Featured Articles

Get the answers to your questions and stay up to date about apartment building management with our featured articles and NOTB guides, on topics such as service charges, right to manage, buying your freehold, major works, building insurance and other issues about blocks of flats.

Siddall Jones sells Stirchley site with planning for 31 student flats

Commercial agents Siddall Jones have sold a prominent site in Birmingham which has planning permission for 31 student flats and ground floor commercial units. A private developer has paid £810,000 for adjoining properties 1256-1258 Pershore Road in Stirchley. The property was previously owned by a family who had secured the planning permission. Ed Siddall-Jones, managing director of Siddall Jones, said: “The property currently comprises a detached block of two retail properties with self-contained residen

Rights of light, views and privacy: an overview

Question: What is a right of light? Answer: Background A right of light is an easement which gives a  property  owner a right to enjoy natural light that enters a building through a defined aperture, most commonly through a window.   Both landlords and individual flat owners can acquire a right of light and this right doesn’t need to be written down. The most common way in which they are acquired is by 20 years usage. A  right of  light is often used by both flat owners and landlords to stop develo

Elon Musk’s Twitter battle shows the true value of upfront information, says Gazeal

The doomed bid for Twitter from billionaire Elon Musk – the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and one of the richest people in the world – has thrown a further light on the importance of upfront information.  That’s according to digital reservation specialists Gazeal, which argues that Musk’s failed bid came down to not receiving the upfront information he wanted from Twitter before purchasing.  Musk withdrew his $44 billion (£37 billion) takeover bid for the social media giant last Friday, claiming that Twitt

Trinity Property Group joins Odevo as rapid growth continues

Odevo, the property management group that launched in the UK earlier this year, has acquired Trinity Property Group as it continues its rapid growth trajectory. Odevo was formed when leading UK managing agent Rendall & Rittner joined forces with Swedish based Nabo and SBC. UK-based Premier Estates and Finnish Companies MTR and STIO also became part of the group. Together they aim to challenge the industry and harness the power of technology and the highest standards of customer service to become the leadi

What is carbon-zero housing?

Carbon-zero housing was once only something you’d see undertaken as a one-off project on grand designs, but now there are over 30,000 projects in the pipeline with the same ambition.  There has been talk surrounding eco-homes and offices for a long time, however, until now it was often deemed unrealistic and unachievable. Yet, the topic of climate change has circled back to the very forefront of our minds, forcing those across all industries to evaluate their carbon footprint.  The property and constructi

BISHOP & SEWELL NAMED SOLICITOR FIRM OF THE YEAR

Bishop & Sewell’s Landlord & Tenant Team has once again been named Solicitor Firm of the Year in the Enfranchisement and Right to Manage Awards (ERMAs).  Judged by a committee of peers from the sector, the ERMAS are among the most prestigious awards in the sector, and recognise professional excellence in leasehold enfranchisement work.  The Bloomsbury-based law firm’s Landlord & Tenant Team, headed up by Mark Chick and Chris Macartney, has won the award in previous years and retaining the coveted ac

motive8 team attend key industry events

This past month has seen Rob Clarke, Director at motive8 and key team members attend several key industry events from Elevate at London’s ExCel Centre to Apartmentalize in San Diego, USA. Elevate UK Elevate is the UK’s largest exhibition dedicated to physical activity, fitness and sports therapy and attracts over 250 leading suppliers and key decision makers from the fitness and sports therapy industry. Gym design consultants, Sally Ottewell and Kim Mead joined Rob for the day visiting and meeting with in

Introducing our residential case study – Crown Street, Manchester

We have just launched our new residential case study, Crown Street, highlighting our new approach to showcasing our project developments, and how we have best utilised the space provided. Our new video format allows us to provide a realistic interpretation of what our projects look like and demonstrate the stages of a progressive timeline from their idea conception to their final production. Portraying our projects in this new format gives our potential clients an indication of what types of facilities we

Seek help to avoid the wealth tax trap

Experts are urging ordinary people to take advice to avoid falling into the inheritance tax (IHT) trap. New HMRC figures show families have paid £1.1bn in tax in the last two months with soaring house prices and inflation making more and more estates liable for IHT. The problem has been heightened by the nil rate threshold having been frozen at £325,000 since 2009, with no sign of it changing until at least 2026. In 2017 the Government introduced the ‘residence nil rate band’, which now amounts to £175,00

Proportunity and Griffin partner to help homebuyers afford their ideal home

Proportunity, proptech neolender, today announces a new partnership with ESTAS award-winning online estate agency, Griffin Property Co., to help home buyers finance the deposit needed for their dream home. The partnership comes at a time when the cost of living crisis and rising interest rates is creating an extremely challenging environment for buyers. With house prices their highest in a decade and lenders withdrawing many of the low-interest mortgages previously on the market, buyers are looking at alt

Irwin Mitchell boosts Southern Property Team with new partner hire

National law firm Irwin Mitchell’s Property Division is re-recruiting Sam Knight to its Southern based team. Sam will be a partner based in the firm’s Chichester office. The new appointment takes Irwin Mitchell’s Property Division to 25 partners and over 150 qualified staff. Sam has re-joined Irwin Mitchell from Coffin Mew which he joined last August and subsequently was promoted to their partnership. Sam advises on all aspects of commercial real estate legal services with a specialism in strategic land a

National Leaseholder Networking Event Goes Virtual for First Time

The Leaseholder Expo is going virtual for the first time, with this year’s edition. It will educate leaseholders, and help them network within the industry for in-depth information on the 11th of August, from 12:00 to 21:00. Save My Service Charge is hosting its Leaseholder Expo 2022 on the 11th of August, 2022. The event is going virtual for the first time, and will reach a much wider audience. It aims to empower leaseholders in the UK with the knowledge needed to understand their leases, get lease exten

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