Featured Articles

Issue 131 of News on the Block has now been published and is available for subscribers to read online. This issue of News on the Block includes a special feature to celebrate our 21st Birthday, including some of your memories and a photo gallery from our 21st Birthday Celebration in May.  Some of the articles in this issue include:  Timescale demand over new ‘piecemeal’ laws Elevating expectations Building intelligent AI for your business Have you a plan to manage asbestos? How service charges and res

Leading property technology provider Reapit has launched a new feature to help agents comply with the latest material information guidelines from the National Trading Standards Estate and Lettings Team (NTSELAT). First introduced in May 2022 and expanded at the end of 2023, the guidance from NTSELAT is designed to ensure UK agencies’ property adverts are consistently declaring all the information the average consumer needs to decide whether to enquire about and ultimately purchase or rent a property. Upfr

A planning application has been submitted for the regeneration of the Teviot Estate in Poplar, East London. The £800 million redevelopment by The Hill Group and Poplar HARCA will provide around 1,900 new homes with 35% affordable, over four phases. This will be complemented by new open green and play spaces, shops, community and faith facilities, alongside improved infrastructure. As one of the largest estate regenerations in London, the redevelopment of Teviot will transform the area with upgraded design

In a significant legal victory, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has successfully challenged freeholder Grey GR, compelling the company to address serious safety issues at Vista Tower in Stevenage. Grey GR, owned by the multibillion-pound railway pension fund Railpen, faced legal action after repeated delays in rectifying fire safety problems identified in 2019. The court's decision mandates Grey GR to complete the necessary safety repairs within a specified timeframe, providing mu

Almost 100% of property investors surveyed by property business expert Handelsbanken have received requests from tenants for some form of sustainable feature in the past 12 months*. According to the bank’s latest annual Property Investor Report, based on exclusive insights from UK property investors with an average of 35 properties each, 92% of investors report tenants asking for sustainable features such as heat pumps, solar generation or EV chargers – with over a quarter (28%) requesting the latter. Fur

The industry event of the year is back for its 15th year!  The Property Management Awards, in association with I will be back on the 21st November 2024 at City Central, at the HAC and we cannot wait to celebrate all of the industry's achievements with you all. This is a special year for News on the Block as we celebrate our 21st Birthday and 15 years of the Property Management Awards!  We are excited to announce that entries for this year's awards have opened slightly earlier than usual, to allow more tim

The Property Institute (TPI), the professional body for the residential property management sector, has published its agenda for change in a manifesto for the new Government – with a continued focus on policy change to protect people living in multi-occupancy buildings leveraging recent leasehold reform in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, and the Building Safety Act 2022. In England, an estimated 3.5 million leasehold flats, representing 14% of all residential homes, are managed by residential

A staggering 37% of buyers are being gazumped. What is more shocking, is that the figure has grown by 6% in the last two years. The HomeOwners Alliance as part of its campaign to reform the buying and selling process is calling for an end to the practice of gazumping and recommends that buyers take out Home Buyers Protection Insurance to mitigate the financial loss. Recent research from MFS group highlights the risks of gazumping: 37% of homebuyers are now being gazumped - up from just over a third 

The Association for Rental Living (ARL – formerly the UKAA) has appointed Nicola Fleet-Milne as the new Chair of the ARL Midlands Hub. The founder of Birmingham’s FleetMilne residential sales and lettings agency takes over from outgoing Chair Rebecca Taylor, of Long Harbour. Taylor has successfully led the Midlands Hub since its founding in May 2023 and will continue to serve within the Hub going forward. ARL’s Midlands Hub proactively addresses key challenges and opportunities for the living sector from

UK Single Family Association (UK SFA), the membership organisation for the single-family rental sector across the UK, will integrate into the Association for Rental Living (ARL), which represents all institutionally backed, professionally managed purpose-built rental living sectors including urban and suburban single-family and multi-family rental, co-living and later living, as of 10 June 2024. The integration of the UK SFA into the ARL consolidates the experience and expertise of both organisations and

QUESTION  Please can you confirm that the 2007 version below is the latest version of this act that needs to accompany Service Charge Demands?       ST STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS.   2007 No. 1257 LANDLORD AND TENANT, ENGLAND The Service Charges (Summary of Rights and Obligations, and Transitional Provision) (England) Regulations 2007 Made - - - - 16th. April 2007   ANSWER The reference in your enquiry is to the statutory instructions. In terms of the form and contents of what the summary should contain, the LE

Simple Life, the build-to-rent provider with over 6,000 properties in the UK, has launched its inaugural TV advertising campaign, “Go Get the Simple Life”, marking a first for the build-to-rent sector.  Simple Life, part of Sigma Capital Group, has launched the TV advert as part of a wider brand awareness campaign, focused on the North West of England. The professional landlord is the UK’s leading BTR provider specialising in single family housing across the UK from Scotland to Somerset, offering high-qua