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Macdonald & Company are delighted to announce the Appointment of Michael Sims MIRPM AssocRICS to their London Office. Stuart Jackson, Associate Director at Macdonald & Company commented, "We are pleased to announce the appointment of Michael to our expanding team in London. Michael will be the principal consultant for block management in the London residential team. Michael brings a great deal of technical and practical knowledge having worked previously within residential leasehold sector." Michael joins

Much has been said about the turning the current ‘generation rent’ into a generation of buyers – but too frequently little attention is given to the practicalities of owning the freehold. Whatever the purchase vehicle, the importance of a properly drafted instrument setting out the obligations, voting rights, what happens in the event of a dispute or conflict of interest, or when one party assigns their interest in the property, is often overlooked. Also given insufficient attention is the distinction bet

Macdonald & Company have been collecting data for the 17th annual rewards and attitudes salary survey for the global property sector. For this year’s survey the metrics and data on leasehold block management have been increased. This was achieved by adding specific new industry questions and working with the IRPM and News on the Block to promote the survey to the relevant audience. This year we had 7,466 responses, with 138 from block management, 1.8% of the total. Here is a breakdown of some the key data

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO KNOW THE LENGTH OF YOUR LEASE? In general terms, the longer the lease the better, and those with more than 100 years remaining are not normally a problem from a valuation perspective. Legislation states that where the lease has less than 80 years remaining, the payment to the landlord will have to include 50% of the ‘marriage’ value (explained in more detail below) when the leaseholder acquires a lease extension under the 1993 Act. Further, the majority of mainstream mortgage prov

FirstPort has received an impressive 4* rating from the British Safety Council (BSC) following its audit of FirstPort’s safety management systems. The nine-day independent audit provided the opportunity for FirstPort to measure against best practice and benchmark its performance against companies across a range of industries, including the property sector. The British Safety Council noted FirstPort’s drive and commitment to improve health and safety management standards, and was impressed by how engaged t

The national leasehold survey conducted by Brady Solicitors in conjunction with LEASE ran from 13 January until 29 April, receiving hundreds of responses from leaseholders and RMC directors across England and Wales. Clare Brady, managing director of Brady Solicitors, said of the initial findings: “With close to 1,300 responses to this ground-breaking survey, it is clear many ‘broken’ leaseholder /managing agent relationships could be mended with better communications and a clearer understanding of the nat

Grainger Plc, the UK’s largest listed specialist residential landlord and property management company, has worked with Qube Global Software to support its first PRS development, Abbeville Apartments. Grainger is expanding rapidly into the PRS, with plans to invest more than £850m into the sector by 2020. It recently completed Abbeville Apartments, one of the country’s first residential schemes designed and built specifically for long-term renting. Abbeville, in Barking, East London, comprises 100 one-, tw

New research by landlord insurance provider Direct Line for Business reveals property service charges are rising rapidly, with a third (33 per cent) of management companies increasing these fees in the past two years. The average service charge or fees leaseholders pay to cover their share of the overall building maintenance now stands at £1,863. This cost alone represents more than two months of the average monthly rental income received by landlords, which stands at £906. In addition, they will also hav

A plan to build a basement flat at the bottom of an expensive central London block has featured in the Daily Telegraph. Forty-five residents at Queen Court in Bloomsbury are furious at the proposals to transform the 1,975 square foot space with no natural light, apart from a few skylights, into a basement apartment. The residents, who have an RTM, have successfully obtained an injunction to stop the work after discovering the developer had breached safety regulations and may have invalidated the building’

In scenes straight from a horror movie, a Chinese woman has been found dead a month after apparently being trapped in a malfunctioning lift. Now the case has sparked a public outcry in the country over the everyday death traps caused by lax building management. The 43-year-old woman, identified only by her surname Wu, was stuck between the 10th and 11th floors of her apartment building in Xi’an when the elevator broke down. Two repairmen turned off the power to the lift on January 30 without opening the d

A building firm has admitted causing the deaths of two men who fell into a building site during a late-night argument. Police officer Gavin Brewer and his partner, TV producer Stuart Meads, died from their injuries after they fell through the hoardings of the site in Hampstead Road, near Euston Station. The barrier gave way during the struggle, and they fell into the basement. The deaths of Mr Meads, who worked for BBC’s The Weakest Link, and PC Brewer of the British Transport Police were initially blamed

Before a Right to Manage claim notice can be served on the landlords and other relevant persons or companies, a notice of invitation to participate should be served on those qualifying tenants who are not already members or have not already agreed to become members of the Right to Manage company. The content of the invitation notice is set out in the Right to Manage (Prescribed Particulars and Forms) (England) Regulations 2010 and the Right to Manage (Prescribed Particulars and Forms) (Wales) Regulations