Friday, May 24th, 2013 in Commercial, Landlord, News, Residential
Speechly Bircham has reported that it is a virtual certainty that a new 15% top rate of SDLT for transfers of high-value UK residential property to companies and certain other entities will be incorporated into the Finance Act 2013 when it is passed this summer. As is commonly the case with Finance Act provisions, the provisions for the annual tax changes and extension of CGT will be back-dated to the preceding April, so in a sense the legislation is already in force.
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Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
In a recent update, Optima Legal reported the case of OM Property Management Limited v Burr. OM had mistakenly paid EDF Energy for gas and EDF Energy passed this on to the correct supplier, Total Energy . However, there was still a shortfall in the region of £100,000. This sum was put through the service charge and demanded from the tenants. One of the tenants claimed that as the costs had been ‘incurred’ more than 18 months before the service charges demand had been sent and were therefore irrecoverable. A Leasehold Valuation Tribunal agreed with him but the Upper Tribunal overturned that decision, as it decided that the cost for the fuel had not been incurred until the supplier had presented its bill. The Court of Appeal dismissed the tenant’s appeal,stating that the Upper Tribunal was correct that a cost became incurred on the presentation of an invoice or when it is paid (by the landlord).
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Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
We reported earlier that, in the case of Daejan Investments Ltd v Benson, the Court of Appeal had denied a landlord dispensation from observing service charge consultation requirements. He had failed to comply with all stages of the requirements by not providing the tenants with a summary of observations on the estimates and a notice of where they would be available for inspection. However, Chris George, of Shoosmiths, has reported that these findings have been reversed by the Supreme Court.
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