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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

Fifty Oxford City Council leaseholders facing £50,000 bills featured on BBC’s Radio 5 Live programme. The council claims it is reasonable for leaseholders to pay for a major £20 million regeneration project for the high-rise tower on the outskirts of Oxford. Residents of Evenlode Tower have now banded together and formed a leaseholders’ association. They have also engaged barrister Matthew Fraser of Landmark Chambers to represent them when the case is heard later this year. Mr Chambers said the hearing at

A London property firm has been charged with corporate manslaughter after two Polish workers fell to their deaths from a flat in London’s exclusive Cadogan Square. Tomasz Procko, 22, and Karol Symanski, 29, died when a balcony collapsed as they were trying to hoist a sofa from the pavement to a first-floor window. The Crown Prosecution Service has now charged Martinisation (London) Ltd with corporate manslaughter health and safety offences, while company director Martin Gutaj has been charged with two hea

A property tribunal has ruled that a squatter does have the right to the house of 80-year-old Colin Curtis as his mother had died without leaving a will. An 80-year-old man says the law is “an ass” after a tribunal handed over his three-bedroom house to a squatter. Colin Curtis moved out of the three-bedroom semi-detached house in 1996 after inheriting a flat, where he has lived since. Then in 2012, 47-year-old squatter Keith Best moved into the house in Newbury Park, North London and began renovatin

The Enfranchisement & Right to Manage Awards brought together 370 people from the industry. We would like to congratulate all the finalists and offer extended congratulations to the winners and highly commended winners. It was a spectacular evening which could not have been possible without such an impressive and strong list of entries, our wonderful sponsors and the energetic audience. Over £1600 was raised for the judges charities. A big thank you to you all. The show is now over for 2016 and we hope ev

The redevelopment of One Swallow Street is on track to be Birmingham city centre’s first office-to- residential conversion to be completed following the introduction of permitted development rights.   Scheduled for completion in May, the scheme from Berkshire-based Salmon Harvester Properties Ltd has brought a new lease of life to a prominent, centrally-located office building which was no longer fit for purpose.   Situated metres from the Navigation Street entrance to New Street Station and Grand Central

Qube Global Software has created the Task Hub, as part of its continued focus on developing game-changing mobile technology for the property industry. The remote access portal enables users of Qube PM property management software and their external partners to manage workflow from any location.    The Task Hub can be accessed anywhere with an internet connection, displaying the user’s personal ‘to do’ list which can be filtered according to their preferences, including tasks, diaries, jobs and calls. With

SLC Solicitors, specialists in Ground Rent, Service Charge and AST arrears, have appointed PRS consultants Paul Belson (ex PRS Government Taskforce) and Richard Berridge (PRS expert and strategist) . The firm, headed up by Neil Shearing, operates nationally and has developed a dedicated ‘first of its kind’ PRS team which has been advising institutions on their downstream business for the past two years.   Jo Green, Head of Business Development for SLC said: ‘With all the talk about a £50 billion instituti