Featured Articles

Your contract to manage a property is ending - what does this mean for your employees and any contractors that you engage? Furthermore, if you’re the newly appointed agents, do you know what you need to do? As managing agents, you’re likely to be carrying out specific services on behalf of your client which may include providing an on-site property manager, caretaker or receptionist.  You may also work with contractors to provide security or cleaning services.  The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of

It has now been almost three years since the decision of the Court of Appeal in Triplerose Limited v Ninety Broomfield Road RTM Co Ltd [2015] was handed down and it would seem that there is little or no appetite to clarify the law surrounding the right to manage multiple residential blocks of flats comprising the same estate. Part 2 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 provides long leaseholders of flats with the right to assume the management of the building from the landlord. This is a ‘no fa

QUESTION Briefly, I am a director of a company which owns both the freehold (from 1996) and head lease (from 2010) of our block of 114 flats. Some seven years ago, when we acquired the head lease (still over 120 years to run) we wanted to change the managing agents. However, they refused to resign as they said they were one of the three parties to the tri-partite leases and had a 'beneficial interest'. At that stage we felt we had no choice but to form a Right to Manage company to enable us to force the c

QUESTION We wonder if you could advise us on the following. We have a situation of a lessee who is now permanently in a care home with the power of attorney vested in three people, his son, his daughter and a lifelong friend.  The son and daughter both live in the USA and intend to rent out the flat. The lease is ambiguous with regard to sub-letting stating only: “Not to assign underlet or part with the possession of part only of the said flat”. Regardless of this, a number of flats are already sub-let. W

Over the last five years there has been a marked increase in the number of people using third party websites such as Airbnb and HomeAway to rent out their property.  Many homeowners view this as a useful way of supplementing their income.  For those looking to rent, the attraction is that such rentals offer a “home from home” environment and can often be cheaper than traditional hotel accommodation.  However, it is becoming a more professional endeavour than the original home sharing model that was first

Mundy and relativities A few weeks ago flat owners with leases with less than 80 years left to run had their hopes dashed that the premium payable might be reduced; the flat owner failed in their appeal in the case of Mundy v Trustees of the Sloan Stanley Estate. Unfortunately the tenant fell at the first hurdle in trying to show that there was a point of law to be considered; the Upper Tribunal ruled that it was open to the Tribunal at first instance as a question of fact to reject the Parthenia model. T

Deverell Smith, the property recruitment specialists, have been recognised as the UK’s 8th Best Small Company To Work For in The Sunday Times’ annual Best Companies research. In the same week, Deverell Smith also won the ‘Overall Engagement Award’ at Property Week’s annual Best Companies to Work For in Property awards. The annual survey run by the ‘Best Companies’ group, recognises organisations and managers who genuinely value and respect their employees. Property Week’s Best Places to Work in Property i

QUESTION Please would you be so kind as to answer some questions on qualifying tenants? 1. Would a partner(girlfriend/boyfriend), having no legal status on the qualifying tenants Lease, be a qualifying tenant too? 2. Is a non qualifying tenant allowed to vote, participate or be counted in an enfranchisement application? 3. Is a non qualifying tenant allowed to vote or participate in RTM matters? 4. Is a non qualifying tenant allowed to be a non elected Director of (a) A RTM (b) Enfranchisement? ANSWER It

If you are the tenant of a building, and in particular the tenant of a top-floor flat, your lease may grant you rights in relation to the airspace above your flat. But if it doesn’t, what happens when your landlord decides that they want to make rather a lot of noise and cause rather a lot of mess building another few floors on top of your otherwise peaceful home? Of course, every lease is different, but for the purpose of this article, I have considered some of the terms which are usually contained in lo

Colin Stokes, Managing Director of Adiuvo will be walking 100k from London to Brighton in May 2018 for the Alzheimer's Society with 15 other people from his team at Adiuvo and Earl Kendrick Associates. To read more and to support them please click here.

Ringwood-based Millstream Management Services (MMS), the leading provider of retirement housing management services in the UK, has welcomed its 200th employee Clare Overgaard on board this week, marking another major milestone for the business. Clare is currently in training for her role as Lodge Manager at Churchill Retirement Living’s new Hadley Lodge development in Quinton (West Midlands). To celebrate the significance of her appointment, she was presented with a congratulatory gift of champagne and fl

Sustainability expert and much loved TV presenter Dick Strawbridge is confirmed as one of the keynote speakers at this years’ South East Property Expo to be held at the Hop Farm, Paddock Wood, on the 11th October 2018.  Strawbridge, who presents programmes on sustainable living, engineering and property including, It’s not easy being green and Escape to the chateau, will be detailing his own unconventional and fascinating experiences with property. He joins a line-up also featuring Pippa Jameson, a resp