Featured Articles

The magazine in your hands is our biggest yet. It seems the issues and topics surrounding the residential leasehold sector grow every day. We always attempt to be one of the first to explain and write about the latest changes to leasehold law. In this issue John Mills bemoans the fact that five years since the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act the requirement for annual statements of account has still not been implemented. Also in this issue Mira Bar-Hillel tackles head on the issue of insurance com

This month Jane Bayliss recalls some of the trials and tribulations her block managers have faced in the past when it comes to carrying out refurbishments (and justifying the fees) in her seaside block of flats. ‘Vot ’ave ve done to deserve zis?’ the indignant Middle European tones of Mrs Ponsonby wail down the phone. ‘£10 more zis quarter for maintenance!’ It’s all been explained in the annual budget, and Mrs Ponsonby is a rich widow. ‘I don’t know what you’ve done to deserve this, Mrs Ponsonby – why do

The long awaited Sportelli verdict finally has been handed down. Kerry Glanville, partner at Pemberton Greenish, analyses the Court of Appeal’s decision. The long anticipated decision of the Court of Appeal in a series of appeals against a decision of the Lands Tribunal that have become known, collectively, as the Sportelli appeals has been handed down today. Appeals on the issues before their Lordships have been dismissed with the result that: * Hope value is not to be included in the price payable

The Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 created a new “no fault” right to manage on the part of leaseholders who can now force their landlord to transfer the management functions to a special kind of company, a Right to Manage (RTM) company. The Right to Manage is a group right for leaseholders of flats to manage the building; there is no need for the landlord to consent to the establishment of an RTM company and no order of a court or LVT is necessary; there is no premium to pay to exercise the ri

Leaseholders pay substantial sums in service charges to their landlords every year, so you would expect that there would be a requirement for landlords to give in return a statement of account of how the service charges were spent. Not so, says John Mills of the Association of Retirement Housing Managers. There is a legal right for any leaseholder to ask for a summary of expenditure from the landlord but no more. In practice good agents do supply regular statements of account each year. In 2002 the govern

Mira Bar-Hillel reports on the concern that a growing number of landlords are all too easily able to take commission for simply arranging building insurance for their block, and asks what’s being done to prevent this. First the good news: owners of leasehold flats will soon have the legal right to an annual statement showing how their service charges are spent, according to new measures proposed by the government. Even better, they will also have the legal right to withhold service changes if they do not

Peter Moore of Tetra Consulting begins a new health & safety series for those who live in a block of flats. You will be pleased to know you are not the only people who find dealing with health & safety (H&S) issues time consuming and occasionally irritating. Anyone who manages any type of property has to deal with the issues you are facing; whether it is commercial property, offices, shops, hospitals or councils, you have to comply. H&S has been seen as an interference in the proper job of getting on

Daren Wood, Northern Regional general manager at the British Security Industry Association (BSIA), looks at the ways that homeowners can protect their flats and why resident groups should be taking a holistic approach to security. The security of our homes and the environment in which we live is important to us all. If a person’s home is broken into, it is often emotional trauma, rather than material loss, that causes most harm. Few things receive the personal effort and loving care that we put into our

Continuing on in our series of meeting people on the front line of property management, this month we talk to Mark Perkins, who manages the exclusive Kings Chelsea development in West London. Mark Perkins is the building manager of Kings Chelsea, a highly impressive development situated in the heart of the fashionable Kings Road. The gated community is home to a wide variety of professionals ranging from lawyers and doctors to Premiership footballers. Mark is the man charged with ensuring everybody is ke

The debate over whether mobile phones and the masts that transmit signals to them are safe has been wrangling for years; however a recent report concluded they cause no ill-effects. Jamie Reid investigates how the new research could be good news for people living in blocks of flats. In the UK there are more mobile phones than there are people. The most recent figures show there are now in excess of 70 million active handsets in the country and in order for these to work properly; they need masts (sometim

This month, in a new series of articles ‘from the frontline’, frustrated leaseholder Antonia Adams discusses some of her experiences with ineffective managing agents and considers what needs to be done to differentiate between the good, the bad and the ugly. It might be surprising to many people that although managing agents across England and Wales control £1.5 billion pounds of leaseholders service charge monies, they do not require licensing or any formal qualifications. So, what do leaseholders do wh

The NOTB survey questioned 100 leasehold and freehold directors of resident management companies, with the aim of identifying those who benefit from the right the manage, as well as assessing and comparing the performance of managing agents. The survey was completed between December 2006 and January 2007. Two-thirds (67 per cent) of the questionnaires completed were from male respondents, while just under half (44 per cent) of all respondents were aged 65 or older. There were scarcely any leaseholders und