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The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) is to be fully funded and will focus on its advisory work, it has been announced.    Gavin Barwell, the then Housing Minister, announced at the Lease Annual Conference in February that the organisation would stop commercial activity to concentrate on helping leaseholders.   He explained to delegates: “What we really want is for LEASE to help leaseholders. To be solely, and unapologetically, on their side.”    However, the move has been criticised by some. Martin Boyd

The halfbrother of David Cameron’s wife, Samantha, is at the centre of a row over the sale of thousands of new leasehold homes.    It has emerged that William Waldorf Astor IV has links to firms that rake in cash by owning and managing property freeholds that were controversially sold off by developers to investors.    The 38-year-old runs fund manager Long Harbour, which has the freeholds of 160,000 homes on behalf of institutional investors. He is also a director of HomeGround Management, which looks af

QUESTION I have a problem with my neighbour and I wondered if you may be able to give me some advice. My upstairs neighbour is selling his flat and the incoming tenant is planning to put down an imitation wood flooring in the lounge and hall area in spite of the fact that our lease clearly states that all areas must be closely carpeted apart from the kitchen and WC’s. I have reluctantly agreed to this providing that I can have a written guarantee that the new floor covering will be absolutely soundproof b

Flat owners are left to suffer in silence over leaseholds while house owners in the same position can powerfully campaign, it has been claimed.   Leasehold Knowledge Partnership trustee Sebastian O’Kelly told the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold reform that the current focus on the plight of homeowners highlighted how the “exploitation of flat owners” was often below the radar of public opinion.   And he claimed that owners of flats had been threatened by freeholders with defamation proceedings

Bob Keats, who was Chief Examiner at the IRPM sadly died on April 18  after suffering from a very aggressive motor neurone disease.    Bob was the architect of the IRPM syllabus and exams, and was Chief Examiner from 2003 until he was forced to retire in 2015. He also put together the first ever training courses for ARMA in 2004/05. The IRPM has opened an online book of condolences for Bob and have adopted the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) as their official charity. To leave your condolences or

Developers would be banned from selling the freeholds of homes to private companies following a groundswell of anger from homeowners who have been left facing rocketing ground rents. Some have seen freehold fees double every decade,which has also made their properties almost impossible to sell on.     A report by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) revealed that one in five private homes in England – a total of four million – are leasehold. While 2.8m are flats, which have tradition

The original campaigner against residential leasehold, Nigel Wilkins has sadly died at the tragically young age of 66.  An active campaigner for the abolishment of leasehold, he was often seen at conferences with a quip or comment aimed to highlight issues and abuses.  I first met him a decade ago when I spoke at the CARL conference in 2007.  I was the first managing agent to be asked to address the conference. Whilst Nigel and I may not have always seen eye to eye, I always respected his determination an

A painter who has been fined £10,000 for parking his van outside his own flat on an upmarket estate claims he is being bullied for being a tradesman. Dave Tooke has been given 53 tickets in the past two years totalling £5,300 for breaching rules that state commercial vehicles cannot be parked on the estate.    He has racked up a further £5,000 due to non-payment. Mr Tooke said: “I think it’s direct discrimination. What I would like to know is who authorises the right for someone to say it’s OK to issue

A pilot died after his plane crashed into an apartment block in the USA.    Al Lavender was on a one-mile final approach to Lawrence Municipal Airport when his Sonex aircraft crashed into the building in Methuen, Massachusetts.    Miraculously, none of the 25 people who were in the apartments at the time of the crash were injured.

Urban planners in a packed Chinese city have come up with a creative way of solving space issues – by building a light railway track through a hole in a 19-storey block of flats. A special railway station has also been built into the block of houses, set into the sixth to eighth floors of the building in Chongqing in the south east of the country.    The city has a population of 49 million packed into 31,000 square miles.    A city transport spokesman said: “Our city is very heavily built upon and that

Flat owners who believe they were “mis-sold” their properties are preparing to sue builders, including some of the UK’s biggest firms, and solicitors.   Disgruntled house buyers have set up Facebook group called the National Leasehold Campaign when they discovered that they faced huge increases in ground rent.    They allege they were lied to by builders’ sales staff and badly advised by solicitors when they bought their newbuild homes.   Thousands of people have demanded answers from the bosses of builde

Almost one-fifth of landlords could end up breaking the law because they are unaware of energy rules that are being introduced next year.    A report from letting agent Urban.co.uk, warned that 17% of landlords in the UK did not know that it would become illegal to let properties with an EPC rating of F or G in 2018. New legislation will eliminate many properties from the market and could result in many landlords being left with investments that are no longer viable for rental.   The findings were made du