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Property management firm Warwick Estates has reported its best January in six years, with its new business team bringing in 60 new sites in the first month of 2015. The new sites will be maintained by and incorporated into Warwick Estates’ nationwide office setup, which now comprises nine locations. The firm, whose headquarters are in Harlow, Essex, was founded in April 2007 by businessman Craig Stevens. He praised his new business team, saying: “I remain humbled by the hard work of my staff which direc

As many as two thirds of blocks of flats across the UK could be underinsured, according to figures from one of the country’s largest insurance valuation companies. James Truscott, Chairman of Cardinus Risk Management said: “Of the 2,200 reinstatement (valuation) surveys of residential blocks of flats that Cardinus undertook in 2014, some 67% were found to be underinsured.” His stark warning comes after specialist flats insurance broker Deacon, part of the Arthur J. Gallagher group, highlighted this issue

Macdonald & Company is the leading professional recruitment consultancy for the real estate, and are delighted to announce the Appointment of Stuart Jackson to the London Office. Peter Moore MRICS, Managing Director at Macdonald & Company commented we are pleased to announce the appointment of Stuart to our expanding team in London. Stuart will lead our service expansion into residential block management, building a team to create a dominant position in the sector. Stuart joins from the Property Recruitm

The Government has issued a response to the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) study into the residential property management services sector in England and Wales, broadly agreeing with its recommendations. Brandon Lewis, Minister of State for Housing and Planning said: “I agree that improvements can continue to be made in the provision of property management services and we will be taking forward the vast majority of [the CMA] recommendations.” Managing agents’ trade body, ARMA, welcomed the Mr

These were the concluding words of Jim Fitzpatrick MP at a recent Leasehold Roundtable held at the House of Commons. Hosted by Sir Peter Bottomley MP and organised by Martin Boyd and Sebastian O’Kelly from the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, the roundtable discussion focussed on failures with archaic leasehold law, progress over the past 18 months and “the promise of success as we get leasehold policy right”. Cross-party Parliamentary support was evident with the event also being supported by Ed Davey M

“We don’t need employers’ liability insurance do we?” It’s a question heard time and again at Residential Management Company meetings and is usually met with a resounding “No, we don’t employ anyone”. But do they? As a managing agent responsible for the placement of insurance on behalf of the management company there are a number of questions you need to ask Does the management company normally utilise the services of a third party company to carry out all works on the property? Do third parties carry

In a landmark decision, the Court of Appeal has recently decided that a Right to Manage company can only acquire the right to manage of one building at a time. The case, known as Triplerose v 90 Broomfield Road Ltd, was a conjoined appeal involving a number of different buildings with similar facts. The issue before the Court was whether a Right to Manage company could exercise its rights where a number of separately detached buildings exist across an estate. Previously, the Upper Tribunal had decided th

ARMA has published a list of the 172 successful ARMA-Q accredited members and 52 associate members on its website.  ARMA-Q is the new self-regulatory regime for ARMA managing agents. It aims to raise standards and quality of service across the residential leasehold management sector – hence the Q for quality. ARMA Chief Executive Michelle Banks said  that she was extremely pleased at the success of the ARMA-Q accreditation process, with a high level of demand for accreditation from existing Members and

ESOS–Energy Ltd, an Energy consultancy specialising in implementing energy saving solutions into blocks of flats, is sponsoring South Gloucestershire Hockey Club (SGHC) in hoping to repeat history as they try to reclaim a Guinness World Record™. Over the Whitsun weekend of May 23 - 25 2015, SGHC plan to play the longest single continuous field hockey match of all time. The club hopes the marathon match will raise £10,000 for the Cots for Tots Appeal at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at St Michael’s Ho

Solicitors at Sheffield’s Taylor&Emmet LLP are inviting property professionals from across the UK to the first major social housing conference to be held in the North.  The firm is hosting the Social Landlord Leasehold Summit in its home city on May 14 to provide essential information about property managers’ responsibilities and liabilities.  Taylor&Emmet is organising the one day event in conjunction with Arden Chambers, London-based barristers specialising in local government and housing, along with

QUESTION We have one block with 21 apartments in it, with seven apartments in each segment. Two segments (14 apartments) are all leaseholders while the other belongs to the freeholder where he rents out six of the apartments and lives in the seventh. All the leaseholders, when they purchased their apartments, were told by the freeholder that there were three visitor parking spaces for use by the leaseholders. This is the reason why a lot of the leaseholders bought into the complex. This has now been wi

In recent years there has been plenty of coverage of floods and storm damage, but this has drawn attention away from the more common risk of ‘escape of water’. Rather than a large flood, it’s a leaking pipe or kitchen appliance that poses the greatest threat. An analysis of a sample of 400 claims over a three-year period found that 65% of all claims were for escape of water. This type of water damage often arises from problems with any tank apparatus, kitchen and bathroom appliances, or pipes and is the