Principle’s Managing Director, Brett Williams, celebrates 30 years in the property sector

The chartered surveyor behind the launch and success of Principle Estate Management is this month celebrating 30 years in the property profession.

Brett Williams opened operations at Principle from scratch four years ago, a company that today has 50 staff and looks after nearly 9,000 property units in some 250 developments across England and Wales.

But the story behind Mr Williams’ career started way back on 6 May 1992 when he became a graduate trainee with Perry & Deakin Chartered Surveyors in Waterloo Street, Birmingham.

This came after graduating with a BA Hons degree in Estate Management from what was then Birmingham Polytechnic – now Birmingham City University.

Mr Williams, who was born and grew up in Surrey, said: “I knew I wanted to be involved in property from the age of 14 or 15, and was pointed in the direction of becoming a chartered surveyor.

“But I didn’t do very well in A Levels, so took a BTEC Higher National Diploma in Estate Management at Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham – now Nottingham Trent University. I loved being a student, it was an excellent course and I excelled.

“The HND gave exemption to the first year of most degree courses, and I got a place on the second year of degree at Birmingham Polytechnic, graduating with a 2:1 in 1991 – in the middle of the recession.

“Travelling home one weekend, I’d bumped into one of my old lecturers at New Street Station who mentioned that a company in Birmingham had approached them looking to recruit a graduate.

“I started with Perry & Deakin, undertaking a very wide range of property work including residential lettings and management, residential sales and commercial property management.

“I also worked on ground rent collection and enfranchisement – and participated in what was only the second case of collective enfranchisement which went to tribunal in the West Midlands.

“Other work included boundary disputes, business rates appeals, compulsory purchase negotiations, residential and commercial valuations, and both sales and lettings on the commercial side.

“I also handled auction sales, residential block management – as we had 22 blocks of flats – and landlord and tenant negotiations on matters like rent reviews lease renewals.”

Mr Williams’ experience at the coal face was supported by quickly joining the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Junior Organisation (JO), now known as RICS Matrics or ‘young surveyors’.

He qualified as a chartered surveyor in 1994 – then became an ARICS (associate) which later became MRICS (member). He was chairman of RICS JO in the 1999 to 2000 year, having previously served as secretary, treasurer and vice-chairman for one year each.

Mr Williams also represented the West Midlands at RICS national JO level, attending meetings in RICS’ headquarters in Great George Street, Westminster and at national conferences and dinners across the UK.

In 1999, Perry & Deakin was acquired by Pennycuick & Brown based at Ward End, Birmingham.

Mr Williams recalls: “At the time, I fought against specialising as I really enjoyed the breadth of work that the general practice role brought. However, I then enjoyed how the specialism enabled me to go into more depth within property management, which kept me learning and developing.

“Of all the property disciplines, property management is a great one as it is quite varied compared to some very specialist roles which are very narrow.”

Pennycuick & Brown subsequently merged with Collins, Son & Harvey in 2001 and moved to Broad Street, Birmingham. Meanwhile, Mr Williams had attended his first regional briefing by the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) in Autumn 1999, where the then chief executive David Hewitt recruited him to ARMA’s Technical Committee.

He said that “David sadly passed away in February. He was a great force within ARMA and well regarded across the whole sector. He had a real enthusiasm and a great ability to recruit volunteers!

Mr Williams joined in 2000, just as the government was consulting on what would become the Commonhold & Leasehold Reform Act 2002. He then became chairman of TechCom which earned him a seat on main Council and saw him speaking at ARMA conferences, regional briefings and conferences for other organisations.

Mr Williams was also elected as a fellow of the Institute of Residential Property Management (IRPM) in 2002, which had been formed out of an idea in ARMA’s Education Committee to give individuals a portable and recognisable qualification for the sector. And he was elected as a fellow of RICS (FRICS) in the mid-2000s.

Back at work, he was approached in 2004 to join Curry & Partners in Summer Row, Birmingham as a partner heading the block management department.

