Featured Articles

Phillip Rainey of Tanfield Chambers emphasises the importance of seeking professional advice, and outlines the role a barrister should play in the enfranchisement of a block. The third member of the team of professionals at your disposal is the Barrister (Counsel). Counsel can “add value” in specialist advice and specialist advocacy skills. Straightforward or lower value enfranchisement or lease extension claims may not require the services of Counsel, but property values in the Prime Central London a

Mike Boles, director at Savills Private Finance, talks through the importance of budget planning, and outlines the long-term financial benefits associated with collective enfranchisement. The advantage of collective enfranchisement is that for a relatively small outlay you can significantly increase the value of your property. But getting the funding just right is crucial in all collective enfranchisement cases. Unless you have the necessary cash available, flat owners will need to raise money to fina

The first thing to understand is which costs you are certainly going to be liable for as a group. These are the foreseeable costs you’ll need to budget for: * Set up of the nominee purchaser company – you will have to pay a company formation fee and have to pay for the services of an accountant to submit annual accounts. * Stamp Duty Land Tax – your surveyor, solicitor or company accountant will be able to offer advice on whether or not (and how much) tax is likely to be payable, on a case-by-case bas

Mary Anne Bowring of Ringley outlines some of the issues newly enfranchised blocks are likely to face in the future. Post enfranchisement the four main issues to deal with are likely to be: * Extending leases to 999 years; * Realising asset value by (a) selling parts of the title (lofts, porters flats, etc) and (b) selling shares in the Freehold Company to flats who did not participate initially; * Distribution of any proceeds raised; * Reviewing contracts with managing agents, cleaners, gardeners,

The CEO of the Leasehold Advisory Service, Anthony Essien, looks at some of the cases that shaped today’s enfranchisement landscape, and asks ‘what of life after enfranchisement?’ The Leasehold Reform Act 1967 was the product of the 26th Bill since 1887 dealing with enfranchisement of leasehold houses. Apart from being an interesting piece of legal and parliamentary history what does that tell us? Well, when one also considers that almost 40 years to the day since it commenced, the House of Lords recent

The law of leasehold enfranchisement has come to assume major importance as an area of law which affects many residential properties. Some knowledge of leasehold law is essential for those who deal and live in residential property let on long leases.  LEASEHOLD PROPERTY Ownership of leasehold property means that the leaseholder has a right to use and enjoy that property for a defined period of time i.e. 99 years, 125 years or 999 years.LEASE A Lease is a legal term used to describe a particular type of

In another packed issue of News on the Block – the only magazine about flats – we cover plenty of ground. The credit crunch has been on our minds, and I am sure many of you have been pondering on this. In this issue Mira Bar-Hillel explains how to sell a flat in collapsing market. Allsops, commercial and residential property auctioneers, reports on the general flatness of the flats’ market. And, if you are a property investor you will find the article on page 56 useful – is it time to stock up on UK buy-

QUESTION  Outstanding Service Charge, Forfeiture Proceedings, Recoverable ? Our service charge is collected monthly through standing order but we have a lessee, who persistently does not pay this and is 18 months in arrears. He does not live in the property but rents it out to his son and tells me it is his son’s responsibility. I have written to the son but he has not paid any money either and ignores me. It is further complicated by the fact that the lessee’s company went into liquidation last year an

Sustainable communities are the cornerstone of the government’s housing policy. And sustainable means mixed tenure, writes Jane Barry of the Evening Standard. Move into a flat on a new development and you’ll find private leaseholders living alongside shared owners and social tenants. The idea is to create a community where everyone shares aspirations and pride of place. Of course, so long as the government expects developers to build affordable housing, mixed tenure is a given anyway, otherwise the profit

This month Jane Bayliss tackles the permanently contentious issue of common parts in blocks of flats, and of course the dreaded c-word…clutter! Seagull Towers residents include quite a few Hyacinth Bucket types who are keen on keeping up appearances. They would not accept that the block has anything so vulgar as common parts, but we do have communal areas, and their appearance needs keeping up. During the 1990s there was massive expenditure to rectify defects in the building, followed by extensive redecor

Traditionally, there has always been a distinction between a “Reserve Fund” and a “Sinking Fund”. A “Reserve Fund” is a fund into which leaseholders pay a regular sum of money to be used by the landlord to meet recurring expenditure, for example, periodic expenditure of exterior and common parts of the block. In contrast, a “Sinking Fund” provides for expenditure that might only be incurred once or twice during the lease term on specific terms. A good example of such an item of expenditure would be th

Mark Chick, partner at Bishop & Sewell LLP, takes a close look at February’s landmark ruling by the House of Lords, the first judgment to be made by them under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993. How much of a property does a landlord have to wish to redevelop in order to defeat the tenant’s claim to a new lease under Section 47 of the 1993 Act? One of the only circumstances in which a landlord can refuse to admit what would be an otherwise valid claim to a new lease under the 19