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Two of the largest property management bodies for the profession have announced that they will be asking members to back plans to merge. Leaders at the Institute of Residential Property Management (IRPM) and Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) say they want to establish a united and stronger voice for the industry. They believe that a merger would give them greater power and help support both managing agent firms and individuals as the profession faces increasing changes and new legislation.

FirstPort, the UK’s leading residential property services provider, has appointed Christian Phipps as its new Sustainability Manager - a brand-new role for the organisation.  The creation of this role signals FirstPort’s commitment to consider and react to the environmental impact of its work across the 290,000 developments it manages, as well as how best to collaborate with residents and wider communities to make a difference.  Christian joins FirstPort following an extensive career at Veolia, holding a

Birmingham-based Principle Estate Management, has won another major contract to look after a prestigious new development of 36 luxury apartments in Moseley which is currently under construction. The development named Oakview will be taken into management this year and consists of a three and four storey block at 37-43 Wake Green Road. During the construction period Principle has been advising on the structure of leases, the apportionment and level of service charges and advising on design – highlighting l

A lot can change in ten years. In July 2011, David Cameron was leading the coalition government, One Direction was yet to reach the top of the singles chart and Fabio Capello was managing the England football team. Yet, throughout the monumental shifts that the last decade has seen in national life, the partnership between the Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners (ALEP) and Lloyd’s accredited, independent insurance broker, Kerry London, has gone from strength to strength. The Association

NOTB caught up with Liam McAvoy, Managing Director at Hyperoptic as part of our recent Prop Tech feature.  Your background and how Hyperoptic began Hyperoptic was founded in 2011 by Dana Tobak with her business partner, Boris Ivanovic. Previous to Hyperoptic, they started and managed Be Broadband in 2005/6, prior to its acquisition by O2. Be was the first to launch ADSL 2+ in the UK and offer Annex M for an increased upload speed. But they knew then that copper-based technologies would never truly deliver

Issue 114 has now been published and is available for subscribers to read now.  This issues includes a special Prop Tech feature and includes some of the following articles:  Leaseholders’ hope after government intervention ALEP to hold conference online again Are desktop RCAs a false economy? Meet the managing agent matchmaker PropTech feature sponsored by Hyperoptic  All you need to know about prop tech - Richard Berridge guest editor, introduces this feature  Our ambition is to maintain gold standa

Agents should get ready for the stamp duty holiday end date in September well in advance to ensure that fall-throughs and chain breakdowns are kept to a minimum.   That’s according to HBB Solutions, which argues that agents need a plan B in case things start to go wrong as the end of the stamp duty holiday nears and the expected market dip arrives after it ceases.  Not all transactions will complete in time  While the first stage of the stamp duty holiday ended on June 30, lowering the nil rate thresh

The automation of Right to Rent checks should now be normal practice to take the pressure off landlords, agents and tenants.  That’s the claim made by anti-money laundering experts Blinc UK, which includes automated Right to Rent verification as part of its services.  With recent changes to Right to Rent, due to Covid-19 and Brexit, compliance has become more important than ever. But keeping on top of what is expected of landlords and agents can prove difficult, Blinc says.  “Right to Rent checks might no

Principle Estate Management has welcomed a major UK government intervention that means leaseholders “trapped” in flats due to the cladding crisis could soon be able to sell or remortgage their properties. The comments from the leading estate manager come in the wake of advice from an independent expert group that has found that homes in blocks of flats up to 18 metres don’t need an extra safety form. The concerns over the safety of cladding were raised after the 2017 fire at Grenfell tower in which 72 peo

Leading property law firm Property Management Legal Services Limited is to donating £5 to national suicide prevention charity PAPYRUS for each new instruction received during the month of July.   Suicide is the biggest killer of young people – male and female – under 35 in the UK. The charity, based in Warrington, aims to reduce the number of young people who take their own lives by shattering the stigma around suicide and equipping young people and their communities with the skills to recognise and respo

QUESTION I was informed by my property agent that there has been a smell of someone smoking weed in their apartment and smoking weed in an apartment is illegal. I don't personally smoke weed but is it really a property manager's business what a homeowner does in their apartment? There are neighbours which cook food that makes the entire corridor smell awful. Is this in the same category? ANSWER One of the key roles given to a property manager is to enforce the terms of a lease on behalf of a landlord and/

QUESTION  I bought a leasehold flat back in 2008 and at that time the management company belonged to the freeholder and directors from there. Their memorandum of articles was prepared to favour them.  In 2011 the freeholder agreed to hand over the management to the residents in the form of an RMC. We had the first ever AGM in 2011 and we allowed random Leaseholders to become directors assuming the RMC process will complete. (New company number, MOA approved by majority, management policy etc) Without our