He said: “I modernised and grew block management with Bob Simonds – now a fellow director at Principle – and we reached 8,000 units by 2011. That year saw Curry & Partners merging with Bigwood to form CPBigwood, adding another 4,000 units as well as offices in Colmore Row, Birmingham, Henley in Arden and Stratford upon Avon.

“This meant that other departments expanded with a more commercial, estate agency presence and we Curry & Partner staff were introduced to what for us was a new auctions department.

“During the same period I became more active at ARMA, serving as chairman from 2007 to 2010, and remaining involved as a director until 2013.

“And I was busy at work too, with CPBigwood acquiring East Midlands Lloyds Property Management in 2012, looking after 1,100 units and retaining an East Midlands office while moving many back-office functions to Birmingham.

“The same year saw me opening a London office for block management from scratch, and in 2013 the business acquired Southampton-based DMA Chartered Surveyors, adding another 4,000 units and retaining an office down there.

“The whole CPBigwood business continued to grow and had a £10 million turnover and employed 165 people by the time it was sold to SDL in 2015.”

Then came the biggest change in Mr Williams’ career: the launch of Principle Estate Management in spring 2018 with fellow chartered surveyor Joe Jobson, with the stated aim of “property management, properly done”.

He explained: “Joe and I took all our prior experience – good and bad – to set up the best managing agents we could, starting in a temporary rented room with five desks as we thought just two looked stupid. For the first month or so, we actually borrowed some desks from our landlord.

We were quite serious really and invested in Qube PM technology from the outset, as we didn’t want to have a cheap and cheerful system initially only to have to migrate to Qube later on.

“I love tech! I don’t like gimmicks and gadgets, but I love things that do what they are supposed to do really well.

“We were flattered that a lot of our old contacts supported us in our new business and were pleased to find new clients along the way.

“Yes, we had a lot of luck with timing on some client instructions and also recruiting quality staff– initially many were former colleagues, so were known and trusted quantities, but it was also great to bring new people into the business.

“Our rapid growth over the last four years has meant we have had to do some things in our business that I wouldn’t expect to have done until we were much more established.

“For example, we now have a full HR software system, personal development plans for all staff and an internal training structure. When we were small these things happened organically, but now we need a structured approach.

“That led to recruiting Andrew Winstanley to lead on property management and a operations director role for Stephanie Jobson, along with a formal vision statement and company values, and updating our initial ethos – ‘to positively impact the everyday lives of our communities’ – which really resonates with clients and customers alike.”

Mr Williams reflected on what launching his own business meant: “It’s been so refreshing to do what you want in a business without really having to ask, discuss and debate.

“Joe and I are like-minded on doing things properly, and so all of our discussions are around how we do something rather than if we do something.

“For example, in our early days we asked ourselves: ‘How can we have the best relationship with our supply partners?’ and our first answer was to: ‘Select partners that share our values and want to do a good job and get repeat business’.

“We then discussed and added all the other factors: ‘To give them clear instructions; ensure access is available when required so their time isn’t wasted; tell our customers what they are instructed to do; pay them in full and promptly’.

“On that point, we pay every week and don’t wait to pay until the end of the credit period, and none of that is difficult, but so many agents get these things wrong.

“Principle’s growth has allowed us to invest in setting up our own in-house Building Surveying department which provides a quicker and more efficient service than outsourcing.

“We still have a panel of surveyors for work that is too far away or to help us manage peak loads, and our senior building surveyor Richard Coles runs this really well.

“It has also enabled us to recruit my old colleague Bob Simonds as a business development director to support Joe, particularly with house-builders and developer proposals which is now a real growth area for us nationally.”

“Our rapid growth over the last four years has meant we have had to do some things in our business that I wouldn’t expect to have done until we were much more established”

The rapid expansion of Principle has also enabled the company to diversify into residential portfolio management and commercial property management – both specialist variations on the property management theme.

