A block makes repairs messier than a street of houses. One leak can touch three flats. A communal fault is everyone's and nobody's. Owners change, directors change, managing agents change. The one thing that stays put is the flat, so that is where the repair history should live.
Why one record per flat
- The flat outlasts the people. When a leaseholder sells, the next one asks what has been done to the flat. The answer should not be in the old owner's email.
- Patterns show up. The third report of damp in flat 14 tells you more than three separate messages.
- Disputes are about a flat. Service charge queries and landlord questions are always about a particular place.
Then roll up by building
Managing a block is managing the building as a whole, so the second layer is a view per building: what is open, what has stalled, what has been signed off and spent, and which flats keep coming back. Pair the record per flat with a view per building and you get both questions answered from the same data.
Handling shared faults
When several flats report the same leak, create one job and mark the repeat reports as duplicates of it. The contractor is sent once, the cost is approved once, and every report stays on the record. For communal areas such as the roof, the lift or the entrance hall, add each as a unit of its own so the repair has a history of its own.
Keep directors and freeholders in the loop
Residents' management company directors and freeholders do not want a login. They want to see what was reported, what was done, what it cost and who approved it. A job link that lasts 90 days gives them exactly that, and the whole history exports as one PDF. See repair software for block managers.