Roger Southam

Despite the many positive developments in modern residential management, a major and long-term industry issue remains largely unaddressed. Today, residential landlords are still having to pay exorbitant lettings fees charged by many property agents. These can be as high as twenty percent once tenant finding, management, contract and referencing fees are taken into account. It is time to champion the needs of the landlord in a market where many high street agents are still hiding their fees and often doubl

Former Chainbow owner Roger Southam is returning to the residential letting market with new disruptor company Cohab. Cohab has developed a first-class service, charging an all-in lettings and management fee of 6%. Southam who sold residential property management company Chainbow to Savills in 2016 has teamed up with Canadian tech-entrepreneur Saveli Kotz, as Cohab’s chairman. Southam says: “This is just what the residential lettings market needs. For far too long residential landlords have had to put up w

Two common themes for me are customer experience and community spirit.  These are matters for all aspects of life but are exacerbated when it comes to communal living of any sort.  The number of clips on the internet of people overreacting, bullying, arguing, and incident rage are extraordinary.  Of course, from any totally objective perspective, it is easy to be rational or controlled.  However, when caught up in a moment rationality tends to disappear faster than Boris Johnson for a Heathrow runway vote

Firstly, Happy New Year to you all and what a Year it promises to be.  Immediately before Christmas the Housing Minister, Alok Sharma made announcements during the leasehold discussion in the House of Commons on the future of leasehold.  From the statement it is as far reaching and revolutionary as we have heard for nearly two decades.  In my column in November I urged you to participate in the calls for evidence and consultations being undertaken. It is now clear that the Secretary of State and the Housi

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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