1ScopeSections
Cotewall Mews is a community of nine apartments under one roof, administered by the Cotewall Mews Maintenance Society.
This handbook sets out who to contact in each instance, where individual responsibilities finish and the society's begin, and how decisions about shared expenditure are made.
It describes current working practice. It does not override the society's rules, your title deeds, or any statutory obligation. Where this handbook and those documents differ, those documents prevail.
2The society and the directorsSections
The society is run by a board of directors, each of whom owns and lives in an apartment at Cotewall Mews. The role is unpaid and fits around any given director's individual availability.
The number of directors varies over time. There will never be fewer than two. Current names and contact details are in Section 9. Residents are notified of any change.
The directors are responsible for
- Administering the society and meeting its legal and filing obligations
- Holding and accounting for the common fund
- Maintaining buildings insurance and statutory compliance
- Commissioning, overseeing and paying for works to the shared parts
- Keeping records and informing residents of decisions and expenditure
The society does not
- Provide a repair or maintenance service to individual apartments
- Employ or retain a managing agent
- Hold contractors on retainer
- Operate an out of hours line
- Act as caretaker for tasks falling to individual residents
3Responsibility boundarySections
Your apartment is your responsibility. Repairs, maintenance and the cost of both sit with the resident.
The shared parts are the society's responsibility. Roof, structure, external walls, drains, shared services, grounds, parking and access are maintained from the common fund, with works arranged by the directors.
The dividing line is the front door.
Within the front door · yours
- Internal walls, floors and ceilings
- Decoration, fixtures and fittings
- Appliances
- Plumbing, wiring and heating serving that apartment alone
Beyond the front door · the society's
- Roof, structure and external walls
- Drains and shared services
- Grounds, parking and access
- Anything serving more than one apartment
Damage arising from structural failure
Where a failure of the building structure causes damage inside an apartment, the cost of repair is met by the society, not by the resident.
This includes water ingress through failed pointing, roof leaks, gutter and downpipe failures, and rising damp.
The resident should report the damage to a director as soon as it is noticed, with precise location and supporting evidence (photographs), so that the underlying cause can be dealt with as well as the damage itself.
Common areas
The shared areas are part of everyone's home. All residents are asked to keep them clean and tidy, and to leave them as they would wish to find them.
Anything stored or kept outside a home should be in keeping with the house and maintained in good repair.
Queries on where a specific item falls should be directed to any director.
4Reporting: by type of issueSections
Emergencies
Fire, gas leak, burst main, electrical fault, structural failure, or anything else presenting immediate danger.
- Act immediately. Contact 999, the National Gas Emergency line on 0800 111 999, your water supplier, or an emergency electrician as appropriate.
- Isolate the supply if it is safe to do so.
- Alert any neighbours affected.
- Inform any director once the immediate danger has passed.
Do not delay action in order to contact a director first. Expenditure incurred in stopping an emergency will not be questioned.
Urgent matters
A continuing leak, a blocked drain, a shared door that will not secure, a displaced roof tile. Not dangerous, but likely to worsen or become more expensive if left.
- Inside an apartment: the resident arranges the repair. Inform a director only where the cause or the consequence extends to the shared parts.
- Shared parts: report to a director without delay, with a photograph where possible. The directors determine how to proceed and may request that quotes be obtained.
Routine maintenance
Repainting, gutter clearance, worn shared surfaces, servicing, replacement of shared fittings.
Report to a director in writing. Items are logged and addressed in turn, within the available budget.
Improvements and proposals
New paving, planting, lighting, resurfacing, or anything that improves the shared areas rather than maintains them.
Submit to the directors in writing with an indication of cost and the reasoning. Improvements are funded from money belonging to all nine households and are put to a residents' vote. See Section 7.
Tenanted apartments
Where an apartment is let, the owner remains the society's point of contact for that apartment. A tenant should raise any matter with their landlord, who brings it to the directors where appropriate.
The exception is an emergency. Where there is immediate danger, anyone on site should act on the emergency guidance above and inform a director once the danger has passed.
Owners who let their apartment are responsible for providing their tenant with a copy of this handbook and for ensuring it is followed. Contributions, votes and correspondence remain with the owner in all cases.
Disagreements between neighbours
Disagreements between neighbours are, in the first instance, for those involved to resolve between themselves. Most matters are settled with a conversation.
Where that has been attempted and the matter remains unresolved, either party may ask the directors to assist. The directors act as a neutral party: they will hear both sides and suggest a way forward, but they do not impose outcomes between neighbours.
5QuotesSections
Where works are required, three written quotes are obtained and presented to the directors, who then decide.
Quotes are obtained by the resident who raised the matter. That resident has seen the problem and can describe it accurately to a contractor.
Where a matter affects multiple apartments, the directors obtain the quotes or divide the task between the residents affected. Where director availability does not allow the matter to be dealt with in a timely fashion, it falls to the residents affected to obtain the quotes.
