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A storm has broken out over a clause in the ground rent of a modest Midlands flat which could see it rise from its present level of £8,000 – more than 10 per cent of its guide price – to a staggering £8 million by 2120, thanks to a gearing mechanism that doubles the rent every 10 years. Barnard Marcus has withdrawn a flat from auction amid claims the property’s ground rent could spiral to £8 million by 2120. The case was raised in the House of Commons by MP Sir Peter Bottomley, who claimed the sellers wer

The government has announced two major new policy initiatives to build 40,000 new homes. Approximately 10,000 new homes are to be commissioned directly by the government on public land, while an extra £1.2bn will be allocated for the preparation of brownfield sites, which will be used for another 30,000 starter homes. “Many brownfield sites have been unused for too long, and we have long since called for them to be developed,” said Jeremy Blackburn, Head of UK Policy at RICS. “We’ve been working closel

Key figures from the leasehold enfranchisement sector met to discuss everything from valuation to negotiation at the Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners' (ALEP) 18th Spring Conference.   Held at The IET, Savoy Place in London, the conference was attended by more than 250 experts from across the leasehold enfranchisement sector including barristers, managing agents, project managers, solicitors and valuers, as well as senior representatives from organisations such as the Royal Institutio

Question: I was Director & Chairman for 6 years. (private residential estate).  Over that time I formed about 15 personal files on various matters‎ -contractors, correspondence, items to/from residents, contracts etc.  I voluntarily stood down in May 2014.   ‎Within a month or so a neighbour took the files and handed them to my successor, to help him in his duties. At no time was ownership surrendered, either spoken or implied.   At no time to date have I been formally consulted on them. I have several

Section 30A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 gives effect to the Schedule of the Act, hiding what seems like a treasure-trove of rights for leaseholders to help shine a light on how their building is insured. In short, the Schedule allows a leaseholder to request a summary of the insurance cover and a further right to inspect and copy any relevant policy or associated documents.  The statute extends to involve superior landlords where the immediate landlord is not responsible for insuring.  Information

A recent investigation has revealed that many businesses are failing to take basic steps to comply with current law and best practice and as a result are putting both their clients and themselves at risk.    But that’s not all – the new Right to Rent rules could catch out many landlords and their agents, and forthcoming new EU law will mean getting it wrong could be very costly indeed.   In January 2016 the ICO, the body responsible for regulating data protection laws in the UK, published a report that id

Two new building surveyors have been appointed at Finnegan Property Services to help meet the growing demand for the firm’s expanding portfolio of services.   Nicholas Oltarzewski and Michael Sherlock together have almost 20 years’ experience in residential and commercial building surveying, as well as project management and property development.   After graduating from Liverpool John Moores University, Nicholas worked with building surveying companies in Liverpool, Reigate and London before joining Finne

QUESTION I live in a block of 28 retirement flats which are all owner occupied and of course leasehold. In addition we are all shareholders in the Housing Association which owns the building and land on a leasehold basis and whose sole business is the ownership of this building. We appoint a Managing Agent (also a housing association) to manage the building. I assume, even under our own unusual ownership structure, that section 20 applies even though the Landlord (us collectively) is giving us (individua

QUESTION My flat has been damaged by water pouring through my ceilings from the flat above. This happened on 5 separate occasions in the last 6 months and both my kitchen and bathroom are now badly water damaged and in need of redecoration and damp treatment. The water damage even short circuited the bathroom light fitting and it has not worked for 4 months now.  On each occasion that water poured into my flat, I informed the tenants straight away – showed them the damage and also emailed their landlord

QUESTION We've recently gone RTM with a property management company, which I chose and agreed a pricing strategy last October for a fixed overall charge for Service charges - being  £1500 (+vat) divided by six leaseholders. Before signing up, one of our colleague directors expressed concern that the property management company apparently have a past reputation for lumping on extra charges which had not been agreed with leaseholders. It rang alarm bells when our Chair received an email from the property m

QUESTION I have owned a leasehold flat since February 2010 but only this year have become aware that it is a RMC. In all those years we have had no AGM meetings and at the start of this year the Management Company (our Management Agent) that we had since I purchased the flat was taken over by another Management Company (who became our Management Agent). I have found that the directors of the Management Agent are also the directors of the Limited Company that has become the RMC's Company Secretary. Is this

QUESTION In June 2015 and as freeholder of the property in question, I received a letter from a mortgage lendor asking for confirmation that any notice of transfer should come to me and also asking what my fee would be. When I explored further it transpired that a flat which was jointly owned by two individuals was to be remortgaged and placed in the name of just one of the individuals. There were already several breaches of covenant in existence – such as arrears of ground rent, denial of access for insp