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It seems strange to say, but the credit crunch is not all bad news. If you are an astute flat owner, the economic climate presents more opportunities than problems. You’ve been thinking about extending your lease? In the overheated market of recent years, it seemed both unnecessary for marketability and prohibitive in cost. Neither applies now. With flat prices in freefall, a short lease is a deterrent to sale. You need all the edge you can to shift the flat and a newly extended lease will help. The cost

This is understandable as RMCs’ directors will at some point have to make difficult decisions regarding the behaviour of their neighbours. Enforcing covenants against neighbours can prove difficult and does not sit well with most people, who don’t want to be in conflict with those living in their block. This is where an agent can help. Agents are ‘expert’ on those matters which we hold ourselves out to provide. We take the necessary steps to enforce leases, collect fees and order works all in the name

As summer fades into a somewhat brief and distant memory and autumn arrives, it’s time to check gardens for Brown Tail Moth caterpillars (Euproctis chrysorrhoea). These caterpillars can be harmful both to humans and to trees. The caterpillars you are hunting for are about an inch long and have two red spots on their back. The moths themselves are white with a brown body and the female has a brown hairy tail. The caterpillars are covered in brown, barbed hairs, which, although not actually poisonous, can

On our staircase (of six flats), we had been extremely lucky with five careful full-time owner-occupiers and one flat rented out by a careful landlord. The construction of our 40-year-old block, like a number of blocks built at the same time in this area, has one serious deficiency: solid concrete floors at each level provide very little sound insulation. Our luck finally gave out late last year when a first-floor flat, that had just changed owners, was rented to three young men who wanted to live a party

To be effective, a residents’ association should be formally recognised.Who Can Become a Member of a Residents’ Association? In general terms to become a member of a residents’ association you must be contributing to a service charge, which is a sum in addition to the rent and payable directly or indirectly for services, repairs, maintenance, improvement or insurance and the whole or part of which varies according to the relevant cost. This should be contrasted with leaseholders who pay a fixed or non-

The powers came to light as a result of a High Court ruling in support of lender GMAC-RFC which moved to repossess after one borrower fell into arrears.At the hearing last October, Mr Justice Briggs reinforced a 1925 law whereby lenders were allowed to sell the homes of those two months in arrears.This has political implications in that it bypasses Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s recent demand that mortgage companies only seize homes as a last resort.Politicians and campaigners now have begun to lobby for a

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