Supporting Your Clients Through a Problem You Didn't Create
As a managing agent, cladding and external wall fire safety wasn't the job you signed up to do, but it's often the job that lands on your desk — a lender querying an EWS1, a freeholder client asking what the exposure is, leaseholders wanting answers you don't have. You're managing the relationship and the day-to-day running of the building; you're not necessarily resourced, or expected, to run a full technical remediation project in-house as well.
That's the gap Wrightwood fills: a specialist partner you bring in for the technical and project-management side of a specific building, while you keep the client relationship and the wider management instruction.
What an Agent Can — and Can't — Take On
It's worth being precise about this, because getting it wrong matters. A managing agent can play an active, valuable role in coordinating a building safety or remediation process — commissioning surveys, liaising with contractors, communicating with leaseholders. What a managing agent generally cannot do is hold the statutory duties that the Building Safety Act and related legislation place on specific legal roles, such as the Accountable Person or Principal Accountable Person for a higher-risk building, or the Responsible Entity for Cladding Safety Scheme purposes. Those responsibilities sit with the building's freeholder, RTM company or resident management company, even where the agent is doing most of the practical work on their behalf.
Not legal advice
This is a general, practical summary, not legal advice. The precise allocation of statutory duties depends on your specific client structure and the building in question — your own or your client's legal advisers are best placed to confirm who holds what responsibility for a particular building.
In practice, this means Wrightwood works alongside the agent and their client, not in place of either — we help make sure the practical coordination work (which agents are well placed to support) and the legal/statutory responsibility (which sits with the Responsible Entity) stay properly aligned, rather than getting blurred.
When Agents Bring Us In
| Situation | Where we typically help |
|---|---|
| A client is asking questions you can't fully answer | We review the building's position and give you a clear, accurate summary to pass back to your client. |
| A FRAEW or EWS1 is needed and you don't have an in-house technical team | We appoint and brief a suitably qualified, independent specialist, and manage the process through to a usable report. |
| Remediation works are required | We provide client-side project management through design, procurement and construction, reporting back to you and your client throughout. |
| A funding application may be available | We help assess eligibility and support the application, working with whoever holds the Responsible Entity role. |
| You manage several affected blocks | We can work consistently across a portfolio, so each building gets the same disciplined process without you having to source a different specialist each time. |
Cladding panel installation above a window opening — the kind of works we client-side manage on your behalf.
How We Work With Managing Agents
Initial scoping
We review what's known about the building with you, and agree what the client needs to understand before anything is commissioned.
Specialist appointment
We identify and appoint the right independent fire engineer, facade consultant or other specialist for the building, and manage the brief.
Reporting back to you
We keep you and your client informed in plain terms, so you're never caught out in a conversation about progress or next steps.
Funding and procurement
Where relevant, we support funding applications and manage contractor procurement and tendering on the client's behalf.
Delivery
We manage the remediation project through to completion and certification, while you continue managing the building and the wider client relationship.
We coordinate — we don't carry out assessments ourselves
Wrightwood is not the fire engineer or FRAEW assessor. We appoint and manage suitably qualified, independent specialists, and keep the project moving on the Responsible Entity's and your client's behalf.
The technical detail your specialist team manages day to day — breather membrane and insulation build-up around a window reveal.
Request a consultation for a building on your books →
Why Agents Choose a Specialist Partner
Bringing in a dedicated coordinator for a cladding or remediation project means you're not trying to build a one-off, in-house technical capability for a single building, or stretching your existing team across a type of project most managing agent businesses don't handle often. It also means your client gets a more confident, better-managed process — which reflects well on the agent who brought the right help in, rather than one who tried to handle it alone and lost momentum.