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Prime Minister David Cameron has appointed Mark Prisk MP to be the new Housing Minister following the promotion of  Grant Shapps MP to Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party.  Shapps will also attend Cabinet as a Minister without Portfolio.  The move comes as part of the September Government reshuffle. Cornishman Mark Prisk is a Chartered Surveyor by profession, having worked in several large property practices including Knight Frank.  He also ran a successful business consultancy for 10 years before m

Dispatches, the Channel 4 investigatory program, recently broadcast it's investigation into flat living: Property Nightmare - The Truth About Leaseholds. The 30 minute tv show primarily focused on problems relating to maintenance and major works in blocks of flats - privately or publicly managed. Whilst the show was an excellent insight into some of the issues flat owners face, it only scratched the surface in terms of the information that could have been shown.  Leasehold ownership is a wide topic with m

An influential independent think tank has suggested that millions of leaseholders in Britain should be protected by an independent regulator and that this can be achieved for as little as £2 per flat owner. The policy recommendation came as part of CentreForum’s extensive report: “A new lease of life: making leasehold fit for the 21st Century” and coincides with the broadcast of the Channel 4 Dispatches investigation, Property Nightmare: The Truth About Leaseholds. Report Co-Authors, Chris Paterson an

Rendall and Rittner recently entered two teams for the Sense annual dragon boat race near Canary Wharf, London.  Rendall and Rittner supported this charitable event for the deafblind as part of their corporate social responsibility.  There were 18 teams in total. Each Team had 10 rowers and a drummer.  Team Rittner made the final, although Team Rendall was not far behind. The event raised some £27,000, of which R&R have were the highest fund raisers at nearly £5,000.  R&R is also involved in the y

In a highly critical 64 page judgement the High Court has recently ruled that the arrest of Vincent Tchenguiz by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in March 2011 was unlawful because it had been procured on the basis of misrepresentation and non-disclosure by the Government agency tasked with fighting white collar crime. The UK’s largest managing agents, Peverel were amongst Tchenguiz’s business interests.  Tchenguiz claims that one consequence of his arrest was that the Bank of America Merrill Lynch fore

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