Why better block management starts with keeping people informed

Welcome to Level With Us, our new series exploring the things that matter in block and estate management. For our first conversation, I wanted to start with something I’m particularly passionate about: communication.

For me, good communication comes down to a fairly simple question. Do you understand what is happening in your building, or are you having to chase someone to find out?

That question was central to my thinking when I developed MyLevels, and it continues to shape how the app evolves. I love the possibilities technology creates, but what really interests me is how we use it to make everyday experiences better. Helping someone find an answer, understand a decision or feel more involved in their development is where the value lies.

Sending information isn’t the same as communicating

The Leasehold Advisory Service completed 20,800 enquiries in 2025/26, with service charges accounting for 30% and management for 17% of enquiry types. These are advice enquiries, not a satisfaction survey, but they give a sense of how much support people need to understand the management of their homes.

Its July 2025 research, analysing nearly 28,000 advice requests, found that one in ten concerned Section 20 consultations. Reported problems included difficulty accessing information, vague descriptions of proposed work and overwhelming amounts of technical detail.

That last point is worth pausing on. Providing more information doesn’t necessarily make something clearer.

You can send someone a lengthy report and still leave them wondering what it actually means for them. I believe our job includes joining those dots:

• explaining why work is needed
• what the options are, and
• what happens next.

The supporting documents matter, but so does the explanation alongside them.

Your home doesn’t run on office hours

When I developed MyLevels, I wanted information to fit around people’s lives rather than our office hours.

You might have time to read a major works update after dinner, check a maintenance notice on your commute or look through meeting documents at the weekend. You shouldn’t need to wait until Monday morning to access something we have already published.

MyLevels provides secure, 24/7 access across phones, tablets and computers. Each development we manage has bespoke articles and documentation, alongside practical leaseholder guides and dedicated resources for directors. Building notices, meeting information and major works updates sit together, ready to revisit when needed.

Accessibility across devices matters. Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 report found that smartphones accounted for 77% of UK online adults’ time online across smartphones, tablets and computers in May 2025. To me, that reinforces why information about your home should be readily accessible from the device in your pocket.

Getting more specific about who needs to know

One of the latest MyLevels developments I’m particularly pleased with is the precision we can now bring to our communications.

We can send email and SMS messages to a whole development or an audience such as directors or leaseholders. However, we can now also target individual blocks, property types such as apartments, houses and maisonettes, and particular floors or groups of floors.

That might sound like a technical detail, but consider what it means in practice.

A water interruption affecting one block needs a different audience from an estate-wide access change. A redecoration involving one or two floors may need a focused reminder to the people who need to to take extra care when entering or leaving their apartment.

The intention is to make the relevance of each message clearer. You shouldn’t have to work out whether a notice applies to your home. Equally, where something affects the wider development, the communication should reach that wider audience.

An update is only useful if you know it’s there

I also don’t think it’s reasonable to expect people to keep checking a portal just in case something has changed, and this is where SMS becomes particularly useful. When we update an article or a specific area of MyLevels, we can notify the relevant audience and direct them to the latest information.

• The text gets your attention
• The email can provide a fuller explanation
• The portal holds the detail and supporting documents.

That gives us a practical way to communicate promptly without trying to squeeze a complicated subject into a short message. It also helps us respond to the expectation of timely updates while keeping the information clear and accurate.

And an update doesn’t always have to announce a breakthrough. Sometimes the most useful thing we can explain is what we are waiting for, why it matters and when you should expect to hear from us again.

Making building safety easier to understand

Building safety is an area where this approach becomes especially important.

For occupied higher-risk residential buildings in England, the principal accountable person must prepare and follow a resident engagement strategy. Building Safety Regulator guidance sets out how residents should be informed and involved in relevant building safety decisions.

The related “golden thread” requirements also address how building information must be held digitally, protected against unauthorised access and made available in an understandable, usable form.

Within MyLevels, we can make critical documentation, testing certificates and compliance records available to those who need them, with appropriate access permissions. We can also hold building safety case documentation and give residents an interactive view of their cladding remediation project’s progress.

What matters to me is the understanding that sits around those records. Where has the project reached? What has been completed? What remains outstanding?

Bringing the documentation and explanations together gives residents a way to explore the information rather than relying on isolated updates.

Of course, an app does not replace statutory consultation, professional judgement or meaningful engagement. It should support that work, not be mistaken for completing it.

Technology should make us more approachable

For all my enthusiasm about technology, I don’t want it to become a barrier between our team and the people we work with.

Communication has to go both ways. MyLevels includes maintenance reporting, progress notifications and a dedicated accounts query tool, giving people practical routes to raise questions as well as receive information.

Digital communication also needs to sit alongside other options. The regulator’s guidance recognises different communication needs and preferences, including alternative formats. Nobody should feel excluded because an app isn’t the right route for them. We are, and always will be, happy to provide communications in written format, and our team are always at the end of the phone.

Ultimately, technology is only useful when it supports a team that listens, explains things properly and follows through.

That is what keeps me interested in developing MyLevels. There will always be another improvement to make, but the purpose remains the same: less avoidable chasing, clearer answers and a stronger connection between people and the management of their homes.

I don’t want us simply to be sending information. I want people to feel informed. This has always been my passion. This has always been our passion as a business.