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QUESTION Our Freeholder has lodged a High Court action to "Strike out" our RTM. The reason being that our "complex estate" is made up of several structurally separate buildings. The RTM says it is one building the Freeholder says it's several. The Freeholder has since October 2016 demanded that Service Charge payments be paid to them, as the Freeholder is legally responsible for the building. The RTM state they are legal and also demand the service charge. I have advised both parties that until t

QUESTION I have an RPI Lease which has an annual ground rent more than 0.1% of the capital value which is now not approved of by Nationwide.  Is this likely to cause me a problem in the future? ANSWER Many thanks for your enquiry. Due to the rapidly developing nature of the issue - and with further changes afoot - it is very difficult to provide a definitive answer as to whether or not the ground rent escalation clause in your lease is likely to cause a problem for you in the future.  Back in May Nationwi

Zoe Smith has joined Cobalt recruitment in the capacity of Associate Director. She will continue to provide a high level of service to the Property Management sector and focus will be on the continuous improvement of onsite staffing solutions.

A common misconception when people purchase their freeholds is they believe it to be the end of the story. This is often not the case and steps should be taken to protect the position. Why do you need new leases if you have bought your freehold? Although you may own the freehold of your building, the original leases remain in place. They cannot be “cancelled” as they regulate the legal relationship between the flat owners and the freehold company. Taxation Issues The usual position when purchasing the fre

What is ground rent? If you own a long lease on a property in England and Wales you will normally have to pay rent to the freeholder or landlord of the property. Commonly a nominal amount (e.g. £50, £100 p.a.). The ground rent will either be fixed meaning that a certain amount is paid every year for the duration of the term, or escalating whereby the amount increases by a certain amount throughout the term (e.g. doubling, increasing by a specified amount at a specific point in the term of the lease su

Ground rents for leasehold properties are making the news. Greedy landlords and developers are reserving very large grounds rents, which escalate over the lease term to what can be pretty gigantic sums for innocent homebuyers. Campaigns are being waged and politicians are starting to pay attention to the issue. It is worthwhile considering why leasehold tenure of property exists as a matter of law. One advantage of leasehold property is to overcome the difficulties with making positive obligations (i.e. m

What if you’ve found the flat of your dreams but the lease term is short?  If you’ve found a property that you like but the lease has anything fewer than 85 years left to run, alarm bells should be ringing. This is because once a lease gets to less than 80 years, something called ‘marriage value’ comes into play, which makes extending it much more expensive. It gets even more difficult if the lease has fewer than 70 years to run, as lenders will generally not grant a mortgage. Care needs to be taken if t

The Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 enables eligible leaseholders to acquire a 90-year extension to their existing lease, subject to a peppercorn ground rent. The other main terms of the lease, such as service charge and obligations to repair, are to remain substantially the same, although limited changes are allowed in order to update the document or correct any defects which may exist in a poorly drafted lease. The key qualification criteria for a lease extension are that the or

Will I have to pay the 3% Stamp Duty Land Tax Surcharge to extend the lease of my main residence? The answer is more than likely yes if the following criteria are satisfied: Your new lease has a term of more than 7 years. The premium you are paying for your new lease is more than £40,000. You own another residential property, in the UK or otherwise, which has a market value of more than £40,000. The legislation introducing the 3% surcharge came into force in March 2016 and applies to b

The press for leasehold houses has been less than positive of  late, particularly concerning ground  rents, but leasehold houses are not  a modern phenomenon and existing legislation is favourable to lessees.    Sheffield is a leasehold house hotspot in the United Kingdom and being a Sheffield-based law firm, PM Legal Services has expert knowledge of the complexities and the various legal issues that arise from them.   A leasehold house is a diminishing asset that could, in certain circums tances, be

All night parties do not generally encourage amicable and cordial neighbourly relations. A selfish and inconsiderate neighbour can be stressful and upsetting, and often as a result, long suffering residents do not know which way to turn.   Most forms of neighbourly unpleasantness falls into the category of private nuisance. “Nuisance” is another category of “tort”, or civil wrong, and it covers a range of matters which interfere with an owner’s use and enjoyment of his or her property, without necessarily

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the biggest ever shake up to data protection laws, yet many businesses may be unprepared, says Deacon, the blocks of flats insurance specialists. With the GDPR’s introduction taking place in May 2018 and the UK not leaving the EU until 2019 at the earliest, Brexit will not affect the introduction of the GDPR in the UK. The UK will replace the 1988 Data Protection Act (DPA) with legislation that mirrors the GDPR post-Brexit. This means now is the time to