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Leasehold properties in the UK face more regulation as the government gets to grips with the increase in flats among the nation’s housing stock. Almost half of all new housing completed in 2006-7 was flats and with the government’s target to provide three million homes by 2020, this trend will only continue. Most changes will be amendments to the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, welcomed at the time as the most significant piece of legislation affecting flat owners for generations. Changes

The proposals, part of a new Single Equality Act, would legislate for disability-related improvements to the ‘common parts’ of blocks. This could cause difficulties originating from conflicting demands from various disabled residents in a block with different needs. For example, visibility-related alterations may not be compatible with mobility-related alterations. There may also be potential liability issues and financial considerations. For example, the introduction of apparatus on to stairways for a wh

Lee Middleburgh, Group MD of Peverel Property Management Group, called for energy saving and carbon neutrality in blocks of flats. He was addressing the 13th Annual Conference of the Association of Residential Managing Agents in Central London. More than 800 delegates from all areas of the residential property industry met in Wales to discuss pressing issues. Highlights included a session on management including Andrew Fildes from Peverel, Roger Southam from Chainbow, Tony Pidgley, MD of Berkeley Group an

The competitive world of leasehold flat management has intensified as Countrywide Managing Agents (CMA) scooped up two smaller rivals. The acquisition comes after Crabtree Property Management went on a shopping spree earlier this year, buying niche Central London managing agents Moretons for an undisclosed sum. CMA’s acquisition of residential leasehold managing agents Labyrinth and HLM added more than 25,000 units and 100 staff to the CMA group, turning it into one of the UK’s largest property managers

UK flat prices are expected to fall by as much as 50% from than their current values, according to Ed Stansfield, specialist property economist at Capital Economics. The new build sector will is likely to be hit particularly hard despite the increased use of sales incentives to tempt buyers back into the market. ‘There are obviously a lot of gradations in this forecast, but the flat market in general will see greater risk than the wider property market,’ said Stansfield. Prices for new build flats alread

The common reasons for enfranchisement are:- Declining lease length; The leaseholders wish to change management; Service charge demands are high or unreasonable. To prevent the speculative development; To correct a lease defect; For elderly leaseholders, to put their affairs in order. It is not unusual in enfranchisement cases for landlords to try and redevelop - usually roofs or car parks or to remove a resident caretaker and sell his flat. By enfranchising, any speculative

The Directors All the affairs of the company are conducted by its directors. Every private company must have at least onedirector and it is his or her duty of to manage the company’s affairs. The directors will appoint a number of other officers to assist them with day-to-day running. In residential management companies, the director will often be a member (flat owners) who has found himself in the unenviable position of taking charge. This duty is a crown difficult to renounce. It can be rewarding, bu

The competitive world of leasehold flat management has intensified as Countrywide Managing Agents (CMA) scooped up two smaller rivals. The acquisition comes after Crabtree Property Management went on a shopping spree earlier this year, buying niche Central London managing agents Moretons for an undisclosed sum. CMA’s acquisition of residential leasehold managing agents Labyrinth and HLM added more than 25,000 units and 100 staff to the CMA group, turning it into one of the UK’s largest property managers.

A landlord has been sent to prison in the first custodial sentence given in London under the new fire safety regulations. Mr Mehmat Parlak was sentenced to four months imprisonment and his company, Watchacre properties limited, were fined £21,000 following conviction for serious breaches of the regulatory reform order (RRO). The prosecution followed a fatal fire at a flat on Ruskin Road, Tottenham on 16 September 2007. After being removed from the building by firefighters, a man was taken to hospital

Stamp duty has been a nice little earner for the government. As the property market has soared it has brought a tidy dividend in extra billions – £6.44 billion in 2006/07, well over double the £2.69 billion it generated in 2001/02, and nearly twice the £3 billion plus the Treasury pockets from inheritance tax. Estate agents, developers and buy-to-let investors may all have benefited when the market was rising. But the government, while encouraging us to become property owners, was also raking it in. With

Q: You recently joined forces with Porter Crossick – could you begin by telling us a little bit about your firm and the services you offer? What have you brought to them and them to you? A: Certainly. Jaffe Porter Crossick is now a broadly based firm specialising in private client work. We have a property bias and we specialise in residential conveyancing, commercial conveyancing, company commercial work, litigation, matrimonial, wills and probate and of course our leasehold enfranchisement department, co

Surrey We are very much affected by the credit crunch. It has been very quiet. We are still taking properties on the market, but not at the rate we were a few months ago. We’re finding that buyers are increasingly cautious and very confused by the mixed messages in the press. This week we had an offer of £250,000 for a property that was originally on the market for £365,000 and is now on at £269,995. The offer was rejected because it was still below the market value, even in this market, but you wouldn’t