Cotswold Property Management Services, Stonehouse, Stroud, Gloucestershire,

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News

January 2012 -
We’re delighted to announce the results of an external assessment of our business procedures and practices meaning we reached full compliance of the Customer First Standard on our first attempt! The Customer First Standard supports and focuses on continuous improvement of customer services and is something we are fully committed to. Please feel free to forward any observations on what we do well and, of course, how we can possibly improve.

3 Trophies at the Property Management Awards

We came away with 3 trophies out of the 4 finalist categories:

Winner – Accounts Team of the Year
Highly Commended – Customer Service Award
Highly Commended – Regional Property Management of the Year Award

Unfortunately, whilst a finalist for the website – we didn’t get an award.
Thanks to all our clients for nominating us and for your continued support.

Customer First Standard
We had the assessor in recently, who confirmed that we are fully compliant with this quality standard.

Nominated for six national industry awards at Property Management Awards 2011/12 held on 5th December 2011 at Lord’s Cricket Ground – all nominated by satisfied clients, old and new!

Elizabeth McDougall – Regional Property Manager of the Year (defending the current title)

Cotswold Property Management Services – Regional Property Management Company of the Year (runner up in 2010/11)

Managing Agent of RMC/RTM

Website of the Year

Accounts Team of the Year

Customer Service Award

Finalists selected in Business Awards

The finalists of the 2011 Citizen and Gloucestershire Echo Business Awards are being revealed today. The judges described the standard of entries as the highest yet. There are between two and five finalists in each category, with winners being announced at a presentation dinner in Cheltenham in October.

Cotswold Property Management Services have been nominated for 'Small Business of the Year'

Local Company Expands Through Apprenticeship Scheme

Cotswold Property Management Services Limited, based in Stonehouse since 2004, have experienced a rapid growth, both in business and reputation and are looking to add to their team to cope with the demand for their services.

A small, specialist company handling administrative issues for commercial and residential multi-occupied housing schemes, CPMS Ltd has grown from just Elizabeth McDougall, who is the the company’s founder and winner of Regional Property Manager of the Year 2010, to a dedicated team of people. As Gloucestershire Apprentice Champions, CPMS are looking to extend their apprentice intake this year, to train up some new members of staff. Ashleigh Hudd, having obtained her NVQ level 2 in Business Administration has completed her apprenticeship. She stayed on in the company while considering which side of the business she feels most suited to and has now chosen a university course to continue her career development.

Elizabeth McDougall explains: “We’ll be very sad to lose Ashleigh in September but wish her luck with her future studies. Now that we're an Apprentice Champion company, we are working with other Apprentice Champions in the region, and the National Apprentice Service, to spread the word about apprenticeships. Employer involvement and work experience is invaluable, both to the success of the apprenticeship programme and the students’ future career path.”

Once trained, staff members follow a plan of continuing professional development and each of them has added to their knowledge and training since joining the company. Andy Elliott, one of the team, has just been successful in obtaining a distinction in a recent property examination through the IRPM (Institute of Residential Property Management). He obtained 92% in the exam (the top mark was 95%!) and was one of only 17 out of the 115 who took the exam to gain a distinction. “We’re firmly committed to providing continuing professional development training to all our staff, which I think demonstrates how keen we are to have a suitably trained team in place to provide an excellent service to our clients!”, says Elizabeth.

If you’re interested in starting a career in property management as an apprentice, contact Elizabeth McDougall on 01453 825694

National Recognition for Local Property Management Company

A win at The Property Management Awards gave a great start to 2011 for Stonehouse-based Cotswold Property Management Services Ltd.

The winners of the Block Insure Property Management Awards 2010-11 were revealed at a glittering award ceremony held at Lord's Cricket Ground in December 2010 to recognise and reward excellence and professionalism at both an individual and company level. CPMS Ltd asked their clients to nominate them if they felt they were worthy of the award, rather than putting themselves forward, and found themselves nominated for two awards. That was an achievement in itself, so they were thrilled to find that, even though they were up against some huge companies, they won one award and were highly commended in the other!

