How Management Companies Run Nairobi’s Apartment Complexes
Someone is collecting your service charge, hiring your guards and fixing your lift. Here’s who they answer to, what they’re allowed to do, and what owners and tenants should ask.
Key takeaways
- Most Nairobi apartment complexes are run day to day by a management company, but the real authority sits with the owners’ Corporation.
- The company collects service charge, supervises guards and cleaners, and keeps shared spaces working, all under a contract.
- It generally can’t raise levies, change by-laws or evict anyone without proper authority, and owners can replace it by a vote or under the contract.
- Before you buy or rent, ask to see the budget, the accounts and the management contract.
Someone is running your building. Do you know who?
Picture a Tuesday morning in a mid-rise apartment block in Nairobi. The lift has been out of order for nine days. The guard at the gate is someone you’ve never seen before. And slipped under your door is a notice: the service charge is going up next month, effective immediately.
You have three questions. Who decided this? Are they allowed to? And who do I even ask?
Behind that notice sits a management company. And behind the management company sits something most owners have never met, because it’s made up of them and their neighbours.
Who Actually Runs an Apartment Complex in Nairobi?
There are two layers, and mixing them up is where most confusion starts.
The first is the Corporation, sometimes called the body corporate. Under Kenya’s Sectional Properties Act, 2020, once a sectional plan is registered for a development, a Corporation is created automatically, and every unit owner is a member. It is the legal owner of the shared property: the corridors, lifts, compound, roads and perimeter wall. It can make binding decisions, enforce the building’s by-laws, raise levies and take legal action.
The second is the management company. It isn’t created by any law. It’s a private firm hired to do the work, usually first by the developer and later by the Corporation. And hiring one is optional: a Corporation is compulsory, but a management company is not.
Think of it like a football club. The owners sit in the boardroom and make the big calls. The management company is the coaching and operations staff who run the club every single day. Staff can be brilliant, but they work for the club, not the other way round.
(Older developments that pre-date the law may still be converting to the new system, so ask which structure your building uses.)
What Does a Management Company Do for an Apartment Building in Nairobi?
If you could watch a well-run building for 24 hours, you’d see the work that never makes it into a brochure.
The night guards hand over to the day team. Cleaners sweep corridors and stairwells before most residents are awake. The caretaker walks the compound and notes what’s broken. A technician is called about the lift. The water tanks are checked. Garbage is collected and gardens are trimmed. At the end of the month, the accounts team issues service charge statements and chases the ones that haven’t been paid.
In plain terms, a management company is typically hired to:
- Maintain the shared spaces, including hallways, lifts, gardens and rooftops
- Hire and supervise security guards, cleaners and caretakers
- Collect service charges and utility payments
- Deal with contractors, utility providers and government agencies
- Apply the building’s rules, such as those on noise and garbage disposal
Service Charge in Nairobi Apartments: What It Pays For
Every one of those jobs costs money, and it comes from the service charge. In Nairobi it’s typically paid monthly, and one Nairobi property manager puts it at roughly 5–15% of rent, with higher amenities meaning a higher charge. It covers things like security guards, cleaning of common areas, lift maintenance and shared utilities.
Many well-run buildings also keep a separate sinking fund, a reserve for big, infrequent costs such as roof repairs or resurfacing, so owners aren’t hit with a sudden bill.
One more thing that trips people up: there’s a second kind of management fee that has nothing to do with the building. If a landlord hires a company to find tenants and collect rent on their unit, that landlord pays the company a fee, which in Kenya commonly sits around 8–10% of the rent collected. That’s the landlord’s cost for managing their flat. The service charge is the cost of managing the building. Two different bills, two different jobs.
What a Management Company Cannot Do Under Kenyan Law
This is the part that would have helped on that Tuesday morning. A management company acts only on authority from the Corporation or a written contract. It cannot, on its own:
- Sell, lease or mortgage the common areas
- Raise levies without the approval of the owners
- Change the building’s by-laws without a vote of the Corporation
- Evict a resident without a court order
- Block your access to your own unit
- Make decisions that bind owners unless it has been expressly authorised
So that “effective immediately” notice? It isn’t automatically valid. A service charge increase normally needs the owners’ approval, and a good first question is: where is the resolution?
