Featured Articles

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

We are delighted to announce this years NOTB Championship winners.... The News on the Block Charity Football Championship was a raving success with all teams getting thoroughly involved in the competitive spirit! We would like to thank all of the teams and spectators from across the industry for making it the best championship yet! It all came down to an intense, action-packed final between Finnegan Property Services and PMR, with PMR crowed the 2016 winners.  We would like to Congratulate:              

The British public’s attitude to renting property has evolved, as 62 per cent view renting as a long-term living plan. Yet private rental prices paid by tenants inBritain are predicted to rise, having increased by 4.9 per cent in the last 12 months. As people choose to invest long term in rented accommodation, and prices continue to climb, it is no surprise that tenants are expecting a higher standard of living. This puts pressure on property management companies to maintain their properties and fix any p

Landlords are obliged to provide certain information to leaseholders upon request.  As most readers will know, service charge and ground rent demands must also contain specific information.  Additionally, there is a prescribed summary of rights and obligations which must accompany demands for both service charges and administration charges.    The vast majority of leases will provide very few, if any, rights to information about the landlord or management parties to the lease.  The statutory rights entitl

​The MediOliver Foundation need your shoes to help smash the Guinness world record for the largest shoe mosaic.  We are very happy to to support the MediOliver Foundation, who was also one of the nominated charities at The Property Management Awards 2016. The foundation was set up in honour of Medi Oliver Mehra whose life was tragically cut short at the age of 11. Medi’s mother, Mary-Anne Bowring of Ringley’s started the foundation which focuses on projects that bring opportunities to children through edu

QUESTION We have a leasehold property which is a house above an under croft (it is a tunnel and an area for parking). There are four houses (two either side of the leasehold properties) three of which are freehold and one a tenancy. The houses and flat all have access through the tunnel to parking at the rear. We and the owners really want them to take over management or buy the freehold but are unsure if this can be done under the Leasehold Reform Act (RTM or enfranchisement). If not how else can it be