Saturday, June 8th, 2013 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential
Elisons has reported that, in Marks and Spencer plc v BNP Paribas Securities Services Trust Company (Jersey) Ltd and another [2013] EWHC 1279 (Ch), where the tenant exercised a break clause part-way through a quarter, having paid the rent for the full quarter, the High Court implied a term into the lease entitling the tenant to a repayment of the rent from the break date to the end of the quarter. This decision is a departure from the widely-accepted view that, in the absence of an express provision in the lease, a tenant will not be entitled to a refund of any rent paid that relates to the period after a break date.
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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.
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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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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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