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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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.
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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.
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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, April 10th, 2013 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
Camden Council leaseholder tenants may not have been charged for service charge works carried out via district (housing) management committee’s since at least 2001.
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Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 in News, Residential
Alex Wellman of Inside Housing reports that Westminster Council is to give housing priority to people who have been in employment for more than two years, as it wants to reward those actively seeking work while at the same time discouraging a ‘benefits culture’. Currently residents are given priority according to need including factors such as homelessness, medical needs and young children. People on temporary contracts will have to prove they have been employed continuously for the same time with no more than one month’s gap between contracts. People who have been seeking work for the same period of time will also be eligible for extra points, if they have been engaged with the council’s homelessness employment learning project.
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Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
Russell-Cooke has highlighted a recent court case that could cause turmoil for those who manage residential service charge property
It is well known that landlords of residential properties are required to consult with lessees prior to committing to works where expenditure would result in any lessee paying more than £250 and the common understanding was that low cost, low key works did not require prior consultation. In an attempt to avoid what was sometimes perceived as being the tiresome, time consuming and costly exercise of consulting, landlords would sometimes split the cost into separate projects, each of which would be low enough not to trigger the consultation requirements. However, in the case of Phillips v Francis, it was decided that works should not be split, but treated collectively over the service charge year. However the small print of the decision needs to be examined……………
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Wednesday, February 13th, 2013 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
The recent Court of Appeal case of Campbell v Daejan Properties Limited [2012] EWCA Civ 1503 has served as an important reminder to landlords that there is not a presumption that they should receive full recovery of their maintenance and repair costs from a tenant through the service charge.
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Tuesday, February 5th, 2013 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential
A recent article by Sophie Wilkinson and Nathan Rees of Shoosmiths reports on The Green Deal, which is a government-backed funding mechanism for making energy efficiency improvements to property. For finance under the scheme to be available, energy efficiency improvements need to pay for themselves through resulting savings on gas and electricity bills. Both landlords and tenants can take out Green Deal finance. Landlords may benefit from improved value and marketability (from the perception that the property is more energy efficient), whilst tenants should benefit from lower bills. However, there are a number of issues which landlords/investors, in particular, will need to consider.
Read the full article here
