Pictured: Karen Combellack and Andrew Winstanley, with CP
Bigwood director Bob Simonds (centre)
A property expert who started out as a secretary has been
promoted to associate at Birmingham-based CPBigwood.
Karen Combellack, a mother of two, is manager of the Residential
Service Charge Department.
The firm manages approximately 15,000 flats and apartments in
some 400 developments across the country acting for investors,
resident management companies, right to manage companies and plcs
as well as developers and house builders.
Ms Combellack said: "I am pleased that the firm has shown such
confidence in me.
"Residential property management is a great job and has given me
a career with opportunities to progress up the ladder."
A property manager with Curry & Partners - who recently
merged with counterparts Bigwood - for several years, she started
out as secretary to the managing director of a firm of managing
agents.
Ms Combellack left to raise her family and returning much later
she decided to retrain in property management through a distance
learning course created by Asset Skills, the Association of
Residential Managing Agents (ARMA), the Association of Residential
Lettings Agents (ARLA), the Association of Retirement Housing
Managers (ARHM), the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and the
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
That inspired her to continue training, she became an affiliate
of the Institute of Residential Property Management and she is now
an associate member of the RICS (AssocRICS).
Her role involves the day-to-day management of a team of senior
property managers who report directly to her on the management of
their individual property portfolios.
She said: "In this job you never stop learning. Property
management brings fresh challenges almost every day - be it new
legislation or finding ways of creating new efficiencies.
"I particularly enjoy existing management which we take on which
is not in the best of order. Working out what is wrong and planning
how to put it right is particularly stimulating."
Nigel Curry, joint managing director of CPBigwood, said: "It is
particularly pleasing to see people making the most of themselves
through a commitment to hard work and training.
"I congratulate Karen on her promotion, her exemplary attitude,
and all she does for the firm."
And Andrew Winstanley, senior property manager at CPBigwood, has
become only the second member of staff after Ms Combellack to gain
the AssocRICS qualification.
Birmingham-born, he has been nearly five years with the
business, responsible for the management of a portfolio of
residential developments in the south of England.
He said: "The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is the
leading body in property. Gaining the AssocRICS qualification means
residents and others can have confidence in the level of my
experience, knowledge and professionalism."
For more information about CPBigwood, please visit their website
here: www.cpbigwood.com