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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

The Property Redress Scheme (PRS) has issued further guidance on unfair fees being charged by letting agents to consumers. A report issued by the PRS last month revealed that of the complaints about agent members raised with the scheme, the most common grievance involved unfair or excessive fees being charged to the consumer. In England and Wales, letting agents are able to charge prospective and existing tenants for services and administration in addition to any rent or deposit paid. Such practices are

The Government has published amendments to the Deregulation Bill that will extend existing restrictions on a landlord’s powers to evict. The measures include protecting tenants against the practice of retaliatory eviction, in instances where they have raised a legitimate complaint about the condition of the property and a local authority has issued a notice confirming that the repair needs to be carried out to avoid a risk to health and safety. Ian Fletcher, British Property Federation Director of Polic

Estate agents delivering poor levels of customer service will be forced out of business by 2020 as a result of the growing number of quality, online based agencies emerging in today’s market. That’s according to Henry Sherwood, MD of The Buying Agents, who says high street estate agencies can no longer afford to charge high fees and deliver poor customer service. Sherwood said: “We are seeing an emerging trend in the growing number of sellers who opt for an online agent as a result of their own buying e

Legislative changes are coming into effect which will impact how energy inefficient properties in the private rented sector can be legally let. And the financial costs associated with these changes could prove significant for landlords. In the next three years the regulations, recently announced by Energy and Climate Secretary, Ed Davey, will require all private rental properties to meet a minimum energy efficiency standard - an EPC rating of at least ‘E’. If ‘F’ and ‘G’ rated properties are not upgraded