Roger Southam

On 9th July there was the latest in the leasehold improvement roundtables hosted by Sir Peter Bottomley and Jim Fitzpatrick at Portcullis House led by Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. The purpose of these is to look at leasehold issues, and explore how and where to improve the issues and how to resolve matters. It is interesting how much time and energy is going into the search for how to make the leasehold market function better. The number of different organisations looking at professionalising the res

Over the last nine months I have had a lot of conversations about the state of leasehold management. I have encountered the nuances of the soft side of management. When calls go unanswered; when information is not supplied; when the leaseholder feels they are not getting service are all the soft areas that are vital to the management process of a building.    Although I genuinely believe managing agents’ service levels have improved over the last five years, there will always be examples of poor service,

You cannot please all the people all the time! This is one of the truest statements I know. It is certainly true when you are dealing with a large population with the potential for differing views. Anyone who has worked in service, and anyone who has tried to lead in anything, knows this. Just think about your favourite team in whatever sport you care to choose. How many times do you  disagree with the manager or tactics? How many times do you hear an outcry on social media and in the press beca

Every stop and turn there is an announcement or commentary about the market. All the while there is the serious business of the leaseholder and their homes. LEASE holds stakeholder meetings every 6 months and at the last one in December there was discussion after a comment that a leasehold property is not ownership. Of course this is nonsense. Even rental is ownership, it gives you a right to your home. There is a debate about leasehold being good or bad and I genuinely believe that misses the point. Leas

In reality, the essence is not who owns the freehold but rather how the building is run, how the personalities get on, and how differing expectations are managed… we are dealing as much with social interaction as the legal process. I have had the pleasure of undertaking a day and a half on the phones at the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE). I undertook this to ensure I had a clear understanding of the nature of calls received, and who our callers were. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed my time on

Over recent issues I have been taking a theme on the education of leaseholders and highlighting the social side to community living and the need to live with give and take. I am surprised to see there is a binary vision that if one thing is said then everything else is excluded. We see this in a number of arenas in the press and in our social-media-dominated world, so I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised it exists in the leasehold market. Life is a continuum and one point does not exclude everything else

It is impossible to please all of the people all the time, and indeed it is impossible to please some people any of the time. This is human nature and if people didn’t have different opinions on matters then there would be no need for lawyers and courts! No-one has a monopoly on knowing everything, and it then becomes a question of those who want to work together consensually and those who don’t. Of course when it comes to leasehold and all matters on communal living, there needs to be a desire to wan

A recurring theme is the challenges of communal living and accepting each other’s foibles and traits. I have often argued that to live in a block of flats requires a mind-set and a discipline of give and take with your neighbours. I live in a block of flats and understand first-hand the needs and responsibilities flat-living brings. I have done so for over 15 years now and the lifestyle of one-floor living suits me and the lease is not a problem. It is a world of difference to the buy-to-let investo

I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the Negotiator Conference on the subject on the changes in the housing market which prompted an interesting reaction. Asking how many of the estate agents were aware of the Information for Leaseholders sheet which should be given to all prospective buyers there was not a hand in the room which went up. Not one of the attendees was distributing the document. For the leasehold market to deliver fairness and evenness for all will require the buyers to know what th

There was something reassuring when films and TV depicted the good guys in white and the bad guys in dark colours.  Seeing the Lone Ranger and Tonto rid the Wild West of the evil outlaws in their dark Stetsons and waistcoats you always knew the World was a good place.  Well in our technicolour, multimedia age the ability to spot right from wrong is more challenging.  Of course one bad experience and conspiracy theories abound about how everyone is out to be corrupt and rip people off.  Generally an experi

The original campaigner against residential leasehold, Nigel Wilkins has sadly died at the tragically young age of 66.  An active campaigner for the abolishment of leasehold, he was often seen at conferences with a quip or comment aimed to highlight issues and abuses.  I first met him a decade ago when I spoke at the CARL conference in 2007.  I was the first managing agent to be asked to address the conference. Whilst Nigel and I may not have always seen eye to eye, I always respected his determination an

There has never been a time like we are currently seeing for leasehold.  The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) are undertaking a huge amount of work to seek to improve leasehold in all areas and directions.  We have already had the consultation on ground rents and the responses flooded into DCLG.  The team now have the hard work of reading all responses and collating the information and deciding what to do.   You should be aware that while that is ongoing the Department has launched a