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“Anthony, people will always need plates” Those of us over 40 will remember the above reassuring line from a grandma attempting to console her grandson over his mediocre exam results. (Search on YouTube for ‘An ology’ if you don’t know what we’re talking about).  “…people will always need plates” was a reference to Anthony’s success at GCSE Pottery, and whilst a bit far-fetched, this rings true for residential property management. (He failed all his other GCSEs apart from Sociology. “You get an ology, you

Imagine the horror of thinking your property is worth £500k, when it is actually only worth £180k! We recently met a brother and sister who had inherited a dream property in Hammersmith, a huge 2 bed flat on a lovely road. The last flat on the same road to sell was only a few weeks before, selling for £500,000 the future looked promising. We did some investigating for them and found out that their parent had not extended the lease, it had been allowed to run down to almost 30 years remaining. If it

Estate agents and letting agencies forced to close due to the coronavirus outbreak will pay no business rates for the 2020-21 financial year. The government has announced the move along with the same measure for bingo halls. The government specified that eligible businesses will be re-billed with the updated discount, and refunded by the relevant local authority if payments have already been made. The change comes after NAEA Propertymark, a leading professional body for estate agency personnel in the UK,

Estate agents have seen a surge in people viewing properties online as Britain starts a three-week coronavirus lockdown. Massive leaps in technology that allow people to experience “walk through” tours have made it easier for potential buyers or tenants to view properties. With people told to stay indoors, people are using their extra time to browse property portals. The increase is welcome news as the property profession faces a complete lockdown of its offices during the crisis. Physical viewings and ho

This announcement was first published on the Winckworth Sherwood website The Property Tribunal (First Tier and Upper Tier), which deals with long leasehold residential disputes such as service charges, enfranchisement and breach of covenant, has today confirmed that hearings and mediations listed from Monday 23 March for 3 weeks may be postponed. The judge in charge will decide whether this is the case, with the presuming in favour of postponement. If so, the parties should be given the choice as to wheth

Property managing agents can experience fast turnaround when it comes to employees, it’s just the nature of the beast.   As property law experts, part of our ride here at LMP Law, is to advise on all areas of property law before any disputes arise. And one of the best ways we can do this is to help educate and update recruiters, as well as managing agents, in explaining the dos and don’ts of the whole legal arena. STARTING BLOCKS Property law back up begins at the recruitment process of any person working

Before conceiving Cledor, I earned my customer service stripes in hotel management and ‘white glove’ restaurants in Paris and London. The customer was king! Nothing was too much trouble and by and large they left the building content and relaxed. Often in the background was organised chaos, but the customer saw none of that. We appeared to be in total control when quite often that simply wasn’t the case! Having worked with property managers for the last 15 years, I have become to appreciate how stressful

When you install a lift, the expectation is that it will have a lifespan of around 15 years before it needs to be modernised or upgraded.  Its lifespan depends on a number of factors including the frequency of use or journeys it undertakes, the quality of the original installation and of course maintenance over time.   Some lifts can last well beyond this lifecycle and, presently, the FirstPort record is a massive 36 years at the moment – a true veteran in the lift world.  During the latter part of its li

When you own investment properties, many factors come into play, especially when you are looking forward to maximizing your cash flow. Apart from selecting the right investment properties to purchase, one of the most important decisions you need to make is who is going to manage the properties. Some investors can opt to hire property management companies to handle all these duties or even self-manage their investment properties.   Selecting one of these options often determines how the day-to-day operatio

Commenting on the Chancellor’s Budget announcement of a new £1bn cladding removal fund, Scanlans partner Ian Magenis said: “We are pleased that the Chancellor has pledged to act on the widespread concerns about unsafe cladding on apartment blocks around the country by allocating a further £1bn to carry out remediation work in the form of a new Building Safety Fund.   “The news will come as a welcome relief to thousands of leaseholders who will no longer have to find money they don’t have to fund the repai

Renters of both private and social homes who are affected by Covid-19 will be protected from eviction for three months. As News on the Block went to press, Boris Johnson announced that legislation was being brought forward to prevent renters losing their home if they face difficulties “through no fault of their own”. The announcement came after criticism from some that only homeowners were being protected by government during the crisis.  House buyers who find themselves in difficulties are being given a

TNA Building Services, a provider of high quality maintenance services to the block management sector today announced they would be ensuring they continue to support their clients during this critical time; “Our office team are all working remotely with full access to all our systems, all forms of communication are fully operational. Our engineers are being given the most up to date guidance to ensure we fully support our clients in providing our complete range of services from electrical, plumbing, heati