Brocade
TL;DR: A managing agent review meeting works when the pack arrives before the meeting, opens with the decisions being asked for, and attaches evidence to each one. This piece sets out six agenda items and what the decision pack behind each should hold, written to be usable by the agent preparing it and the directors reading it.
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Before You Start
Fix four things before the first meeting: who attends, how often you meet, when the pack goes out, and who writes the minutes.
Attendees. The named property manager, at least two directors, and whoever holds the building safety brief where the block is a higher-risk building. Send the same manager each quarter, or the meeting reopens context it already closed.
Cadence. Quarterly suits most blocks. Move to monthly while a Section 20 consultation, a remediation programme or a Building Safety Regulator matter is live, then drop back.
Pack deadline. Five working days ahead. A pack tabled in the room is a reading session, not a decision meeting.
Documents to have open. Budget against actual, aged debt, the fire risk assessment action register, the statutory check log, live consultations, the complaints log, and the decision log from last time. Budget 60 to 90 minutes when the pack has been read.
The pressure in these meetings rarely comes from either side of the table. The statutory reporting load on a residential block has grown faster than most management agreements anticipated: Building Safety Act duties from October 2023, Residential PEEPs since 6 April 2026, the RICS Service Charge Residential Management Code fourth edition in force since 7 April 2026, and prescribed service charge demands in 2027. Most of the friction traces back to evidence being assembled when somebody asks for it, rather than captured as the work happens.
The Managing Agent Review Meeting Agenda, Item by Item
Six items, in this order. Decisions come first, while attention is highest; reporting follows.
1. Decisions Requested
Open with what the meeting is being asked to decide. One page per decision, and no decision page longer than one page.
Each page carries the same six fields: what is being decided, the options with a price against each, the recommendation and why, the money involved, the deadline, and what happens if the decision waits until next quarter. That last field does more work than the other five. A director who knows that deferring a roof decision pushes the works past the autumn weather window will decide today.
Where the client is an RTM company, the management functions under the leases became exercisable by that company on the acquisition date under section 96 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002. Where the client is an RMC named as manager in the lease, its authority comes from the lease. Either way the agent recommends and the client company decides, and writing the pack that way keeps the record straight if the decision is ever questioned.
2. Money, With the Recovery Clock on the Page
Report budget against actual by line, then explain every variance over a threshold the board sets. Ten per cent or £500, whichever is larger, works for most blocks.
A variance line written as "Lifts: overspent, £2,860" produces ten minutes of questions and no decision. The same line written for a decision pack reads:
Lift maintenance and repair. Budget £8,400. Spent £11,260 to month nine. The £2,860 difference is the 3 June entrapment callout and the door gear replacement that followed it, invoiced 14 June. Leaseholders were notified in writing on 21 June that these costs had been incurred and would be charged. Recommendation: fund from the reserve, no supplementary demand this year. Decision required today: approve or decline.
The notification sentence is the part directors usually do not know to ask for, and it is the part that protects recovery.
If any of the relevant costs taken into account in determining the amount of any service charge were incurred more than 18 months before a demand for payment of the service charge is served on the tenant, then (subject to subsection (2)) the tenant shall not be liable to pay so much of the service charge as reflects the costs so incurred.
Subsection (2) is the escape: a written notice inside the 18 months, telling the leaseholder the cost has been incurred and will be charged, preserves recovery. A pack that shows the date of that notice against each late-invoiced cost turns a legal risk into a line item. Most agents already run capable service charge systems; the gap is usually that the s.20B notice date lives in a correspondence file rather than next to the cost.
Aged debt belongs here too, with the number of units in arrears, the total, and the recovery stage each account has reached.
3. Section 20 Consultations, With Stage and Date
Every live consultation gets a row: the works, the stage reached, the date that stage completed, and the date the next stage is due.
