Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
Websters’ senior partner, David Goddard writes that, when we started specialising in service charge audits they were frequently undertaken as part of the property owner’s general annual audit. This was not a satisfactory situation because specialist knowledge is needed for accurate service charge accounting assessment.
- Landlords and tenants have transparent financial relationships
- Tenants trust that the service charge is correct and fair at no added cost to the landlord
- A reduction in investigations by tenants into service charges, saving time and money for landlords
- Specialist advice on current techniques for the internal accounts team
- Almost all general practice accountants and auditors unfortunately do not have the specialist knowledge and experience to fully understand your needs
Since that time many large landlords in the UK have moved to providing independent audited accounts for their service charges thus removing one cause of landlord : tenant conflict.
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
An Authorised Guarantee Agreement (AGA) is a guarantee provided by an outgoing tenant to the landlord that the new assignee tenant will perform its covenants under the lease. In a recent case Christopher Burke of Pearson Hinchliffe shows how an AGA proved invaluable to a landlord when his lease assignee went into Administration.
Read the full article here
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Service Charge
Tenants often agree to pay through the service charge for items required by statutory provision in force when the lease is signed but who is responsible if those statutory provisions change, requiring expensive upgrading rather than simple maintenance of equipment. This point is discussed by Stephen Lemmon of Martineau in relation to expensive air conditioning upgrades required by new European Regulations
Read the full article here
