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Gas is fundamentally unsafe yet used all over the UK in both domestic and commercial premises, but over the past 26 years the Regulations, Registers and best practices have improved, reducing the number of gas related incidents and more particularly the number of fatalities has fallen dramatically. In an effort to make gas safe the Gas Safe Register was created, it is not a voluntary register – all gas engineers have to be registered! CHECK the register for your Gas Engineer – it could be a life you save

The Leasehold Advisory Service have produced this helpful quiz.    Please click here to complete the quiz.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published the findings and recommendations from its market study into the residential property management services sector in England and Wales. After consulting with consumer groups, leaseholders, the industry and government during the course of its study, the CMA found that overall, while the market works well for many leaseholders, some have experienced significant problems in a sector where total annual service charges are estimated at £2.5 to £3.5 billi

The winners of the Property Management Awards 2014-15 were announced on the 4th December 2014 at a prestigious ceremony and dinner in London. Best Managing Agent of an RMC/RTM Block Winner Urbanbubble   Manchester-based Urbanbubble provides a range of services to developers, landlords and residents, and aims to ensure residential developments are managed and maintained to the highest standards. Over the past 12 months, Urbanbubble has added almost 2,000 homes to its portfolio - a mix of new developm

Long gone are the days of “the bloke in the pub” who scammed a few dodgy cheques. Today, businesses are vulnerable to a new wave of sophisticated online bank fraud. According to recent press reports, there have been more than 500 cases resulting in losses ranging from £80,000 to £240,000 where professional firms have been targeted. Recent evidence suggests that over 82% of companies believe they are protected from fraud and that they “would never be the victim of fraud”, and 33% admit they would not know

Building surveyors have historically been employed to prepare what are widely referred to as planned maintenance programmes. Such plans have been based on the requirements prescribed in leases and the technical requirements of the property in question. For example, how often does the building need redecorating, when do communal boilers need replacing and when does the roof need renewing? The focus is usually based on the capital expenditure of such works with little or no consideration given to running

It hardly seems like a year has passed since the 2013 Property Management Awards. But it must have been twelve months ago as a group of us were discussing the rugby internationals at Twickenham. England had lost to New Zealand once again and the analysis of events at the rugby was that the best teams are defined by their ability to become more than the sum of their parts. Although chartered surveyors and rugby players tend not to have too much in common, both are more effective when working in well-mana

You only have to see the damage that water can cause to a building to appreciate the importance of having a proactive planned maintenance programme. Such was the case at Gloucester Terrace, a Regency property converted into flats in Paddington, where investigation into the cause of water ingress, and remedial works to asphalt-covered balconies had to be conducted. But lifting the asphalt was like opening a can of worms – through many years of neglect water had penetrated underneath, rotting the French d

QUESTION I follow the cases in News on the Block with great interest, but I would like your advice on where I could get legal advice on extension of lease. I paid £16,000 to extend the lease eight years ago to 125 years and now the management of the block say the lease is not consistent with CML, and want me to pay £12,000 for the head lease. I have lost three buyers because they are scared off. Normal conveyancing solicitors don’t seem to help. Are there any solicitors you can recommend?   ANSWER The

You may have seen the story of the Waterloo station job hunter, Alfred Ajani, and how this creative candidate found employment in property recruitment with nothing more than a sandwich board and a great attitude. But why do so many unemployed youth remain even with an increase in job vacancies across all sectors? Alfred was a marketing graduate, and it seems to be sectors like marketing, PR and social media that excite young people more than areas like Leasehold Management. So what is being done to attra

One of the difficulties for Leaseholders in England and Wales is trying to understand their service charge demand, whether they are obtaining value for money and when they change agents perhaps needing to move to a new schedule of costs. There are simple solutions that residential agents could adopt that would not only demystify service charge accounts, but also demonstrate that the agent is working efficiently and make handovers easier. One suggestion is that agents should adopt the accounting principl

In November 2015 in Scotland most very long leaseholds will automatically convert to ownership status the equivalent of freehold on payment of compensation to the landlord for loss of ground rent. The Scottish system for flats is different to that of England and Wales as Scotland permits horizontal ‘freehold’ ownership whereas England and Wales for the most part do not and ownership must be leasehold. Scotland’s process started in 1974 when the maximum length of newly created flat leases was restricted t