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The former head of residential property management at CPBigwood in Birmingham has launched his own business. Brett Williams has opened Principle Estate Management to offer a national property management service, predominantly to modern residential apartment buildings and traditional blocks of flats. The firm has opened for business at Cornwall House in Lionel Street, Birmingham. Previously a partner with Curry & Partners until its merger with Bigwood in 2011 and subsequent sale in 2015, he was also chairm

QUESTION I want to ask a question about Fire Safety which is frustrating us. We're 30 flats in Oxford. The big block has 28 flats on four floors, using 4 separate internal staircases. The small block has two flats at 1st and 2nd storey level, sharing an external staircase. The block was built in 1996, the flats are compartmentalised, and all the fire doors into common areas are in good shape. We are flummoxed that all the advice from ARMA and the like says residents should stay put in the event of a fire.

Property industry leaders have urged the new Secretary of State for Housing to continue the good work of his predecessor in raising the profile of the sector. James Brokenshire was announced yesterday as the new secretary of state to replace Sajid Javid, who was named the Home Secretary following the resignation of Amber Rudd. And on the first day of his appointment, leaders from across all spheres of the industry encouraged Mr Brokenshire to hit the ground running and get on with implementing measures th

Issue 94 of News on the Block has now been published.  This issue includes some of the following articles: Tribunal ruling on cladding removal leaves owners devastated and forced to pay  Become a neighbour of the Queen at luxury apartments  Five good reasons to extend your lease  Service Charge Feature  Paying ground rent with a long lease  Why lessees need the right to demand a TECH03/11 report  How to manage your service charge budget more efficiently  Should you combine your service charge an

ALEP members enjoyed a night of Mastermind and Mojitos at ALEP's fifth annual quiz night, which raised more than £500 for charity.   Held at The Gable, Moorgate more than 90 members attended this year's competition making it our most popular quiz night to date!   This year's champions were first time winners, the 'Northern Powerhouse' team from Anthony Gold Solicitors - congratulations!  Teams took part in a general knowledge quiz, which included music trivia. The quiz concluded with a 'Weakest L

In 2015/16, there were 529,000 incidents attended by the fire and rescue services in England: a 7% increase compared to the previous year. In total, there were 303 fire-related fatalities, and 7,661 casualties. Here, Roof Maker discuss the changes in fire regulations over time, and how you can ensure your flat or apartment block is protected and compliant. Fire can cause serious devastation to buildings and lives, and the government have made regular amendments to Building Regulations over the years, most

QUESTION A question that I have, concerns the dreaded section 20 consultation ​(major works).  When it refers to consultation being required when a leaseholder has to contribute more than £250, what happens when a leaseholder owns 2 flats in a block of four and all pay the same percentage. I.e 25% . Is the amount of expenditure £1000 or £750 to trigger the consultation? In other words is it £250 per flat or person? ANSWER The simple answer to your question is that the cost is per flat. Another way of def

QUESTION Can you please give advice on how Residents Associations and Management Companies will be affected and how they should handle the new General Data Protection Regulations? ANSWER As a general point all EU businesses will be affected by the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). Many of the GDPR’s main concepts and principles are not new—they are familiar from the Data Protection Act 1998. There are, however, some new elements and significant enhancements, meaning the property business will

Following recent news of upcoming regulations on managing agents, the industry’s first property management franchise scheme, SDL Property Partners is putting training first for its franchisees. As standard, franchisees already receive an initial training day prior to officially signing up as a Property Partner, and a six-day training course to get them up and running once they have joined. The course covers all aspects of property management and running their business. Once completed, franchisees can star

If there is one piece of landlord and tenant legislation that practitioners hate and tenants misunderstand it is Part 1 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987.  There are many problems with it and these which generally arise from poor or contradictory drafting.  More importantly it is unclear what exactly Parliament was seeking to achieve and a suspicion that its interpretation and implementation in practice goes beyond what was originally intended.  The preamble to the Act states it is “an Act to confer on

An award winning property management business based in Manchester has received a £400k investment from NPIF - FW Capital Debt Finance, part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), to support its further expansion.   urbanbubble provides a full range of residential property management services.  The company was set up by MD Michael Howard in 2008 and now manages over 8000 properties across 90 residential schemes predominantly in the Manchester and Liverpool areas.   urbanbubble has recently secu

You may remember our recent article that explored the types of insurance that are critical for freeholders.   One of the biggest issues we come across is under-insurance where, as the name so aptly suggests, the value that freeholders have insured against is substantially below the actual amount they should be insured for. Just recently we came across a case where a block of flats was insured for £22 million, a not so insignificant amount. Yet, the real value was later found out to be closer to £40 millio