Featured Articles

Firstly, Happy New Year to you all and what a Year it promises to be.  Immediately before Christmas the Housing Minister, Alok Sharma made announcements during the leasehold discussion in the House of Commons on the future of leasehold.  From the statement it is as far reaching and revolutionary as we have heard for nearly two decades.  In my column in November I urged you to participate in the calls for evidence and consultations being undertaken. It is now clear that the Secretary of State and the Housi

An experienced property litigator has swapped the seaside for the steel city to strengthen the business legal services team at Sheffield’s Taylor&Emmet LLP.   Solicitor, Sarah Coates-Madden, has relocated from Hull to work with the firm’s litigation experts, providing advice to the region’s landlords and tenants.   Having worked previously at Gosschalks in Hull, where she was recognised by The Legal 500 as a ‘sensible and pragmatic lawyer’, Sarah will continue to specialise in property litigation matters

SDL Group has unveiled the first franchisee to sign-up to its newly launched Property Partners estate management scheme. Emma Davey has been a property manager for 11 years, with 23 years’ experience in the property industry overall, having worked for Charles Church, Grange Management, SHW and Berkeley Homes. As an SDL Property Partner, Emma will now have her own property management company with the backing and support of SDL. The franchise initiative is the first of its kind in the industry and enables p

Specialist property recruiter Rayner Personnel has added another seasoned professional to its fast-growing network with the award of its south-west franchise to Chris March. Chris, who joins from Chestertons, brings three decades of experience in the property industry during which he has managed businesses from Exeter to Glasgow. Chris set up his own successful multi-office estate agency, March & Co, running it for almost 15 years before selling to Countrywide. He became a main board director of Countrywi

Issue 92 of News on the Block has now been published.  This issue includes some of the following articles: Minister announces crackdown on managing agents Innovative property company using Bitcoin Grenfell Tower death toll officially 71 Notorious blocks £400m revamp The difference between a lease and a licence Can you mix residential and commercial successfully? Property Management Awards 2017 - winners feature and more... To view the digital edition please click here.

QUESTION My wife and I recently downsized and moved to a lovely old mansion which had a modest 7 leasehold apartments. Each apartment has 1 share and a place on the board but the chairman of this organisation is at complete loggerheads with the company secretary because the Company Secretary has some legal training and the Chairman, none. Currently things have progressed to a new low in relation to the fact that although we (3 newbies in 3 separate apartments) have called for a meeting, the Co.Sec is on

The tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in London this summer has focused property managers’ minds strongly on fire protection. By law, all residential blocks are required to have an up-to-date Fire Risk Assessment or FRA. However, this document only does what the name suggests: it assesses the possible risks and hazards that may be present in a block of flats and recommends actions that should be taken to rectify problems. Simply having an FRA on file doesn’t protect residents and if any recommended actions ar

QUESTION  I am the Chairman of a RTM Company. We are experiencing difficulties from a group of Members who, having called one EGM for which there was no Motion proposed thus causing the meeting to degenerate into Anarchy, have now called another requesting the three Directors be removed from the Board but one to stay on adinternum to facilitate the co-option of additional Directors. This has caused two of the Directors to resign with immediate effect thus leaving just myself. I understand I must now

There has never been a time like we are currently seeing for leasehold.  The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) are undertaking a huge amount of work to seek to improve leasehold in all areas and directions.  We have already had the consultation on ground rents and the responses flooded into DCLG.  The team now have the hard work of reading all responses and collating the information and deciding what to do.   You should be aware that while that is ongoing the Department has launched a

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has recently given its decision in Westmark (Lettings) Limited v Elizabeth Peddle and others [2017] UKUT 449 (LC), where CMS acted for the successful appellant.   The issue before the Upper Tribunal was, put simply, when are relevant costs incurred for the purposes of section 20(B)(1) Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (“LTA 1985”)?   Section 20(B) of the LTA 1985 imposes a time limit on making demands for service charges by providing that a tenant is not liable to pay so much

A survey that asked residents to rate how important the Grenfell Tower tragedy was to them has been slammed as “crass and offensive”.   The questionnaire was sent by The Kensington, Chelsea and Fulham Conservative Association asking residents in the area for their views on the fatal blaze, which claimed 71 lives.   The questionnaire, which is also available online, asks people to rate “how important to you and your family” the disaster and other “local issues” were from 0 to 10. The leaflet, which seeks t

The poor construction of blocks of apartments is to be investigated by government officials in Iran after they collapsed during an earthquake. Reports by several media outlets in the country claim that the building standards of the low-cost flats contributed to the death toll of 530 people.   Critics said that the rush to build low-cost homes on the Mehr housing project had turned the buildings “into coffins for its inhabitants”. President Hassan Rouhani has promised to “identify the culprits” if it emerg