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Church Conversions can pose a unique set of maintenance challenges for landlords, leaseholders and managing agents. English weather alongside standard wear and tear mean that all buildings deteriorate over time. Churches, usually built in large expanses with exposed sections of stone and brickwork, often deteriorate faster and require significant additional maintenance and upkeep. Many have steep pitched roofs, with associated turrets and towers. Their intricate design often requires complicated provisi

Many leases are, essentially, defective. Common examples include leases where matters such as placing insurance or allocation of responsibility for maintaining the doors or windows are absent. This may be because the lease was poorly drafted at the outset or because it was drafted using a standard precedent used across a developer’s entire portfolio. One method of resolving issues arising from a defective lease is by seeking a variation to the lease. Generally speaking there are two ways in which leases

Did you hear the one about the solicitor who was five days late filing a cost budget and his client lost out on £500,000 of costs? Where the courts or the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) impose deadlines upon parties, litigants are expected to abide by them. Sanctions are imposed for non-compliance, and they could have drastic consequences. In 2010, the Government published Lord Jackson’s Review of Civil Litigation Costs; 548 pages of proposals to limit expenditure in litigation. The backbone of the reforms

Legislation making it a legal requirement for letting agents to belong to a redress scheme has moved a step closer. The proposals are now going through the final legislative process after an order to amend the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 was laid on 23 June. Once it has completed its passage through the House of Commons and House of Lords, letting and property management agents will have to to join a redress scheme. The Government hopes the scheme will ensure tenants and leaseholders recei

The High Court and Court of Appeal have reached their decisions in two important enfranchisement cases. Westbrook has sealed victory in the collective enfranchisement of Dolphin Square, the central London block of 1,229 flats, believed to be the largest and most complex claim made to date. Guided by Damian Greenish, Chairman of Pemberton Greenish and a leading authority on enfranchisement, Westbrook successfully defended Friends Life’s High Court challenge to its right to enfranchise the block. The judg

The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) has announced the addition of several new firms who will volunteer to provide free out-of-hours advice to leaseholders. JPC Law, Child and Child, Dean Wilson LLP, Penningtons Manches, Piper Smith Watton, Streathers, Wilson Barca and Coles Miller have decided to volunteer their time and expertise, and join Seddons, Bishop & Sewell, SA Law and Sykes Anderson in helping leaseholders solve their problems. Anthony Essien, LEASE’s Chief Executive, said: “We want to offe

In the recent case of Chowdhury v Bramerton Management there are judicial comments which suggest that where a lease provides for service charges to be demanded at a particular time (here interim demands quarterly), late service of such demand would mean any arrears are not due until at least a reasonable delay has elapsed or the next demand date.

Last month, senior representatives from ALEP, the Leasehold Advisory Service, RICS, ARMA, IRPM, NAEA and Leasehold Forum met for cross-sector talks over lunch in central London. In what is thought to be a first, representatives discussed - informally - issues currently affecting the leasehold and enfranchisement sector. Alex Greenslade, Honorary Secretary and co-founder of ALEP, said: “Although our organisations have clearly defined and, admittedly, different agendas, our common goal is one of bettering

Tenant eviction firm Landlord Action says London's county courts are struggling to keep up with demand, listing its current busiest courts for landlord possession claims as Central London, Willesden, Barnet, Clerkenwell & Shoreditch, and Croydon. According to Landlord Action, the number of people renting in London now accounts for around 25% of the capital's population, but many of the systems and processes to support this have simply not kept pace. The firm says London courts are overstretched by the l

The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership recently held an all-party meeting on commonhold in the House of Commons. More than 50 delegates from the Commons, Lords, civil service and leasehold sector attended the event, which was organised by the LKP’s Co-director, Martin Boyd, and hosted by MPs Ed Davey (LibDem), Sir Peter Bottomley (Conservative) and Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour). This was the first high-level discussion on the subject since 2002, when the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act was introduced. There

A new collection of apartments in Cambridge is proving to be a deviation from traditional student digs thanks to a range of modern technologies and intelligent design. The Newton, on Humberstone Road, consists of 23 contemporary studio and one-bedroom apartments. Each provides a robust yet comfortable living space, integrating leisure, sleeping and study zones, and including an en suite shower room and contemporary kitchen. Features such as underfloor heating and a video entry system can all be monitored

Tenants of commercial buildings could be able to acquire the freehold interest against the will of the landlord, following a legal ruling. In Mount Eden Land vs Bolsover Investments, the landlord of an office building on a 999-year lease was appealing against an earlier decision that it was not reasonable for it to withhold consent to tenants’ plans to turn it into 16 or 17 residential flats. The court rejected the landlord’s argument that if consent were not refused, its freehold interest in the buildi