Tuesday, September 15th, 2015 in Landlord, News, Residential
Tanfield Chambers has raised the problem inherent in joint ownership. It is not uncommon, on an enfranchisement of a terraced house converted into two flats, for the freehold to be acquired by the two lessees jointly. What then? Must both decide on service charge expenditure together? What happens if one of the two refuses to join in, can the other sue? What if one of the two breaches their lease as leaseholder? These are issues which have often arisen in cases I have dealt with. The answers lie in an analysis of the trust law implications of joint ownership.
Read the full article here
Thursday, September 10th, 2015 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News
An article from Shoosmiths points out that many leases provide for a landlord to create a reserve fund of service charge contributions to cover recurring costs such as maintenance, cleaning and redecoration.
These funds are distinct from a sinking fund which is designed for costly rainy day items such as replacing lifts or air-conditioning plant.
A reserve fund helps to balance the financial burden on the tenant, as it avoids fluctuations to their service charge contributions, and gives greater certainty to the landlord that funds will be available in advance to cover the day to day cost of providing services.
The recent case of Caribax Ltd v Hinde House Management Company Ltd reminded us that residential landlords are obliged to hold reserve funds on trust for their tenants and must give effect to the service charge terms of the lease.
But what is the position for a commercial landlord?
Read the full article here
Monday, August 24th, 2015 in Commercial, Landlord, News
In an article from Trethowans, Paul Longman reports that it may seem a long way off but, from April 2018, landlords “may not let” commercial properties with an EPC rating of F or G unless improvement is not practicable or an exemption applies (for example, if the tenancy is for a term of 6 months or less). Similar regulations will apply to residential properties.
Read the full article here
Thursday, August 13th, 2015 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News
The Keeble Hawson Commercial Property team has reported that a tenant had exercised a break clause, ending a lease early and sought a refund of parts of payments it had made in advance in respect of rent, service charge, car parking and insurance charges, which related to a period after the break date. However, the Court of Appeal ruled that it was not appropriate to imply a term into a lease that entitled the tenant to a refund in respect of payments that it had paid in advance in accordance with the terms of the lease.
Monday, July 27th, 2015 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
Walker Morris reports that a recent Tribunal ruled that whilst the cost of repair work undertaken by a landlord was fully recoverable from leaseholders under section 19 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, a different approach must be taken when assessing whether the landlord can rely on this provision to recover the cost of improvement work.
Read the full article here
Thursday, July 23rd, 2015 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential
London based law firm Leigh Day has announced that it is bringing a group claim against Foxtons on behalf of landlords, in a legal case which could see the London estate agent facing a multi-million pound payout.
Read the full article here
Monday, July 20th, 2015 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential
In an article from Keeble Hawson it was reported that, a recent case in the Upper Tribunal of the Lands Chamber has been found in favour of a residential tenant who challenged her water charges. The estate water supply was measured by meter which could not be read remotely. The landlord therefore charged individual water charges from a central meter and recovered a proportion from each tenant through the service charge. The tenant argued this was wrong based on the high service charges raised.
Read the full article here
Saturday, June 27th, 2015 in Commercial, Landlord, News, Residential, Service Charge
In the case of Arnold v Britton & Ors [2015] UKSC 36, Gary Milner-Moore and Joanne Keillor of Herbert Smith Freehills LLP comment on the Supreme Court’s conclusion that, in interpreting a service charge provision in a number of long leases, arguments based on commercial common sense should not be used to undervalue the importance of the actual words used, and that the correct interpretation was one which applied the natural meaning of the term.
Read the full article here
Monday, May 18th, 2015 in Landlord, News, Residential, Service Charge
Brian Church for 24dash.com notes that social housing is changing. Instead of focusing exclusively on social housing tenants, many social landlords are branching out by developing flats and letting them subject to usual service charges. In line with this we are seeing a growing trend for social landlords to also bring in an element of service charge for their more traditional social tenants.
Read more here
Monday, May 18th, 2015 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
Websters senior partner David Goddard says 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’