Mr Williams explained: “It is still collecting money and paying suppliers, dealing with maintenance and overseeing compliance matters, and the communication skills needed for ‘block management’ transfer well to client and tenant communication needs for other forms of management.

“Our growing volume has also allowed us to offer some more bespoke models of management, such as a specialised model of management for small buildings, housing estates, and developments controlled by resident management companies (RMCs).

“Other focused areas are large and complex developments, often with complicated plant and machinery and site staff, and then heritage buildings with more sympathetic and technical maintenance needs.

“Lots of people say their business is a disrupter or revolutionary, but that is very rare.

“Uber is probably the most successful disrupter of recent times, but I can’t think of any disrupters or revolutionaries in the property management sector.

“Instead, I’d like to think of us as innovative and continually looking to improve, always wanting to be even better tomorrow than we are today.

“One of best things about the job is to see our people flourish and develop in the environment that we have tried hard to create, promoting a lot of our good people, encouraging and enabling others to see what is available to them.”

By Principle’s fourth birthday next month the business is approaching 9,000 managed units and has a strong pipeline of 2,000 units of confirmed instructions set to join that portfolio.

It also has a London office following the acquisition of Myhill Newman agents in Soho last month, which immediately added nearly 1,000 units, 25-plus sites, and six new colleagues.

Thinking ahead, Mr Williams added: “When people ask: ‘What’s next?’ I always reply: ‘More of the same.’ We want to continue growing as it enables us to support our clients better, gives more opportunities for our people, and means we can continue to provide an exemplary service.

“But I do look forward to change as well, starting with a growing desire for paperless communications for a mixture of reasons: environmental, speed, convenience and being what customers want.

“Some legislation requires us to serve certain documents by post, but there are now mobile apps for nearly everything, including banking which needs to be safe and secure. But when we send someone a ground rent invoice, it currently still needs to be in paper form, which is ridiculous! This needs Government intervention.

“Another wish-list item is to index link trigger limits for section 20 works from the 1985 Landlord and Tenant Act (s.20). They were increased by the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, effective from 31 October 2003, but are now nearly 20 years old.

“I believe the £250 limit has to be worth nearer £375 today with inflation, and maintenance costs have probably increased more due to health and safety increases and material cost rises. When I was heavily involved in ARMA, I said it should be index-linked and reviewed every five years.

“The legislation is there to protect leaseholders and give them involvement when larger sums of money are spent on repairs, but not indexing the trigger limits actually costs leaseholders.

“For smaller blocks, where the trigger limit is reached more quickly, the legislation counts against leaseholders as agents rightly charge fees for s.20 consultations or for applications to a tribunal to seek dispensation.

“I also think fees should rise with increasing service, and I say this because service expectations from our customers and clients continue to increase. This is a good thing as it raises standards, and good agents should always want to improve.

“But property management is a sector where margins are low, partly due to salary costs being high. However, fees are low, which is agents’ own fault as they set their own fees!

“At the time of quoting for a new development, agents are so desperate to win new work that they quote low fees, despite the fact that workloads have massively increased for agents over the last 10 years.

“This workload is set to continue to grow with the building safety legislation and we need to remind ourselves how we look after people’s safety and their largest assets.

“It is time for the sector to stop calling itself an industry, start calling itself a profession and valuing itself accordingly.

“Finally, I’d love to see the scrapping of commonhold. The government has already sorted out ground rents on new leaseholds with the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, which received Royal Assent earlier this year, which will be effective from 30th June.

“Developers therefore may as well grant 999-year leases, what we call a virtual freehold, as if the freehold is passed to the residents via an RMC then there is no need for commonhold.”

The year 2022 has another 30th anniversary for Mr Williams. On the domestic front, he met his future wife Kathryn at Birmingham Polytechnic in 1989, and they were married on 3 October 1992 in Derby by his father-in-law, a Baptist minister there.

They now have four grown-up children, with daughter Esme now working as an integration and operations executive at Principle and middle son Benedict working as a property inspector, starting another generation of Williams in the property management business.