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Directors and staff at accountancy specialist firm Whitley Stimpson are celebrating after being highly commended in a prestigious awards scheme. Judges at the 2023 ACE awards, organised by the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA), singled out the firm for praise in the Service Charge Accountancy Firm of the Year category. The service charge accounting team led by director Jonathan Walton attended the awards ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London. Jonathan said: “We are delighted to have been

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is pleased to announce the appointment of Justin Young, as Chief Executive Officer. Justin will join RICS as CEO on 5 July 2023. Justin was appointed by RICS Governing Council to continue to lead the transformation of RICS, including delivery of an excellent experience for staff, members, and stakeholders.  He has an impressive background in operational management and business transformation programmes, including those focussed on customer experience. Ju

Earl Kendrick Project & Building Consultancy would like to announce that it has recruited IStructE Chartered Structural Engineer Azzahra Mahmud to its London team. With this new addition, Earl Kendrick will now be able to offer a range of in-house structural engineering services. Structural Engineering services now available from Earl Kendrick include: Structural surveys and appraisals Structural engineering planning advice such as feasibility studies and Basement Impact Assessments/Structural Method S

A Victorian mansion, built by a champion piper to Queen Victoria, has come onto the market for £300,000.   Dunolly House which sits on the banks of River Tay in Aberfeldy is a spectacular C-listed building, ideal for developers looking to bring this historic property back into usage.   The stunning nine-bedroom property comes equipped with six bathrooms, two spacious kitchens, two expansive function rooms and a giant wraparound garden circling the entire property.  Covering a massive 6,938 square feet, th

The latest research by London lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, reveals that ULEZ is starting to hurt house prices as designated low-emissions zones fail to match wider London growth.  Benham and Reeves has analysed house price data in London boroughs that fell within the ULEZ boundary following phases 1 and 2 of the scheme’s rollout, how this compared to the performance of the London market and what it could mean for those boroughs due to be impacted with the phase 3 roll out.  The research s

The winners of the ACE Awards were revealed at a glittering ceremony at Old Billingsgate in the heart of London on Friday 16th June 2023.  Attended by over 550 property professionals, a record number for the event, the Awards celebrated excellence and exceptional achievement by the UK’s leading residential managing agents, suppliers and the work of their people in improving the lives of over a million leaseholders across the country. The 18 category winners were announced following a rigorous adjudicating

Michael Gove’s sudden U-turn on leasehold system reforms and Labour’s subsequent outcry to abolish leaseholds altogether has brought longstanding issues with the leasehold system into the limelight. Leaseholds have been mired in controversies with stories of spiralling ground rents and extortionate service charges alongside tenants often finding that extending their leases is prohibitively expensive. There are also issues with lease assets depreciating and leaseholders lacking true ownership of their prop

Issue 125 of News on the Block has now been published and is available for subscribers to read online now.  This issue includes our special Health and Safety feature, with an emphasis on Building Safety and includes some of the following articles.  The Property Institute exec chair steps down Properties with cladding can now access mortgage deals Rare joined-up thinking of fire risk assessments What is RICS guidance on health and safety? The importance of compliance The road to reducing energy cost

Industry leaders have welcomed moves to ‘professionalise’ the Private Rented Sector through measures like the Renters (Reform) Bill but some have warned the government not to over-burden small landlords with ‘piecemeal legislation.’ “Anything that drives up standards can only be seen as a good thing for the PRS but the lack of reassurances and detail in these reforms risks some landlords selling up at a time when rental properties are urgently needed,” cautions Neil Cobbold, managing director of PayProp U

A property operator with more than eight years’ experience has been recruited by Principle Estate Management to help the company’s expanding lettings management portfolio. Lauren O’Brien joins Principle from The Tenant Management Hub (The TM Hub) in Wolverhampton, where she has worked as a property management team leader for nearly three years. Ms O’Brien has previously worked for Virtu Property Management and Centrick, as well as a previous role as a property maintenance manager at The TM Hub. She is qua

The Building Safety Act 2022 (the Act) places new more stringent building safety responsibilities on resident-led organisations (Right to Manage (RTM) and Resident Management Companies (RMCs)) which will be accountable persons for in-scope higher risk buildings. It is important to note that the resident led entity will be the Accountable Person and lay directors will not be Accountable Persons in their personal capacity. This, however, does not relieve resident-directors of personal liability if they are

In this article Charles Seifert a partner at SAY Property Consulting, considers some of the challenges around the Building Safety Act and to submitting successful applications for Government grant funding to the coming 11-18m Cladding Safety Scheme  For managing agents, landlords and directors of RTM companies, getting to grips with the requirements of the Building Safety Act (BSA), and more specifically the consequences of failing to do so, may feel overwhelming.  My advice to anyone who thinks that thei