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The Right to Manage (RTM) is a powerful tool for leaseholders. It gives leaseholders the right to take over the management of their building including repairs, maintenance, services and the levying of service charges without any requirement to prove default by the Landlord or payment of compensation. A building is eligible if it contains two or more flats and at least two thirds of the flats are on long leases, but if there is a commercial element this must not exceed 25% of the floor area. The partic

Latest analysis is indicating that developers are responding to the need for more family homes, with the number of houses being built in the UK as compared to apartments increasing by 2% during the past 12 months.   The past four months have also seen the average plot size increasing, reversing the trend of the last year, with a 0.5% increase in plot size since March 2007. The analysis comes from Wolsey Securities whose finance is behind over 2,300 homes across the country, across 130 developments from Pe

by Yasmin Mistry of Brethertons solicitors The contents of the summary of rights and obligations that must accompany a demand for the payment of administration charge must also be legible in a typewritten or printed form of at lease 10 points but must instead contain the following: The title, “Administration Charges – Summary or Tenant’s Rights and Obligations”; and The following statement:(1) This summary, which briefly sets out your rights and obligations in relation to administration charges, must by l

This is the first Birmingham Midshires Buy to Let bi-annual Review. The Review covers property prices and rental values for Buy to Let (BTL) properties both at national and regional levels. The figures are calculated on a "standardised" basis so that price and rent movements are tracked on a like-for-like basis. This is the UK's only measure of the BTL market on this basis. The figures are based on the BTL lending of Birmingham Midshires, one of the UK's largest BTL lenders. Buy to let returns 13% over p

The Halifax Quarterly Regional House Price Index shows that the average selling price of a flat has risen by 232% since 1997 Quarter 2 from £64,876 to £215,439 in 2007 Quarter 2. The increase in the average price of a flat has outpaced the 216% increase for all residential properties over the past decade. Regionally, East Anglia has seen the sharpest increase in flat prices over the last ten years with a rise of 294% followed by the East Midlands (256%) and the South East (247%). The smallest increases

With sustainable living and energy in particular dominating the latest headlines can residents benefit from a sustainable energy supply from community services as well as ‘common sense’ measures such as energy efficient lighting and switching off appliances? What are the merits of community services with private billing? Community and district heating follow similar principles. A district heating system delivers heat energy to more than one building, usually for space heating and domestic hot water gener

Although every investment should be assessed on its own particular merits, there are some fundamental matters to be considered when deciding which is best – house or flat, writes Tony Booth. Flats are certainly much more popular with the mobile population of many inner city locations. Career orientated young professionals require the flexibility and ease provided by a flat. Some also enjoy the status symbol of chic and fashionable style living that a modern flat bestows on its occupier. Others just want

A Government circular has announced a timetable for the requirement for all landlords of rented homes to have energy performance certificates (EPC) for their properties. From 1st of October 2008 any landlord will have to have an EPC ready and available for a prospective tenant upon the letting of any property. The EPC must be available for a prospective tenant on request and a copy will have to be given to the tenant prior to contract. So this does not mean that all rented stock needs an EPC at once, bu

Welcome From the editor’s desk This month Evening Standard writer Jane Barry takes a look at the buy-to-let market and the negative affect it can have on communities in blocks of flats. Read also John Peartree’s feelings about buy-to-let on this page. This issue sees the launch (albeit a soft one) of our residential property business pages. In the future we will be expanding this section and we would like to hear your news. Finally insurance is high on the agenda this month and you can read our specia

We are here to help you with your questions about your flat. Have a question? Contact us on: editor@newsontheblock.com, or by telephone at 08700 600 663, or by post at News on the Block, 8 Wyndham Place, London W1H 1PP. Q Dear News on the Block, Our landlord is insisting we insure our block of flats with a broker of his choosing citing a section of the lease that entitles him to do so. However, we find we are able to insure the property on a like-for-like basis up to 25% less. Is he correct? Colin, Mi

When I bought my first flat only one of the 30 flats in the building was sublet and that was because the leaseholder was temporarily working in the US. But then came buy-to-let. Thirty per cent of my former mansion block is now sublet. In my current block, half of the 32 flats are owned by absentee leaseholders. In some new-build Docklands developments that figure can rise to 80 per cent. Buy-to-let has hit London like an epidemic. And it’s having far-reaching consequences, not just for flat-dwellers but

Jane Bayliss continues her fascinating series of articles about life in a seaside block of flats – this month the residents are up in arms about subletting. (To avoid embarrassment, all names have been changed.) I didn’t read my lease when I bought my flat – what are solicitors for, after all? I was in a hurry to buy and when my solicitor remarked that the lease was short, on the verge of being unmortgageable, but that with a share of the freehold this was not a major obstacle, I hardly paid attention.