company responsible for this situation, Maris Opa, is utterly unconscionable.

I had a very good response from Ami, and I hope it continues the same way

Been just over a year since I moved to my new place and have had very good engagement with our property manager Ami Patel who is always willing to respond to any queries. MyBlockman tool they use is very good as I can check latest communications online whilst still receiving postal letters.