Common Disputes Between Owners and Management Companies in Kenya
Most management companies do an honest job. But the disputes that reach lawyers tend to follow a pattern:
- Unapproved charges, or failing to account for the money collected
- Refusing to show owners the financial records
- Turning shared spaces into private income, such as renting out parking or rooftop areas without owners’ consent
- Overstepping, by imposing fines, denying access or threatening eviction without due process
- Contracts written to favour the developer, with no clear way for owners to end them
Developer-Appointed Management Companies in Kenya: What Owners Should Know
Here’s a detail that catches new buyers out. In a brand-new building, the first management company is often chosen by the developer, not by you.
That’s normal for the first few months. But once the sectional plan is registered, the Corporation is supposed to take control and decide who manages the building from then on. Trouble starts when the contract is slanted towards the developer, has no clear termination or handover clause, or when the developer is still holding the service charge accounts long after owners have moved in.
If you’re buying off-plan or in a new development, this is one of the most important questions to ask before you sign: who runs this building after handover, and can the owners replace them?
How to Remove a Management Company From an Apartment Block in Kenya
What if the answers to those questions are bad? Owners are not stuck. Because the management company works for the Corporation, the owners can end the arrangement, either by a vote of the Corporation or through the termination clause in the management contract.
In practice, it usually looks like this:
- Read the contract first. Find the termination clause, the notice period, and anything payable on exit. This is why a one-sided contract is such a problem: it can make leaving slow or expensive.
- Check your by-laws. They set out how the Corporation meets and decides, so the vote has to follow them or it can be challenged later.
- Call a meeting and pass a clear resolution to end the contract or replace the company.
- Give notice in the way the contract requires. Keep proof that it was delivered.
- Plan the handover. Get the accounts, records, contractor and guard agreements, keys and any money held on the Corporation’s behalf, then appoint a replacement or decide how the building will be run.
If money is missing or unexplained, that’s a different kind of problem. Misuse of funds can lead to legal action for breach of contract, misappropriation or fraud, so bring in an advocate before you act, not after.
A word of caution: the exact steps depend on your building’s by-laws and contract, so treat this as a map, not a manual. An advocate who handles sectional properties can check the details in an hour.
How to Choose an Apartment Management Company in Nairobi: 7 Questions to Ask
Property managers who’ve written about this for Nairobi landlords keep returning to the same few tests. Adapted for a building, here’s what to ask:
- Where is our money held? Is service charge kept in its own account, separate from the company’s day-to-day money?
- Can we see the budget and the accounts? A well-run building has them to hand.
- How much can you spend on a repair without asking us? There should be a number, per incident. Without one, you get either a manager who can’t act on a burst pipe, or one who replaces the water heater and sends the invoice.
- Who physically inspects the building, and how often? Ask what the last inspection found.
- How many buildings does each manager look after? There’s a number beyond which proper inspections simply can’t happen.
- What does the contract say about ending it? Look for clear termination and handover terms that owners can actually use.
- Can we speak to owners in another building you manage? Ask for one where something went wrong, and how it was handled.
Service Charge and Management: What Nairobi Buyers and Renters Should Check
If you’re buying, ask for the last few service charge statements, the current budget, and the management contract. Check whether the Corporation has taken over from the developer, and whether a sinking fund exists.
If you’re renting, ask exactly what the service charge covers, and what has happened to it over the past two or three years. A stable charge usually points to a stable building.
The Bottom Line
Back in that building with the broken lift, the new guard and the surprise notice, the answer to “who’s in charge?” turns out to be you and your neighbours. The management company works for you, and a good one will welcome the questions.
Because a well-run building isn’t the one with the longest amenity list. It’s the one where somebody can tell you, in writing, who decided what, who’s accountable, and where the money went.