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The firm, with offices in Birmingham and Cheltenham, will be managing 12 apartments at Kelvedon Grove and four houses at Manor Court, both developments located off Lode Lane, opposite Solihull Hospital. Matthew Arnold, a director of Metro PM, said: “We are delighted to have won the contract to look after these smart residential units that are located in a prime area of Solihull. “We manage a number of other developments in and around that same area, and so we are perfectly set up to make sure that we meet

Issue 117 of News on the Block has now been published and is available to read online. This issue includes a special Property Management feature.  This issue includes some of the following articles:  Developer drops doubling leasehold terms after row Firms warned they’ll pay for cladding removal Has the human connection caught up with technology? Pandemic’s health impact on residential buildings What will be the role of the Building Safety Regulator? 5 most common maintenance issues in residential

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) new Guidance Note “Japanese knotweed and Residential Property” has been published on the RICS website. Implementation and use of the Guidance Note will commence from the 23rd March 2022. This Guidance Note replaces the RICS Information Paper 2012 “Japanese Knotweed and residential property” including the widely referred to knotweed risk assessment categorisation. In this article we explain why, and what this means. Why has new knotweed guidance been publ

Let’s Start with the Stats In a survey of 995 respondents across 25 European countries, by PWC and Urban Land Institute, over 80% either strongly agreed or agreed that health and wellbeing will become more important across all real estate sectors*. The Macro Picture The pandemic has had a profound effect on people. It has brought into sharp focus mortality, health, and wellbeing. It has finally made us wake up to climate change and to be more wary of known unknowns. Above all, Covid-19 has shown that h

The year may be young but the impetus behind leasehold reform continues to grow, with the Government having already announced a new consultation on making the leasehold system fairer, and committing to make developers responsible for meeting to cost of removing unsafe cladding from lower height buildings.  To help leaseholders navigate the changing world of leasehold enfranchisement, experts from law firm Bishop & Sewell will present a FREE Leasehold Question Time webinar on Tuesday 1 February at 5pm. 

Leaseholder Expo 2022 is the biggest national leaseholder event of the year. We are bringing together industry experts to help answer your questions about your lease. Save My Service Charge & News On The Block have teamed up with Vfairs to bring you the best online, leaseholder virtual event of the year.  Join 100's of like-minded leaseholders and get your questions answered all in one place.  For more information and to register your interest please click here.

The new contract is to manage Louise Court, an 18-unit property off Portway Close, in the Blossomfield area of the town. The apartments will be looked after by Danielle Lannon, a chartered surveyor and recently appointed associate director at Principle, who already looks after a number of key resident management company appointments in Solihull. Ms Lannon said: “We’re delighted to have won this contract after the resident management company directors undertook a full tender process, interviewing a number

Ellisons Solicitors has won a significant victory for flat owners fighting against massive fire patrol (waking watch) bills. The law firm, which has offices throughout Essex and Suffolk, was instructed by Cherrydown Management Limited, the Residents’ Management Company responsible for a development called The Morello Quarter, Basildon, to challenge an enforcement notice which required it to put in place a waking watch within one month. The notice, from Essex Fire and Rescue Service, was issued after a 202

Watsons Property became the newest member of ARMA (The Association of Residential Managing Agents) in January. The Norfolk-based property firm now holds both RICS and ARMA membership as well as membership of IRPM. Watsons becomes one of only two, managing agents to hold ARMA membership in Norwich and is the only agent to hold ARMA, RICS, and IRPM membership. ARMA points out that ‘the residential leasehold sector is unregulated, so anyone can set themselves up as a managing agent and start collecting servi

New regulations governing the fire safety of multi-storey and multi-occupied residential buildings have been welcomed by a leading property professional. Alan Draper, managing director of Common Ground Estate and Property Management, says the PAS 9980:2022 code of practice provides a far more practical approach towards building construction in the light of the Grenfell disaster. Developed by a field of industry experts, the new code of practice offers a standard methodology to assess the fire risk of exte

The future of transport is electric. With plug-in vehicle registrations up by almost 80% in 2021, we are all waking up to the fact that our next car or van may be electric. Responding to this growing market, in 2019 facilities specialists the Future Group launched a new company, Future Fuel, to deliver charging solutions to the block management sector. Driving an electric vehicle means you need easy access to charging facilities and the speed of the charger roll-out to-date is proving a barrier to take-up

We are delighted to announce that Yarden Sharon has been promoted to team leader. Yarden joined us in August 2019 and has demonstrated considerable dedication and talent in nurturing our customers. He started his career as a Service Manager working with a Property Manager, helping to manage a portfolio of 13-14 buildings. Yarden then became a Property Manager in May 2020, managing his own building's portfolio. We would like to give a massive thanks to Yarden for his hard work and progress. We are so proud