Monday, December 12th, 2011
An article on the Rentman website notes that the largest ever leaseholder tribunal case between managing agent Peverel – owned by the family trust of property tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz – and London’s St George Wharf Residents’ Association has been settled out of court for an undisclosed seven-figure sum.
Read full article here
Sunday, November 20th, 2011
Andy Stern in the Property Owners Directory points out that the Lands Chamber of the Upper Tribunal has ruled against a freehold owner that claimed legal fees in its bid to recover unpaid service charges. The London Rent Assessment Committee had initially determined that a lessee of Castelnau Mansions in southwest London should pay £11,258.02 in unpaid service charges for his flat. An amount of £4,663 for legal fees was included as an item in the service charge accounts.
Read the full article here
Monday, October 17th, 2011
Brian Milligan of the BBC has highlighted the fact that flat-owners’ complaints about service charges have risen by 46% in two years to 7,600, figures show. They queried the amount they were being asked to pay for maintenance and repairs, the Leasehold Advisory Service for England and Wales said. In some cases flat-owners have been asked for payments of tens of thousands of pounds by those who manage the blocks they live in. But an agents’ association said actual numbers of complaints remained low.
Read the full article here
Thursday, September 15th, 2011
According to a report by Property Week, the Occupier Satisfaction Survey 2011 questionnaire based on the Code for Leasing Business Premises, shows that commercial property tenants in the UK are slightly more satisfied with the service they receive from landlords than last year, although service charge arrangements remain a particular area of discontent. The survey was commissioned by the Property Industry Alliance in conjunction with the UK chapter of CoreNet Global.
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011
The RealService Best Practice Group (RSBPG) has published its second benchmarking Index, which shows the extent to which some of the UK’s leading owners and managers are complying with the requirements of the RICS Service Charge Codes for commercial and residential properties. The results show that property owners and managers are still finding it challenging to demonstrate compliance with the requirements set out by the RICS.
Read the full report here
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011
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.
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
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
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
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
The City of London Law Society Land Law committee has drafted service charge provisions to be used in leases, which reflect many elements of the RICS Code of Practice on Service Charges in Commercial Property. The introductory notes warn that, despite the intended fairness of the clauses, “it may be appropriate in the case of a short term to limit the tenant’s obligations, whether through the exclusion of particular heads of expenditure or by agreeing an overall cap on the tenant’s contribution.”
Read the Office Building clause here
Read the retail specimen clause here
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
With poorly managed service charges remaining a frequent cause of dispute between owners and occupiers, the new RICS Service Charge Code of Practice has been developed with leading property bodies to improve standards and promote consistency, fairness, transparency and best practice in the management and administration of service charges in commercial property. Providing guidance and setting out clear best practice principles to solicitors, their clients and managers of service charges, the new Code is an essential tool for an industry looking to improve the quality of service to its customers.
Read the full code here