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Property law firm JB Leitch has launched a new apprenticeship scheme in which it will develop five of its most promising staff. The selected employees will undertake nationally-recognised legal qualifications from the Chartered Institute for Legal Executives. Christian Cameron, Bethyn Finley, Lilian Goodwin and Sophie Howes are all currently Litigation Assistants while John Manley is acting team leader for the service charge recovery team. Three of them will be undertaking the Advanced Apprenticeship in

Gregory Property Group has appointed Philip Lees as Project Director to oversee the specific design and build of its commercial, leisure and residential developments. The architect retired in 2010 but was tempted back into business by the Leeds-based development company. He was a partner at Watson Lees & Batty before setting up his own practice, Philip Lees & Associates, in 1985. He sold the practice in 2005 to Archial Group and became chairman of the North and Midlands region and a member of the group e

Chard Robinson has won an award at the 2014-15 UK Property Awards for its student accommodation development The Newton. It was named winner in the Residential Development category for Cambridgeshire, gaining the highest score of 5 stars. The Newton is a new development on Humberstone Road, Cambridge, comprising 23 contemporary one-bedroom and studio apartments for students. It occupies the site of the former Fleur De Lys pub. Chard Robinson was shortlisted after, in the opinion of the judges, demonstra

Independent property consultancy Daniel Watney has appointed James Davis as partner to head up its building consultancy team. Davis joins from Kenningtons where he re-established the firm’s own building-surveying department, but he originally began his career at Daniel Watney more than 20 years ago. As well as growing the existing team and winning new business, he will work closely with the company’s current partners to support other functions of the company including planning, development, professional

News on the Block are proud to announce the winners for this years Property Management Awards. The winners were announced on the 4th December at a sixties themed awards ceremony and dinner. Please save the date for the Property Management Awards 2015-16 – 3rd December 2015.  Watch out for some new and exciting developments for next years event! Issue 76 of News on the Block will contain a special Property Management Awards feature. Please contact us to make sure you receive your issue or for any adve

A new online home conveyancing portal is set to launch in the spring. Veyo, a joint venture between The Law Society and IT solutions specialist Mastek UK, is designed to bring together all the processes, checks and documentation prepared and undertaken by solicitors and licensed conveyancers in the sale and purchase of residential properties. In its first phase, the system will allow professionals to better communicate with each other, clients and other parties, satisfy due diligence obligations more qu

David Clark, of Mainstay Group, is the new Chairman of the Institute of Residential Property Management (IRPM). He took over in October from Martin Rochfort who remains as immediate past chair. “I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to take on this important role and energised by the exciting projects that we have in the pipeline,” said David, who has been involved with IRPM since its inception in 2001. “I am pleased that I will have the support of the outgoing Chairman Martin who has done s

Hyperoptic has added Newcastle, Sheffield, Birmingham and Nottingham to the list of cities where it provides 1,000Mbps broadband to homes. The company now provides gigabit broadband to 12 cities in the UK, the others being London, Manchester, Cardiff, Bristol, Liverpool, Leeds, Glasgow and Reading, and the service will soon reach more than 75,000 homes spanning 480 sites, with a target of half a million homes by 2018. All cities were chosen by demand and number of residential developments. Hyperoptic wo

The Crabtree Property Group has achieved its ambitious annual charity fundraising target three months ahead of schedule. At the end of last year the firm decided to mark its 30th anniversary by setting itself a £30,000 fundraising target for The Lullaby Trust, which provides specialist support for bereaved families, promotes expert advice on safer baby sleep and raises awareness on sudden infant death. Three key events were held during the year: a run, a walk and a jump, while staff, their friends and f

Every week there seems to be a new article in the media with the two words we all fear - carbon monoxide …. Very effective campaigns driven by The HSE, Gas Safe and other industry bodies have raised awareness of the danger, but to a degree this has been quite rightly focused on the Domestic Sector which is often unregulated, hence targeting owner occupiers with a campaign highlighting the dangers. What is Carbon monoxide? Carbon monoxide is a sneaky silent killer - it’s colourless, you can’t smell it an

Date: Monday 17th November 2014  Time: 12:00pm  This webinar will consider the recent court of appeal decision in Philips v Francis and its impact on major works in blocks of flats for residents, landlords and leaseholders.  This webinar is free for News on the Block and LVT Subscribers.  Non Subscriber rate is £35 plus VAT.  To register for this webinar please click here.

We often find when taking over managements of block of flats, that a nice cosy arrangement exists between the neighbours, whereby all service charges are paid by monthly instalments, often contrary to the terms of the lease that has been agreed and often causes more problems than it solves. Service charge payment dates are clearly set out in each lease. Not only the date on which the service charge should be demanded but also when it should be paid and importantly, what actions are available should servi