The judging criteria covered everything from approachability to expertise and efficiency and entries had to be supported with details of specific challenges that had been met and overcome. The results were a fantastic win in the Regional Property Manager of the Year category for Elizabeth McDougall of Cotswold Property Management Services, with Cotswold Property Management Services highly commended in the Regional Property Management Company of the Year category.

Elizabeth McDougall said of her award: “It was lovely to be nominated as it shows that we’re doing an excellent job and keeping our clients happy. To become finalists was exciting and it was great to receive that kind of recognition from people who are in the business and know what it entails. And it was absolutely fantastic to win, especially as we were the smallest firm there, but the most successful winner of the evening!”

CPMS Ltd deal with residential and commercial property management, from apartment blocks or private residential estates where the management of communal areas is required and a service charge applicable, to managing all types of commercial property. They pride themselves on taking the same care and attention as they would if they were the owners, taking a pro-active approach that has already earned them an enviable reputation and now made them award winners.

Cotswold Property Management Services Limited have been short-listed as finalist in the category, Regional Property Management Company of the Year and Elizabeth McDougall as Regional Property Manager of the Year in the forthcoming Property Management Awards ceremony to be held at Lord’s Cricket Ground on 6th December 2010.

The Property Management Awards recognise the excellence and professionalism of all specialists working in this industry both at an individual and company level.

Frequently, Managing Agents and Landlords have to explain the difficulties they experience when trying to differentiate themselves from their less attractive competitors. Similarly, Leaseholders have described how difficult it is for them to compare Managing Agents and Landlords in the market place especially when there is no benchmark or independent source they can refer to see who is the best in the industry.

The Property Management Awards are unique in that they are the first and only industry event to celebrate the best the industry has to offer.

RICS Manifesto – better regulation in residential property
RICS believes streamlining regulation in property services will provide consumer benefit and underpin an efficient and innovative property market.
This can be achieved through:

• Universal, principles-based standards across residential property
• A review of Self Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) for residential and personal property
• Introducing an intelligent regulation in lending and effective consumer information in borrowing

Regulation of estate agents
RICS believes consumers should be able to use a property professional confident in the knowledge that they are suitably regulated to a minimum standard.
There is a clear opportunity for Government to regulate to deregulate, reform the old system and reinvigorate the residential property market.

A future model
RICS believes that all property professionals should be suitably regulated to a minimum level through the following model:

•	Standards There should be a suite of principles-based, over-arching codes which apply to all property professionals. Standards would be set by the Property Standards Board for estate agency, lettings and property management.
•	Supervision All property professionals should be supervised by a suitable body. A central body, most likely the Property Standards Board, would be responsible for approving supervisory bodies for different areas of practice.
•	Redress All those practising in residential property should offer consumers access to independent redress. All redress mechanisms should judge complaints against consistent standards to ensure that there is no possibility for firms to sign up to the mechanism with the weakest requirements. To assist consumers, there should be a single point of contact for property complaints.

Money laundering regulation in the property sector
RICS believes that there should be targeted, effective regulation to protect against money laundering and financial crime. Money laundering regulation in the property sector should:

•	Be targeted at the areas which have the greatest risk of being used by criminals to launder money and avoid imposing regulatory burdens on low-risk areas of work;
•	Be appropriately supervised by a single, competent regulatory authority; and
•	Reflect the UK system of property transactions rather than being based on the European model.

Transparency in residential and commercial property sector
Transparency in fees/commissions in both the residential and commercial property sector has been in and out of the news for some time. In order to look at what was actually happening, RICS established the Transparency Working Group, which has now issued its final report and recommendations.

Future of RICS Regulation
RICS Regulation is currently engaged in a re-examination of the role of professional standards and ethics in the modern business world and the role that professionals play in providing customers and society with the confidence that things are being done properly.
RICS will work to ensure that Government understands the needs of the many societies where members operate and creates the right framework within which to practise.

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