Suppose the block has 48 flats and roof works are quoted at £96,000. Each leaseholder's contribution is £2,000, comfortably over the £250 threshold that triggers consultation under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the Service Charges (Consultation Requirements) (England) Regulations 2003. The threshold is measured against the individual leaseholder's contribution, never the total value of the works. A £96,000 programme across 48 flats consults; a £20,000 programme across the same 48 flats, at £417 each, also consults; a £20,000 programme across 100 flats, at £200 each, does not.
Long-term agreements carry their own threshold: £100 per leaseholder in any 12-month accounting period, for any contract running more than 12 months. These are easy to miss because nobody signs them in a meeting. List them anyway.
Read the Safety Case Report guide →
4. Building Safety Evidence
This is the agenda item where the review pack usually needs the most work, and it is where the Building Safety Regulator is currently finding the most gaps.
The BSR announced on 9 July 2026 that 66% of building assessment certificate applications received this year had been refused, with applications focusing on procedural compliance rather than demonstrating that fire and structural safety risks are being managed. The regulator will only call in new applications when necessary while it revises its process. Pre-application advice with a named BSR contact is planned for the more than 2,000 resident-managed higher-risk buildings, with initial resources expected from September 2026. Our primary-source breakdown of the refusal data shows how it splits across RTM and RMC applicants.
That refusal rate is a reporting problem as much as a management one: buildings are being managed and the evidence is not reaching the page in a form an assessor can follow.
Compare two ways of reporting the same work. "Compartmentation works progressing" tells a director nothing they can approve, question or minute. The decision-pack version reads: action 14 of 41 on the November fire risk assessment, riser cupboard fire stopping at levels 3 to 7. Closed 3 July, six dated photographs and a signed installer certificate attached to that action, cross-referenced to section 5 of the safety case report. Register now stands at 27 of 41 closed with evidence, 11 in progress with contractors appointed, 3 overdue with escalation letters dated 28 July.
A folder of unsorted photographs is not an audit trail. Each photograph needs to be attached to the specific action, with a date and the name of whoever took it. That is what keeps the golden thread current instead of reconstructed under deadline.
Where the regulator asks the principal accountable person to provide it with a copy of the safety case report, the principal accountable person must give a copy of it to the regulator as soon as reasonably practicable.
"As soon as reasonably practicable" is the standard the pack has to be built for. The safety case report must be prepared under s.85 and revised when further assessment or further steps make revision appropriate, so record the date it was last revised and what triggered that.
Add the mandatory occurrence position. Under s.87 an accountable person must give prescribed information to the regulator in prescribed circumstances, so the pack should state the reports made this quarter, or a nil return.
Directors have a reason to press on this item: engaging an agent does not move the duty. Accountable Person status turns on holding a legal estate in the common parts or being under a relevant repairing obligation under s.72 of the Act. Agents have a reason to lead on it: this is where a well-built pack most visibly does work the client cannot do alone, and across several blocks the same discipline is what makes portfolio triage possible.
5. Residents
Record what residents were told, what they asked for, and what was promised.
For a higher-risk building this is a statutory duty rather than good practice. The principal accountable person must
prepare a strategy (a "residents' engagement strategy") for promoting the participation of relevant persons in the making of building safety decisions
and must act in accordance with it. A review meeting that takes building safety decisions without recording how residents were engaged on them leaves the strategy asserted and unevidenced.
Complaints belong in this item too: how many were opened, how many closed, how many are past the timescale the complaints procedure sets, and any theme worth a decision.
6. Actions, Owners and Dates
Close by reading back every action with a named owner and a date. Not "the agent will look into the roof" but "AK to obtain three quotations for roof covering renewal by 30 September, circulated with the next pack".
The decision log carries forward. Each entry keeps its date, who was present, what was decided, the alternatives considered, and the evidence relied on. Two years later, when a leaseholder challenges the roof cost at tribunal or the regulator asks how a risk was managed, that log is the answer.
What a Good Decision Pack Contains
The pack is the artefact; the meeting is where it gets tested.
