Home – Common Ground
Common Ground is a property management company specialising in the management of leasehold estates and blocks of flats located in Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, West London and Surrey. We provide a full estate and block management service for properties located in Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, West London and Surrey.
Alan Draper MIRPM AssocRICS
Managing Director
Common Ground Estate & Property Management Ltd
Newtown House
Newtown Road
Henley on Thames
RG9 1HG
01491 525 946
alan.draper@commonground.uk.com
www.commonground.uk.com
Common Ground
Common Ground is a property management company specialising in the management of leasehold estates and blocks of flats located in Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, West London and Surrey.
Alan Draper, founder and Managing Director of Common Ground, writes:
“As a leaseholder myself, I had sought to replace the managing agent of the block where I was living but was unable to find one offering the services I felt should be available. Having seen the service charge double in a two year period for no apparent reason, I wanted greater transparency and realised no one was offering this. In August 2008, getting nowhere and following a heated conversation with a representative of an estate management company, I realised I could do the job far, far better. It was a eureka moment!
“Further investigation into the estate/block management market highlighted widespread poor levels of service, lack of communication and financial transparency. I set up Common Ground Estate & Property Management in October 2008 to address these shortcomings in the market and the rest, as they say, is history.
“The business model is really quite simple. We visit the properties we manage regularly to ensure that standards of maintenance and repair are high. This approach also ensures that we understand the culture of each site we manage and we are able to tailor our approach accordingly. We focus on relationships with directors and residents and never lose sight of the fact that we are managing YOUR home.
“We use cloud based IT systems to enable clients to access financial data and information about their estate in real time. These same systems ensure that our property managers are field based rather than tied to the office.
“Common Ground has grown year on year since its formation and now manages estates of all shapes and sizes across Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, West London and Surrey.
Legal services
It’s not just producing the legal packs often required when a property transfers. Our legal team can offer so much more including right to manage, right to enfranchise, co-ordination of freehold purchases and mediation cases.
Consultancy
We offer consultancy services to self managed leasehold estates and blocks and property developers.
For property developers
We can work with ethical property developers at the start of a new build to ensure the design, construction and legal framework create the lowest possible service charge.
Leasehold library
The objective of the Common Ground Leasehold Library is to improve the understanding of all things Leasehold. Leasehold law in the UK is archaic and overly complicated but fear not; The Leasehold Library guides leaseholders through the most salient parts of the Leasehold framework. Put together by Alan Draper, Managing Director of Common Ground and self-confessed leasehold law nerd, the Leasehold Library guides leaseholders through the most salient parts of the Leasehold framework. The articles within the Leasehold Library will refer to a number of technical terms (which can be viewed in the Glossary of terms) and documents which are free to download by registering with Common Ground
Case studies
Our managing agent isn’t a managing agent – Beauchamp Place, Oxford – Common Ground
Beauchamp Place is a development of 52 flats based in Oxford with an active management committee. The managing agent was initially very responsive but block management was not their core business. Over time, the agents business grew in other areas and ultimately, the block management portfolio shrunk below a threshold that wasn’t tenable for the […]
Fifteen years of neglect put right in five years – Roebuck Court, Didcot – Common Ground
Roebuck Court is based in Didcot, Oxfordshire and is a mixed tenure development of 118 properties. Common Ground began management of Roebuck Court in May 2011 following more than 15 years of management by a national property management company. At the time of Common Ground’s takeover, the estate was in a poor state both financially […]
Leaseholders benefit through switching to local agent – Olney Court, Oxford – Common Ground
Olney Court is a block of 10 flats based in central Oxford and built in 1975. The landlord managed the site until 2004 which is when they transferred the management to the leaseholders when they purchased the freehold. The leaseholders self-managed for two years, however, this proved unsuccessful.
