Quick summary
A self-managed building should be able to produce its leases, the freehold title, buildings insurance, the last three years of accounts and service charge demands, board minutes, the register of members and any safety certificates, without asking a former director. Most cannot. The usual cause is not disorganisation but drift: documents live in whichever inbox first received them.
Ask a room of flat owners where the building's lease is kept and you will get a pause, then a name. Usually a name attached to someone who was very good at this and moved out in 2021.
It is one of the most reliable patterns in self-managed buildings. Nobody decided the documents should live with one person. They just never decided they should not.
The list worth being able to produce
If you can find these, you are in better shape than most:
- The leases. Ideally all of them, since they are not always identical, and the differences are usually the interesting part.
- The freehold title and the title plan.
- Buildings insurance, current schedule and policy wording, plus the last renewal quote.
- Accounts and service charge records, three years is a sensible minimum.
- Board minutes and written resolutions, including anything approving a share transfer or a director change.
- The register of members, which is the one register you still have to keep.
- Companies House filings, the last few confirmation statements and any forms filed.
- Safety and compliance certificates: fire risk assessment, electrical and gas where applicable, lift and asbestos where relevant.
- Contractor details, including who holds the keys and who to call at midnight.
The test that actually matters
Not "do we have these", but: if the person who currently holds them stopped replying tomorrow, could the rest of you carry on?
That is the question a handover is really asking, and it is why documents held in one director's personal email are functionally lost even while that director is still around. Our piece on handing the company over to the next board works through the wider version of this.
Somewhere shared, and boring
The technology does not matter much. A shared drive is fine. What matters is three things:
- More than one person has access, and access does not depend on anyone's employer or personal account.
- There is an obvious structure, so a new director can find the insurance without a tour guide.
- It is where documents go by default, not where they get copied to occasionally when someone remembers.
The same logic applies to Companies House itself, where filings often sit behind one person's login. We covered the fix in giving other directors access to your filings.
The lease question everyone eventually has
Once the documents are somewhere findable, the next problem is that leases are long, repetitive and written to be precise rather than readable. Most disputes in a small building come down to a clause nobody has read since exchange. Being able to actually ask a question of the lease, rather than skimming forty pages hoping, is worth more than the filing system itself. We wrote about that in asking a question about your lease and, specifically for money, what your lease says about service charges.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a freehold company keep its records?
Company accounting records generally need to be kept for at least three years for a private company, and many building documents, leases, the freehold title, the register of members, are permanent records that should never be discarded. Insurance and safety certificates are worth keeping for at least six years.
Does a share of freehold company have to give leaseholders copies of documents?
Leaseholders have statutory rights to certain service charge information, including a summary of costs and the right to inspect supporting documents on request within set time limits. Sharing insurance and accounts openly usually prevents the formal requests happening at all.
What if a former director will not hand documents over?
Company records belong to the company, not the individual. A calm written request from the board, referencing the specific documents, resolves nearly all of these. Where it does not, take advice early rather than letting it become a dispute about something else.