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.

Dealing with rubbish is a huge issue for residents, according to Principle

Effective refuse management is a fundamental part of managing customers’ homes and ensuring a clean and healthy environment, according to Principle Estate Management. The leading estate management company was explaining a number of creative ways it has solved longstanding litter and waste problems on sites where it has won contracts to look after. At one residential site, Principle installed a ramp at the entrance to a bin store as local authority staff had been refusing to lift bins up the step which had

Poole Quarter management appointment

Evolve Block & Estate Management Ltd are extremely proud to have been awarded the management of a large, modern, and complex residential estate in Poole, Dorset consisting of 467 residential leasehold properties in an estate called Poole Quarter. Following an exhaustive tender process, we were selected as the managing agents after having recently invested heavily in additional offices, staffing and management software. Poole Quarter is one of the largest leasehold estates on the South Coast and the whole

Forsters further expands HNW residential property team

Forsters, one of the pre-eminent private wealth and real estate law firms, welcomes a Partner and two Associates to its leading HNW Residential Property team. Forsters, home to the largest dedicated Residential Property team in the London market, is delighted to announce the arrival of Partner Robert Barham and Associates Freddie Hunter and Harriet Beswick, who have joined the firm from Cripps Pemberton Greenish. Robert’s appointment is effective from May and Freddie and Harriet joined the firm in April.

Queen's Speech: Ground Rent Reform

This article was first published on the Winckworth Sherwood website. The Government’s proposal around leasehold ground rent reform has now taken shape following the Queen’s Speech. Background In 2018 the then Secretary of State for housing communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid, announced a “crack down on unfair leasehold practices” that would include setting ground rents on new long leases at zero and working with the Law Commission to make the process of purchasing a freehold or extending a fl

Zoopla overcomes pandemic uncertainty and enhances commercial operation with Conga

Conga, a global leader in commercial operations transformation, has announced that Zoopla, one of the UK’s leading property portals, transformed its commercial operations at the onset of the first COVID-19 lockdown with Conga. Continuing a seven-year relationship, Zoopla leveraged Conga Composer, Conga Sign and Conga Batch to facilitate the communication and implementation of Zoopla’s support packages and streamline its business review process. As lockdown restrictions were announced and the uncertainty s

Rendall & Rittner strengthens property management team

Leading managing agent Rendall & Rittner has appointed John Osborn as Property Team Manager within one of its Central London divisions to oversee the management of a portfolio of high-profile residential developments. With twenty years of experience in the industry at other managing agents, John joins R&R with a wealth of property management experience. His role at R&R will focus on developing relationships with major clients and ensuring the highest levels of service delivery. He will also help manage th

Elevate appoints Kings Heath construction team to deliver Heaton House Lofts

Elevate Property Group is to forge ahead with its plans for 56 residential properties at the historic Heaton House Lofts in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. Kavannagh Construction has been appointed to begin work on Monday 17 May on the site in Camden Street. When the project is completed in the third quarter of 2022, it will provide it will provide 14 townhouses, 42 apartments, 4,300 sq ft of commercial space and Heaton House itself – a 3,360 sq ft, four bedroom dwelling. Work to clear the site has alread

IRPM campaign is shortlisted in EG Tech Awards

The IRPM is delighted to announce that it has made the shortlist for the prestigious EG Tech Awards  2021. The Institute is a front runner in the Big Picture category, showcasing its campaign for industry-wide adoption of the UPRN. This category is open to influential bodies, organisations and government schemes/departments which can demonstrate support for tech and real estate on a grand scale. Former winners in this category include NHS Property Services in 2020.   The IRPM entry demonstrates how we are

Focusing and streamlining your block management team structure

Ben Jarvis is the Portfolio Manager for Benjamin Stevens Block Management. Ben started in September of 2020, having been brought in to add further experience to the already efficient and professional team. Here, Ben writes about his role, the value a Portfolio Manager can add to a team and the changes to budgeting systems he has set up which are being warmly received by clients. “Coming into the business in September of last year I took on the rather unique role of Portfolio Manager, off the back of the f

MetroPM hails long overdue planning reform proposals

MetroPM, the estate management business with offices in Birmingham and Cheltenham, has welcomed the Planning Reform Bill outlined in the Queen’s Speech. The government announced the Bill will bring forward measures to simplify the planning system, making it easier to build the homes people need in the places they want them. The Bill will ensure that decisions allocating land for development at the local plan stage will give certainty on the nature and scale of development which is acceptable. Managing dir

Queen’s Speech promises end to ground rents on new leaseholds – but uncertainty still remains

The Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners (ALEP) welcomes Her Majesty’s announcement - within the Queen’s Speech - of measures to end the practice of ground rents for new leasehold properties. This reaffirms the government’s commitment to abolish ground rents for most new leasehold properties. John Midgley, ALEP Director, said: “As with any potential changes to legislation, the devil is likely to be in the detail of the Bill. It does not look as though it will affect existing lease

The changing laws of the rental property sector

Constant changing laws have always been something landlords and tenants alike have had to keep on top of in the private lettings market but during a pandemic this is truer than ever. The last 12 months have seen a number of challenges for many people with less job security, complicated mortgage holiday processes and the unknown of Brexit to name a few. Lee Pearce, Partner at Ellisons Solicitors, looks at how landlord and tenant rights changed as a result of the pandemic. The Covid-19 crisis brought with i

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