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The Home Office has confirmed the roll-out date of the Government’s Right to Rent policy in England. From 1 February, 2016 all private landlords letting property in England will be required to check the immigration status - or ‘right to rent’ - of prospective tenants before agreeing to establish a new tenancy. Announcements concerning the implementation in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are expected at a later date. The announcement was made on the same day that the National Landlords Association (N

The Court of Appeal has again considered the question of “what is a house” for enfranchisement purposes. The ruling clarifies whether tenants of a residential apartment above a ground floor retail store can enfranchise. By law, the tenant of a house has the right to acquire the freehold of a property providing certain criteria are met (Leasehold Reform Act 1967). In that Act, a house is defined as: “...any building designed or adapted for living in and reasonably so called, notwithstanding that the buildi

News on the Block are proud to announce the finalists for this years Property Management Awards.   Winners will be announced on the night, 3rd December at a awards ceremony and dinner at Wembley Stadium!  If you have not yet booked your place, there only a limited number of tickets remaining, please book now to avoid disappointment: email ybo@newsontheblock.com   For more information, to SEE THE FINALISTS and to vote go to:  www.propertymanagementawards.co.uk

Bolt Burdon are pleased to welcome Leah Veasey, Gemma Hawthorne and Angela Alexiou to their growing leasehold reform team.     Darren Coleran, Partner and head of department adds: “The continued growth of the team has been necessary to meet the many and varied demands of our clients.  We hope within the next year to establish a national presence and to be recognised as a centre of excellence in the field of leasehold reform.  From service charge disputes to lease extensions and collective enfranchisement,

The head of property management at Sheffield’s Taylor&Emmet LLPis receiving international industry recognition for her professionalism and outstanding performance.  Cassandra Zanelli has won “Best Residential Property Litigator – UK” at the inaugural BUILD Real Estate and Property Awards, announced last week.  The accolades celebrate people and firms whose responsibility it is to shape and steer the property industry worldwide. Cassandra was selected as best litigator in the UK by a panel of experts based

The shorter your lease - the less valuable your property may be. Not only will your property become less valuable but there is also likely to be difficulty in being able to sell it or obtain a mortgage on it. However, if you keep an eye on the remaining term then you can quite easily maximise your investment. It is possible to protect the value of your property by extending your lease. The cost of extending your lease and protecting your interest increases as your lease terms ticks away. It is therefore v

There's a lot of discussion about how best to manage mixed tenure buildings and this is intensifying as Housing Association landlords increasingly find themselves in charge of buildings with widely differing tenures and a broader range of expectations. In the HA movement we’re rapidly moving away from our traditional role of providing social rented and shared ownership homes. This trend will develop faster if current government policy towards grant funding continues (it’s now marginal in London). A key ch

It's simple. If there are arrears on the service charge account, then this means no cash to spend on managing and maintaining the building. If there is no cash to spend on the property, then the managing agent cannot spend what the building does not have. If the property manager does not spend on management and maintenance, then this means more people do not pay. But the situation can get much worse than that. If the property manager has not incurred expenditure, there will be an accounting surplus when t

A common bone of contention between landlords and tenants is the extent to which a landlord can recover costs of improvements to the building from tenants through the service charge. The answer is not always clear cut. The starting point is always the terms of the lease – does the lease allow the landlord to recharge the cost of improvements through the service charge? If not, and the landlord’s right to recover costs is limited to repair and maintenance, it is unlikely that the costs of an improvement, i

As we all know, when a leaseholder breaches a covenant under the Lease, usually a covenant relating to the payment of ground rent or service charge, the ultimate sanction held by the Landlord and/or the management company is that of forfeiture. For that reason it is critical that, while debt recovery proceedings are taking place, no steps are taken which could waive the right to forfeit. Potentially, anything which takes place after the breach arises which indicates that there is a continuing lease could

It is no great secret that many leases are, by any objective view, defective. If for example the computation of service charge in respect of the proportion paid by each lessee does not add up to or is more than 100% - the lease is essentially defective and leaves a scenario where the landlord is either making up the shortfall or recovering more than what has actually been paid out.    There are many reasons why a lease fails to make satisfactory provision for the computation of service charges. This inclu

Sheffield’s Taylor&Emmet LLP is adding three new faces to its property management team to meet rising demand from clients across the UK.  A solicitor and two paralegals are joining partner, Cassandra Zanelli, to meet increasing interest in the firm’s advice for landlords, property agents and leaseholders.    Specialist solicitor, Liz Rowen, will be handling complex litigation cases in both the First-tier Tribunal and county court, dealing with issues such as insurance arrears and breach of leases.    She