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.
Read the full article here
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential
Emma Lunn reports in This is Money that many people with landlord insurance may be disappointed to find that unpaid rent isn’t covered. In most cases it only reimburses lost rent for periods when a property is uninhabitable because of another insured event such as a fire. Therefore landlords need specialist rent guarantee protection but there are many caveats.
Read the full article here
Friday, April 19th, 2013 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential
In Manches News & Publications it is pointed out that tenants who have exercised a break right often object to paying a whole quarter’s rent for a period of time that extends beyond the break date, where that date occurs mid-quarter. However, they should be far more concerned about the alternative scenario, namely remaining on the hook for the rent and all the other lease obligations for the rest of the term, as a result of trying to save relatively small amounts of money.
Read the full article here
Monday, April 15th, 2013 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News
In an article by Clyde & Co, the recent case of ANSA Logistics Ltd v Towerberg Ltd considered a common tenant’s covenant: “Not to assign, underlet or part with
possession of the demised premises or any part thereof without the previous
consent of the landlord, which consent shall not be reasonably withheld.”
ANSA approached the landlord in November 2011 to
ask for consent to underlet but the landlord refused. The landlord
also served a notice on ANSA forfeiting the lease for breach of
the alienation covenant. ANSA applied to the High Court for a
declaration, and the Court considered two questions:
–– Had ANSA parted with possession; and
––Was it reasonable for the landlord to withhold consent?
Firstly the Court decided that ANSA had not parted with
possession and so had not breached the covenant.
The landlord then gave a further reason for withholding
consent concerning Ford’s financial standing. The
Court found this to be unreasonable as only 11% of companies had a lower risk of failure at that time.
Read the full article here
Wednesday, December 12th, 2012 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Service Charge
In a report by Property Week, the Service Charge Operating Report (SCOR) for Retail 2012,based on the service charge cost data from 100 shopping centres with a total lettable area of circa 50m sq ft and yearly expenditure of just under £300m, shows that only 4% of shopping centre landlords show evidence of how service charge accounts are prepared, despite this being a key recommendation of the RICS code of practice. The report also revealed that only 54% of landlords are having annual reconciliation statements signed off by an accountant or surveyor. Finally, the report showed that shopping centre retail tenants are, on average, paying between £4.34 and £6.68 per square foot of space they rent but the reason for this wide cost gap remains unexplained.
Read the full article here
Sunday, November 25th, 2012 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
Landlords and tenants need to be aware of the many legal provisions that govern residential service charges, since mistakes can prove costly. Although we have highlighted many of these pitfalls in the past, this article by Natasha Rees of Forsters LLP gives a very useful summary.
Read the full article here
Tuesday, November 6th, 2012 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Service Charge
Ralph Bullivant of Hill Dickinson notes another instance where landlords will need to be even more vigilant than normal on the quarter day with a view to taking prompt enforcement action against those tenants who have failed to pay their rent, especially if there is a suggestion that they may be in financial difficulties and possibly heading for administration. In The High Court decision, Leisure (Norwich) II Ltd -v- Luminar Lava Ignite Ltd, it was held that, when rent is payable in advance and falls due for payment prior to the commencement of the administration, it is not payable as an expense of the administration and the landlord must stand in line with all the other creditors.
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Friday, October 5th, 2012 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
In Ragge & Co’s Property Update, it is pointed out that, if the parties to a protected lease cannot agree the terms of the renewal, they will be decided by the court and the burden of persuading the court to change the terms of the existing tenancy rests on the party proposing the change. In addition, the High Court has held that a lease with an all-inclusive rent should be renewed on terms which provide for a separate variable service charge.
Read the full article here
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Service Charge
The City of London is entitled to force changes on its tenants at the historic Smithfield Market that will see them pay “exclusive” rent and a separate service charge rather than make one “all-inclusive” payment as they had done previously, the High Court has said.
Read the full article by Out-Law.com here
Friday, September 14th, 2012 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
KPMG has reported a case concerning services provided by a landlord and whether such services are subject to value added tax (VAT) In this case the taxpayer rented offices under a lease which provided for three “rents”, for occupying and insuring the building as well as providing certain services. The landlord did not “opt to tax” and thus was not charging VAT on any part of the rents, including the services. The taxpayer sought to reclaim VAT on the services on the basis that the services for which the “service charge” relates were taxable transactions. HM Revenue & Customs rejected this claim on the grounds that the letting of the property and the provision of the services constituted a single exempt supply. The case was referred The Court of Justice for the European Union for resolution.
Read the full article here
