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A typical day for Felix Keen,Head at Pembertons Property Management, usually sees him in his office overseeing the management of over 200 Residential Management Company (RMC) developments in central and south west London. Recently, however, Felix left the office behind and went ‘back to the floor’, working as a Concierge at the Putney Square development the company manages. Felix said his experience: “...was a great opportunity to get a deeper insight into what my site-based colleagues do every day.”

Robert Robertson, Managing Director of Crabtree Property Management, led a team from his company on the 52 mile Ridge Walk, completing te course in 22 and a half hours. Crabtree raised £10,000 for the charity SENSE.

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Your essential guide to leasehold valuation. Some of this features articles include: What are deferment rates? Marriage Value and Leasehold Reform Act Valuations Share of Freehold vs Lease Extension Your essential guide to leasehold valuation. Independent industry practitioners offer some advice in our comprehensive pull out and keep supplement about leasehold valuation.

A recent Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) (“UTLC”) decision many will have considered mundane or trivial at first, has caught a surprising number of managing agents off guard. Section 47 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 (“LTA87”) provides that “where any written demand is given to a tenant of a dwelling, the demand must contain: (a) the name and address of the landlord, and (b) if that address is not in England and Wales, an address in England and Wales at which notices (including notices in

The primary role of a valuer is to establish the price payable for a lease extension or collective freehold purchase. In reality several additional responsibilities within the Leasehold process can be assigned to your chosen valuer. Usually a chartered surveyor, the valuer often oversees the procedure and negotiations from the initial approaches until the conveyance of the new lease or freehold ownership. A solicitor is crucial in this process but because the valuation surveyor is usually in regular conta

LEASE EXTENSIONS:  Subject to a few exceptions, all long leaseholders who have held their lease for at least two years have the individual right to renew their lease.  Once you have established you are entitled to extend your lease, the next question will be, “how much will it cost?”  Generally, as the lease length gets shorter, the premium payable to extend the lease increases.  To determine the premium payable for a lease extension, valuation surveyors will use a formula set out by statu

Depending on whether you wish to extend your lease or buy your freehold, the calculation of marriage value you will have to pay will vary, but the principle is the same. You start with what you will end up with: the value of the interest to be granted, assuming vacant possession, assessed by considering comparable evidence of properties recently sold in the market.  I call this A. The value of the freeholder’s interest is calculated by applying a formula established by precedent and reflects the f

In recent years the deferment rate has become one of the main focal points for arguments in negotiating lease extension and collective enfranchisement claims. Deferment rate is the annual discount applied on a compound basis to an anticipated future receipt to arrive at the market value of the freehold at the valuation date. In recent years the deferment rate has become one of the main focal points for arguments in negotiating lease extension and collective enfranchisement claims. There have been nume

Life in a block of flats has all the ingredients of a good soap opera: the range of personalities, the things that go wrong, the problems of difficult tenants. It often adds up to a really good drama. Holding it all together in stability and harmony are probably the Directors of the flat management company. It may be a Residents’ Management Company set up as a party to the leases, or it may increasingly be a Right to Manage (RTM) Company. People come and go, and so volunteer Directors are always neede

With the need for fire risk assessments to be undertaken in residential blocks, the question of who has control over the flat owners’ front door from a fire risk point of view can be divisive. LEGISLATION OVERLAP The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (“2005 Order”) imposes obligations on the responsible person to take general fire precautions in respect of the common parts of a block of flats. Importantly, however, the 2005 Order does not impose any obligations on the individual flats themselve

As one of the government's zero cabon callenge sites, Hanham Hall on the outskirts of Bristol, is an example of a community management scheme. Along with blocks of flats, these schemes manage wider and more complex community assets such as energy centres, community centres and play areas.  Flats are normally managed by a company limited by shares or by guarantee. Community schemes have to be managed by a Community Interest Company (CIC) or Development Trust (DT). These schemes have an asset ‘lock’ tha