Friday, February 27th, 2015 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential
The Land Registry has issued a reminder that property fraud can happen in many ways. Fraudsters may attempt to acquire ownership of a property either by using a forged document to transfer it into their own name, or by impersonating the registered owner. Once they have raised money by mortgaging the property without the owner’s knowledge, they disappear without making repayments leaving the owner to deal with the consequences. If your property is registered, making sure we can contact you will provide you with better protection against fraudsters.
More information is available here
Monday, January 26th, 2015 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential
Wendy Miller of Berwin Leighton Paisner reports that in two recent cases decided that the 1985 Landlord and Tenant Act makes void any provision in a lease of a dwelling that the apportionment of service charge will be determined “in a particular manner” such as by the landlord’s surveyor. In addition, where an intermediate lease allows the freeholder’s surveyor to determine the apportionment of service charge, that provision will also be void, even though the freeholder has no direct contractual relationship with the residential end user tenants.
Read the full article here
Monday, January 12th, 2015 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
Joseph Preisner of Field Seymour Parkes Landlords need to consider carefully whether terrorism insurance is appropriate and the cost recoverable. In a recent case it was decided that the obligation on the landlord to insure against explosion may translate as a requirement to insure against terrorism and that the obligation on the tenant to cover the cost of insurance may also extend to terrorism insurance.
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Monday, December 8th, 2014 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential
Lynn James of dwf has highlighted a report in Estates Gazette about the fact that the leasehold management sector is currently unregulated. This has led to inconsistencies in the way in which leasehold schemes are managed. ARMA previously lobbied Government for many years for a statutory regulatory scheme and, although this was considered by the Labour administration, the coalition Government decided in 2010 not to proceed with the proposals. In response to this the ARMA-Q regime has been formulated.
Read the full article here
Friday, November 28th, 2014 in Landlord, News, Residential
Kerman & Co also reported that the Court of Appeal recently had to consider the case where a landlord wished to terminate a lease, as the tenant had not complied with the obligations, had persistently been slightly late in paying the rent and had thwarted the landlord’s attempting to gain access to the premises.
Read the full article here
Wednesday, November 12th, 2014 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential
Kerman & Co has reported that when a tenant causes a nuisance to other tenants or to people nearby, the tenant is obviously the person responsible for the nuisance. However, can the landlord also be held liable since the landlord allowed the tenant to be in the position to create a nuisance in the first place? That was the question before the Supreme Court….
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Sunday, October 19th, 2014 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential
Milton McIntosh from Excello Law reports that, in the recent case of Campbell v Redstone Mortgages [2014], concerned a long-running residential mortgage possession claim, the High Court has provided useful clarification on how goods left in a property by an evicted borrower or tenant are to be dealt with by a lender or landlord after they recover possession.
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Wednesday, October 15th, 2014 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential
An article Penningtons Manches looks at the ‘non domestic’/commercial proposed consultation on the regulations for minimum energy performance (now called minimum energy efficiency standards (MEES)) Properties with an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of F or G will be unlettable until works improving the property’s energy efficiency are carried out.
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Monday, August 25th, 2014 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Service Charge
Deloittes has questioned whether the modifications relating to environmental sustainability in the recent (3rd) edition of the Service Charge Code will help to drive change? Whilst there have not been any fundamental changes, some additional guidance has been provided specifically around green leases, Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC), improving environmental performance and Energy Performance Certificates (EPC’s). I would argue that the updates can only be regarded as a good thing for commercial property.
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Thursday, July 31st, 2014 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential
HM Revenue & Customs has finally confirmed that the surrender of a lease subject to tenancies can constitute a “transfer of a going concern” with the result that no VAT is payable. This will result in stamp duty land tax(SDLT) savings for landlords accepting surrenders and in certain cases it will be possible to reclaim SDLT that has been overpaid on historic surrenders.
