Consider a board being asked to approve another roof repair. There is a survey, an old quotation, an invoice and a trail of emails. The board wants to know what happened last time, and why this proposal should work.
Every document may be there and the answer can still be unclear. Was the previous recommendation accepted? Did the contractor complete the full scope? Was the work checked? Did someone decide to leave the remaining defect, and why? Someone new to the building would struggle to say.
Keep the decision with the evidence
The survey may explain why the roof needs attention. The board minute should show what was agreed, and the instruction should tell the contractor what to do. An invoice tells us what was charged. To find out whether the repair worked, we need the completion record and any checks made afterwards. Each of these answers a different question, so they need to be kept together.
When they are not, an incoming director may have to repeat the investigation. A resident may be told that a matter has been dealt with because an invoice was paid. A managing agent may take on an unresolved commitment without enough context to recognise it.
Finding the files is only the start. Someone still has to work out what they show and what is missing.
People need different views of the same building
For a resident, the immediate question may be whether a repair will cut off the water or need access to their flat. A leaseholder may also want to know how much it will cost. The board needs enough evidence to approve the work and check it afterwards. The contractor needs the technical information and any hazards before starting.
Sending everyone the technical report may still leave a resident unsure what to do. Keeping it all in a board folder leaves the people paying for the work with little explanation.
Access is part of management
Start with what someone needs to know. A resident may need a short update drawn from the same report the board uses to approve spending. A surveyor may need the full technical file. Either way, it should be possible to check the explanation against the original record.
Some information must already be shared by law. Residents must receive relevant fire-safety information, and leaseholders have specific rights to financial information. Higher-risk buildings have extra duties to provide safety information and to answer requests for certain records. Each right has its own scope and conditions. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
None of this gives everyone a right to see every document. But managers should check that the right information is reaching the people who need it, in a form they can use.
A recent report can still contain unfinished work
A report issued last month may contain recommendations that nobody has acted on. Its date tells us when the assessment took place. To understand the position now, we need to know who is dealing with those recommendations, what precautions are in place and which work has been checked.
Company decisions work the same way. A board approving spending, someone placing the order, the payment going out and the finished work being accepted are four separate events. If the record marks them all "complete", the next person cannot tell which ones have happened.
For significant work, keep the original finding with the decision, the instruction and the evidence that the work was completed and checked. If nobody can find the completion record, say so. The next manager should not have to guess.
Keep private information private
Sharing building information should not expose residents' private lives. Complaint evidence, medical details, individual debt and security arrangements need careful handling. Personal information should be limited to what is necessary for its purpose. [7]
Explain what people need to know, check what they are entitled to receive and protect what is private. If part of a file has to be withheld, see what can still be explained or supplied.
When the people change
When directors leave or a managing agent changes, the questions about the roof do not go away. The incoming team needs to pick up the work without asking residents to piece the history together again.
Try giving the transferred records to someone who does not know the building. Ask them to explain a recurring defect, a significant spending decision and an unresolved safety action. Can they work out what happened and who needs to act next? Note where they get stuck.
The exercise checks the handover, not compliance. It can show that an explanation is missing even when every file on the transfer list has arrived.
Put the records to work
Our public guide, What should you know about your building?, sets out practical questions for residents, leaseholders, directors and managing agents. It keeps the legal examples separate from our own recommendations.
A resident should be able to get a useful answer about work affecting their home. A board should be able to explain why it approved the spending. And when the people managing the building change, their successors should have enough to carry on.
The same test applies to the systems that hold the records. Can the manager find the answer to a resident's question and show what supports it? Can the board see who is following up unfinished work? Counting uploaded files tells us very little about either.
BlockGenie has a commercial interest in this subject. The guide sets out how we think building information should be managed. We do not claim that every part of our own software or service meets it yet, and you can use it with your current managing agent and systems.
The next time the roof needs attention, someone should be able to see what was tried before, whether it worked and what is left to do.
Read the companion guide: What should you know about your building?
Sources and further reading
This article proposes a management standard. Its examples are illustrations: they do not show how common a problem is, and they are not measured BlockGenie results. The companion guide has practical prompts and explains its scope in more detail.
- Resident fire instructions and fire doorsHome Office guidance on the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022.
- Relevant fire risks and protective measuresHome Office guidance on section 156 and information for residents.
- Service charges, insurance and consultationGovernment overview of leaseholder information and consultation rights.
- Information accountable persons must provideBuilding Safety Regulator guidance for occupied higher-risk buildings.
- Higher-risk building information regulationsRegulations 7 and 8, Schedules 2 and 3, and the disclosure exceptions.
- Residential personal emergency evacuation planningGovernment factsheet on the requirements in force from 6 April 2026.
- Data minimisationInformation Commissioner guidance on keeping personal data adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary. The page says it is under review following changes to the law.
- Service Charge Residential Management Code (4th edition)RICS professional benchmark, effective 7 April 2026. Not every practice we recommend is a requirement of the Code.
Sources checked 28 October 2026. The legal examples are not a complete account of individual rights, deadlines or exceptions.