A resident unable to obtain quotes should inform a director, and the matter will be picked up.
6PestsSections
Pests do not respect the boundary between one apartment and the next. All activity is reported to a director, including where the resident is arranging treatment themselves.
- Confined to one apartment: the resident arranges treatment, through a private pest controller or the council's service, at their own cost.
- Roof voids, drains, bin store, grounds or external structure: report to a director. The directors arrange treatment across all apartments. Treating one apartment in isolation is rarely effective.
Poison must not be laid in shared areas. Informally placed bait risks indirect poisoning of pets and wildlife, presents a hazard to children, and obscures the true scale of the problem from any professional subsequently engaged.
Bats and active birds' nests are protected by law. Disturbing, blocking or destroying either is a criminal offence. Bats in a roof void, or a nest in a vent or beneath the eaves, must be left undisturbed and reported to a director. Lawful solutions exist but take time to arrange. Bees are normally relocated; wasps are not.
7Expenditure and decisionsSections
The common fund belongs to all nine households. The directors hold and account for it.
Up to £500
The directors may authorise necessary works and routine expenditure at their discretion, without prior consultation. Expenditure under this limit is reported in the annual accounts.
Typical examples: fuel for gardening equipment, communal tool repairs, gas for the barbecue, logs for the firepit.
Above £500
Necessary works (safety, compliance, preventing deterioration) proceed once residents have been informed of the works, the cost, the reasoning and the quotes.
Discretionary works and improvements are put to a residents' vote.
Voting
Proposals are circulated by email or through the residents' group, with quotes attached and a closing date for responses.
Each apartment carries one vote. The number of occupants or owners of an apartment is irrelevant to this.
A proposal is decided by a majority of the votes cast. It does not need to be unanimous. An apartment that does not respond by the closing date is recorded as an abstention.
Where a vote is tied, the directors cast the deciding vote.
Mandatory votes
Where a matter carries legal implications, or involves expenditure above £5,000, every apartment is required to return a vote.
Such proposals are circulated with a closing date of not less than fourteen days. Any apartment that has not responded by that date is issued a final notice allowing a further seven days.
Where no response is received by the second deadline, that apartment's vote is recorded in line with the majority of the votes cast. This ensures a full record for every apartment and cannot alter the outcome.
8Sale of an apartment, and petsSections
Pre-contract enquiries
Solicitors acting for prospective buyers direct their pre-contract enquiries to the directors, who respond on behalf of the society.
A resident marketing an apartment should notify the directors at the point a sale is agreed and provide the acting solicitor's details, so that enquiries can be answered without delay.
Pets
Keeping an animal at Cotewall Mews requires the prior consent of the society. This applies equally to existing residents and to prospective buyers, and is among the matters most commonly raised at pre-contract stage.
The procedure is as follows.
- The directors establish the type of animal, its size, the number of animals proposed, its suitability to the building, and any access implications for the shared areas.
- The proposal is put to a residents' vote.
- Where agreed in principle, a set of exhaustive conditions is issued to the applicant. Those conditions must be agreed in writing before consent is granted.
Consent is granted case by case, to a named resident, in respect of a specific apartment and a specific named animal. It is not transferable. It does not extend to a replacement animal, is not renewed automatically on that animal's death or removal, and does not pass to a subsequent owner of the apartment. A further application is required in each case.
9ContactsSections
| Director | Apartment | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lorraine Keynes | 1 | lorrainekeynes@hotmail.com | 07788 456438 |
| Julian Holtom | 2 | jaholtom@yahoo.co.uk | 07776 303089 |
| Graham Ley | 6 | gw.ley@sky.com | 07808 039806 |
Non-urgent matters should be raised in writing. This creates a record visible to every director.
Urgent matters affecting the shared parts may be raised with any director.
Last updated: 8 September 2026
10SummarySections
| Situation | Who acts | Who pays |
|---|---|---|
| Fire, gas, flood, immediate danger | Resident, immediately. Director informed afterwards | Determined afterwards, by cause |
| Fault inside an apartment | Resident | Resident |
| Pests inside an apartment | Resident, and report it | Resident |
| Damage caused by a resident or their visitors | Resident | Resident |
| Damage inside an apartment caused by structural failure | Report to a director | Common fund |
| Fault in the shared parts | Report to a director | Common fund |
| Pests in voids, drains, bins or grounds | Report to a director | Common fund |
| Bats or nesting birds | Leave undisturbed, report it | Common fund |
| Routine shared maintenance | Directors, in turn | Common fund |
| Improvement or proposal | Propose to directors, then residents' vote | Common fund, if approved |
| Disagreement with a neighbour | Resolve between yourselves first; directors as neutral party | Not applicable |
| Obtaining quotes | Whoever raised the matter | According to the matter raised |