- A one-page cover summarising every decision requested, with its deadline
- One page per decision: options priced, recommendation, cost, deadline, cost of delay
- Budget against actual by line, with variances over threshold explained and the s.20B notification date shown against any late-invoiced cost
- Aged debt by unit count, total, and recovery stage
- A Section 20 table: works, stage, date completed, next stage due
- The fire risk assessment action register, evidence attached action by action
- The statutory check log for the period, with dates rather than ticks
- The date the safety case report was last revised, and what triggered it
- Resident engagement and complaints for the period
- The decision log, carried forward and updated
Anything that is not one of these belongs in an appendix.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Reporting instead of deciding. A pack that describes the quarter but asks for nothing produces a meeting with no output. Every pack should carry at least one decision, even if it is "approve the draft budget".
Counts without evidence. "35 of 41 actions closed" is a claim. The evidence is what makes it a fact, and it has to be attached action by action.
Tabling the pack in the room. Directors reading it for the first time ask comprehension questions. The hour produces no decisions.
Leaving the s.20B position implicit. Costs incurred more than 18 months before the demand are unrecoverable unless written notice went out inside that window. The pack should show the notice date, not assume it.
Treating the Section 20 threshold as a total. The £250 is one leaseholder's contribution. Reading it as total works value is the mistake that produces an unconsulted qualifying works programme and a recovery capped at £250 per leaseholder.
The Review Meeting Checklist
- Pack circulated at least five working days ahead
- Decisions listed first, one page each, with deadline and cost of delay
- Budget against actual, variances over threshold explained
- s.20B notification dates shown against late-invoiced costs
- Aged debt with recovery stage per account
- Section 20 table: stage reached, date completed, next stage due
- Long-term agreements over 12 months listed against the £100 threshold
- Fire risk assessment action register with evidence attached per action
- Statutory check log with dates
- Safety case report last-revised date and trigger
- Mandatory occurrence reports made this quarter, or a nil return
- Resident engagement and complaints summary
- Every action minuted with a named owner and a date
- Decision log updated and carried forward
Questions
How often should a managing agent and its client directors hold a review meeting?
Quarterly suits most blocks. Move to monthly while a Section 20 consultation, a remediation programme or a Building Safety Regulator matter is live, and drop back once it closes. Annual meetings do not work for higher-risk buildings, because the safety case has to be kept under review continuously.
What should be in the decision pack sent before a managing agent review meeting?
One page per decision, circulated at least five working days ahead. Each page states what is being decided, the options priced, the recommendation, the deadline, and the consequence of deferring. Reporting on money, consultations, safety evidence and residents follows the decision pages rather than preceding them.
What building safety evidence should a managing agent bring to a client review meeting?
The fire risk assessment action register with evidence attached action by action, the statutory check log, and the date the safety case report was last revised. Counts of open and closed actions matter less than whether each closure carries dated proof that an assessor could follow.
Who is legally responsible for building safety decisions taken at the review meeting?
The Accountable Person. Accountable Person status under the Building Safety Act 2022 turns on holding a legal estate in the common parts or being under a relevant repairing obligation (s.72). Engaging a managing agent does not move it. That is why the decision log matters to the client company as much as to the agent.
Do the 2027 service charge reforms change what the review pack has to contain?
They raise the floor. The government confirmed on 15 July 2026 that it plans to prescribe the content of the service charge demand form and require a standardised annual report, commencing as soon as possible in 2027, with 12 months' notice to private landlords and 24 months to social landlords. A pack already reporting budget against actual by line, with variances explained, will need less rework than one that does not.
Further Reading
- Portfolio building safety triage for managing agents
- When the software is free and the advice is the product
- Safety Case Report outline template
- Managing agent fee structure cheat-sheet
- How managing agents use Brocade
This article is for information. For advice on a specific building, consult a qualified fire safety professional or a solicitor.