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Plans for 722 homes, exclusively for rent, alongside boutique retail, bars, and cafes in the Jewellery Quarter have been approved by Birmingham City Council – and will create hundreds of jobs.  Great Charles Street, Moda’s second development in the city in its Build to Rent (BTR) platform with funding partner Apache Capital, has been given the green light by Birmingham City Council’s Planning Committee.  Moda Living, the UK's fastest growing rental brand focused on the design, delivery, and long-term mana

One of the UK’s top estate management companies has cautiously welcomed the easing of the need for flat owners to have cladding safety checks before selling or remortgaging their properties. The comments from Principle Estate Management follow Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick’s announcement that flats without cladding will no longer need an external wall safety certificate (EWS1), which involves a survey. The extra safety checks were introduced after 72 people died at Grenfell Tower when a fire spread alo

The Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) has welcomed the HCLG Committee feedback on the Building Safety Bill, which pushes for further detail in key areas including funding, responsibilities linked to the Bill and scope. The HCLG Committee report mirrors ARMA’s concerns that the draft legislation does not do enough to protect leaseholders from the cost of remedying existing fire safety defects. The report stresses that the building safety charge should be used to fund future work, rather tha

Accountancy and business advisors Whitley Stimpson reports that as many as one million self-employed people could soon be facing tax bills bigger than their annual earnings in 2019-20 due to the coronavirus pandemic. A large proportion of the UK’s 4.5m strong freelance workforce pre-pay their income tax bills in instalments twice a year, in amounts based on the previous year’s earnings.  The first payment on account will be due in January 2021 with the next in July 2021. Jonathan Walton, director at Whitl

Potential owners of new-build homes could find themselves unable to secure a mortgage thanks to an antiquated property law, a property expert has warned. Section 121 of the Law of Property Act 1925 covers the imposition of a rentcharge or estate management fee to be paid by a freehold homeowner to a third party or rent owner (usually a property management company) who normally has no other interest in the property. This charge usually covers maintenance of communal areas such as playgrounds, private roads

In the run-up to the New Year, suggests PayProp, letting agencies could benefit from reviewing their banking and payment systems. The prominent rental payment platform says due to the impact of COVID-19 on rental payments, as well as a recent regulatory update related to Client Money Protection (CMP) rules, now is the time for agencies to undertake an audit of their financial processes. "Reviewing and modernising payment processes can help letting agencies avail themselves more fully of the available prot

Places for People, a leading UK affordable homes led placemaker,  has been named a winner of the ‘Proud to Help’ award in the 2020 Building Awards. The Proud to Help award was a new category for this year’s awards, acknowledging the work that many companies have undertaken to support others during the pandemic. In a year that has been dominated by Covid-19, Places for People has provided help and support to communities, customers and businesses. Hosted by Building Magazine, the Building Awards are open to

Leading residential property manager Rendall & Rittner has appointed Ecotricity to supply carbon neutral gas across its property portfolio, as well as retaining Ecotricity as its electricity supplier in an annual contract worth nearly £17 million. Britain’s greenest energy provider will supply over £14 million of renewable electricity to 93% of the communal areas of the 80,000 homes managed by Rendall & Rittner over the next 12 months. It will also supply almost £2.65 million worth of gas to the communal

HYELM, a not-for-profit landlord seeking to address the shortage of affordable housing for young people working in London, has launched a new Welfare Package to help alleviate the financial pressures caused by the pandemic. Putting resident’s safety and wellbeing at the heart of everything it does, HYELM has provided residents with up to £50,000 worth of support since March 2020.  The Welfare Package specifically caters for any residents who have experienced forms of financial hardship in recent months, w

Are your Fire Safety System’s Monitored?   Are your properties left unattended or are you a property manager responsible for a development?   How do you know if your fire safety system has activated or in fault?   Do you wait for a resident or neighbour to report that the alarm has activated or smoke vents are open?... or is your system in fault and worse still, no one reports it to you?   We have the perfect solution for you….low-cost remote monitoring via your smart phone and tablet. There is also an op

This a question that we are regularly asked by RTM directors, namely – can the freeholder insist we use their buildings insurance for our block? The short answer is ‘No’, as Ian Hollins of Clear Building Management explains. By securing the Right to Manage for your block, your RTM company has taken over the management functions – and this includes arranging insurance for the building. The Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 sets out that the freeholder can arrange additional insurance but that this m

Blocsphere Property Management, a residential and mixed-use property management specialist, has been appointed to manage St Andrews, in Maidstone, Kent. St Andrews Park is one of Blocsphere’s most prestigious properties, boasting a total of 79 apartments. The Grade II listed development was formerly a psychiatric hospital founded in 1833 named The Oakwood Hospital. Following transfer of services to Maidstone Hospital, Oakwood closed in 1994 and was then developed as a residential estate known as St Andrew