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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

It is important that we continue to maintain and repair Fire Safety Systems to ensure the safety of residents. We have put in special measures to ensure we continue to do this. To assist Property Managers with the questions they have we have setup a Q and A section on our website which is being continually updated so that Property Managers are kept informed of anything relating to the fire safety services we provide within their blocks during the COVID 19 outbreak The link to see the Q and A section, plus

Leading managing agent Rendall & Rittner has recently hired, Adenike Olowe as its Customer Service Manager. Adenike has a strong background in Customer Service and previously headed up the customer service teams for home furnishing company Loaf and fashion designer Gucci. Looking for a new challenge Adenike has decided to venture into Property Management with Rendall & Rittner and has already hit the ground running. Commenting on her new role Adenike explains: “Customer Service is not only an innate quali

When a head of block management or head of accounts receives your CV from BBL, we suspect they will do one or more of the following: Shortlist it (hopefully) and invite you for interview Ask trusted peers in the industry if they know anything about you Look you up online. Part of a reputable recruiter’s role is to vet candidates before passing CVs to prospective employers. However, many employers want to do their own ‘background checks’ and the easiest way of achieving that is to delve into your onli