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McDowalls Surveyors are continuing to strengthen their valuation team. Having seen good rates of growth across the business, they are seeking new ways to continue to develop the firm. Since acquiring the business in 2011 McDowalls have almost doubled in size and now employ over 20 staff.  Chris Baker, Owner of McDowalls commented:  "I feel it’s the right time to split the valuation part of the business to better reflect the mix of business and clients that we now work for. " With this in mind Chris has

QUESTION May I ask what advice you would give to a prospective purchaser of a new house which is being sold as leasehold by the Developer? ANSWER There has recently been considerable adverse publicity about the residential leasehold system in consequence of the alleged mis-selling of leases of new-build houses by some Developers. Purchasers have not been made aware (or have not been properly advised) that a lease will often include provisions for payment to the landlord of an annual rent and also restric

QUESTION Is there a guideline suggesting the number of board members on our RTM general committee? At the moment we have 10.  We live in a Private Independent Living Retirement Apartment Complex, with 61 flats. ANSWER The Board of a Right to Manage will be set out in the Articles of Association and will vary from Block to Block my own view is that 6 is an ideal number for a role such as this which would usually be voluntary, there certainly needs to be minimum number for a quorum and this would usually be

QUESTION The 1993 Act on Leasehold Reform, quoted by the correspondent highlighted in one of your recent Ask NOTB emails about a request for a leasehold extension, was also referred to by one of our leaseholders earlier this year. Unlike your correspondent, we are shared freeholders. There are only four of us in our small company. This was formed by previous owners in 1987, but the original shared freeholders foolishly did not extend the leases. We are looking to extend them now - they all have less than

QUESTION We are a block of 21 residential flats where 20 out of the 21 flat owners have a share in the Freehold and we have a Freehold Company which technically is a non-profit making umbrella company. The directors are all owner occupiers and we are all volunteers. We had a letter recently from our accountants (attached) about ATED - Annual Tax on Enveloped dwellings - something we have never heard of before. On further investigation, we found from one of the websites that: "From 1 April 2016, ATED is e

QUESTION I would be most grateful if you could give me some advice/information.   Currently I live in a converted house, there are four flats which are all owner occupied and we own the freehold between us.   Two of the flat owners want to have a management company and two do not want a management company for a variety of reasons.  Despite a lot of discussion on the issue, we are now at an impasse and there is a feeling that one party will not rest until they get their way to having a Management Company.

​QUESTION I would be most grateful for any advice ​you could offer on the question outlined below. I am a director (unpaid) of a RM company responsible for a block of 21 flats and we own the freehold. Each flat has one share. Under the terms of the lease, when a transfer occurs the share should transfer and the new leaseholder should become a member of the company. When this happens a new share certificate is issued which involves a small cost and the new owner is entered onto the company membership regis

Property management and surveying firm Scanlans has announced a series of promotions and appointments across three of its offices. Philip Manson has been promoted to partner and head of valuation in the Manchester office, where Anthony Kingdon and Mike Dutson have joined as a property manager and senior building surveyor respectively. Across the Pennines, David West has been appointed as the new head of Scanlans’ Leeds office as successor to Paul Long, who has relocated to the south. David is an associat

Background to Greening The electric car and use of lithium batteries and the like will transform the way in which we use the car and don’t think for a moment that this will take 25 years or more – it won’t; within a decade the use of the combustion engine as the primary choice of powering a car will be well on the way towards the history books. Other green initiatives and technologies that affect the built environment will also start to become the norm. There is no doubt there is a developing wider appeti

QUESTION We manage a large block of flats with a high level roof in need of repair. Unfortunately the contractors we use for this are unable to undertake the works unless we instruct immediately. They are steeple Jacks and we do not need to use scaffold which obviously has an impact on costings. Approximately £40,000.00 worth of scaffold would be required by a normal roofing contractor. Would this increase on costs to the Leaseholders be a consideration for undertaking the works without the need of a sect

QUESTION I wonder if you have any advice regarding Sharia finance as conveyancing.  Solicitors and freeholders I have contacted are not very clear on these.  We are presently handling our first conveyance where Sharia finance is involved and it is proving very complicated. From my research I have deduced when an Islamic sharia lender funds a leasehold purchase the lender becomes the head lessee and issues a sub-lease to the borrower usually for about 99 years even when the original lease is for much longe

QUESTION  I am a leaseholder flat owner experiencing ongoing and severe noise nuisance and antisocial behaviour in the form of loud banging and slamming of doors and objects against the floor of an upstairs flat in my block. This impacts above my ceiling where I sleep in my bedroom.  I have now not slept properly for two nights. This noise nuisance also goes on all day as well. Apparently the owners of the flat above me are away and the flat is apparently officially empty, although I have heard people mov