Featured Articles

The UK’s largest property management firm, FirstPort, has appointed Mandy Ferries as the new Director of Human Resources. She will lead and support FirstPort’s 3,200 members of staff based at sites across the UK. Mandy joins from Amazon, where she supported the company’s international human resources programme responsible for European customer service, as well as other global HR projects. Prior to Amazon, she was Head of HR for JD Wetherspoon Plc for nearly 10 years providing HR support for 25,000 employe

Case law developments emanating from the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) continued at a brisk pace during 2016. The highlighted decisions below, set out in no particular order, will continue to be cited by legal practitioners, landlords, leaseholders and other interested parties for some time and remain reference points for the foreseeable future. Willow Court Management Company (1985) Ltd v Mrs Ratna Alexander [2016] UKUT 0290 (LC) The Upper Tribunal listed three appeals together in order to consider, for

ARMA (the Association of Residential Managing Agents) set out its stall for the future at its 21st Annual Conference held in the iconic Grand Connaught Rooms, London, on 10th November 2016. Moderated by journalist and broadcaster Joshua Rozenberg, and attended by 670 property management professionals, the event has grown to become the residential leasehold sector’s largest annual gathering. The theme for the day “Raising Our Voice” reflected the Association’s ambitions to increase its brand awareness, mai

QUESTION We manage a block of flats in South Manchester.  One of the owners has been jailed for several years and his wife remained in the flat.  However, we have received no service charge since he was sent away (he used to pay us cash each half year).  The property is not subject to a mortgage. We have gone down the usual route of asking our Solicitor to obtain a ccj for service charge arrears but he has discovered that the police have put a proceeds of crime restriction order on the title.  He says

QUESTION I am a director of a company set up by the leaseholders of two blocks of apartments on a single site in Nottingham.  The Company purchased the freehold in 2007. Block A, is a conversion with 30 apartments. Block B, is a new-build in 2000 with 28 apartments.  The developer was Crosby Homes, (a subsidiary of the Berkeley Group), and no longer exists. Block B was fitted on construction with a burglar alarm system. There is a system of wiring throughout the building which is the responsibility

Essential guide to insuring blocks of flats and 10% off insurance premiums for apartment blocks with Kerry London Are you a member of a residents’ association for an apartment block? If the answer is "yes" you need to understand your responsibilities for insuring your block against risk exposure. - As officers of a management company you may consider protecting yourselves against legal costs to defend your interests with Directors’ and Officers’ cover. - You probably know about buildings insurance and mat

QUESTION I am a leaseholder of a flat for which the freeholder has appointed a managing agent.  The managing agent is paid to provide the usual full range of services. In the event of there being matters that need to be attended who do I approach in the first instance?  The managing agent or the freeholder? ANSWER Where a landlord has appointed managing agents, this means that the day to day management of the building moves away from the landlord to the managing agents. Therefore, all issues such as repa

Developers might assume that the answer is to simply pack flat leases with the appropriate development rights. Unfortunately the case of Snowball Asset Limited v Huntsmore House (Freehold) Limited [2015] UKUT 0338(LC) has shown this may not be sufficient protection. Developers may be surprised to hear that for example express rights reserved by the flat leases were ineffective in the face of the way in which the scheme had been marketed for sale originally. This case demonstrates the need for freeholders

12 months ago Colin Horton, who is the Managing Director of Under 80 Ltd set up the Young Leasehold Professionals Association. 12 months later and the group now has over 220 members and has hosted a number of hugely successful networking events. The events are not your standard networking events, they offer the guests not only free drinks but a relaxed and informal atmosphere which is key for building the long lasting business relationships that will shape the leasehold industry in the years to come. Howe

QUESTION Our Managing agent has been charging us twice the amount of service charge on the basis of unit cost as per flat. ​The lease says 0.226%  and they have been charging 0.496%. They even went to court to demand the unpaid service charges and legal costs which were paid. The Solicitors never managed to pickup the unit costs that was charged and we had to pay expensive Solicitors fees. Now we have noticed and demanded the refund after employing a different Solicitors who wrote and now have confirmed a

What is Powder Coating? Powder coating is a widely accepted process that can result in a more durable and superior finish for a variety of products.  This includes façade cladding, windows and doors and is also widely used in other sectors such as the automotive industry. But what is powder coating?  Well, scientifically speaking, the process of powder coating involves electrostatically spraying pigmented powder onto say aluminium or steel frame such that the powder sticks to the frame.  The powder is the

QUESTION I have a question on S20 Qualifying Works. One of the directors of an RTM has decided to run with a project to install a new patio. We would consider this as major works at the development and subject to S20 however; they have already bought the materials (under S20 threshold) and now want us to appoint a contractor to install the patio (under S20 threshold value). The purchase of the materials and the contractor will be over a S20 but the purchase of the materials is under and the employment of