Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
Ruth Lythe reports in This Is Money that soaring service charges could leave thousands of families seduced by government-backed property schemes at risk of losing their homes. A Money Mail investigation has uncovered how buyers of new-build homes are at the mercy of ruthless property management firms that hike service charges for the upkeep of shared areas at blocks of flats. This can leave buyers struggling to cope with monthly bills and hinder them from saving up to buy a bigger stake in their property.
Read the full article here
Wednesday, March 21st, 2012 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Service Charge
It can be problematical for a property manager when it comes to seeking legal advice. Solicitors can be an expensive commodity, and there is often neither the means nor the willingness to pay high legal fees. Equally, there will be no appetite to increase service charge levels to cover legal fees.
In a blog from Brady Solicitors, six cost-effective and innovative ways are suggested to secure the desired result without significant costs.
Read the full article here
Wednesday, March 21st, 2012 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
Final definative guidance has been issued on accounting and reporting in relation to service charge accounts for residential properties. This guidance was prepared by a joint working group comprising representatives of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, ICAEW, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, the Association of Residential Managing Agents and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Obtain a full copy of the guidance here
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 in News
We are very excited to announce that our London office will be moving to new, improved offices in Marylebone from Monday 5th March 2012.
Our Birmingham office remains unchanged.
The new London offices are situated in a recently refurbished Grade II listed building providing a contemporary and environmentally responsible working environment.
After nearly 80 years in our current London offices we are confident that this new accommodation will enable us to build further on our market leading service in property management accounting.
Our new London office address is:
12 Melcombe Place
Marylebone
London
NW1 6JJ
Please note we also have new switchboard numbers:
New London Tel: 020 3585 3455
New London Fax: 020 3585 3456
All mobile phone numbers and email addresses remain unchanged. Any existing post
to our old London address will be forwarded but please use the new address for any future correspondence.
We are commencing re-location at 2pm on Friday 3rd March and normal service from our new office will resume from Monday 5th.
The move does not affect our Birmingham offices where it remains business as usual.
We thank you for your continued support and look forward to working with you from our new enhanced accommodation.
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Service Charge
Andrew Salmon comments that, normally, all service charge expenditure for a property is amalgamated annually and firstly apportioned to the individual units in the agreed percentages. Next, the appropriate proportion of this annual expenditure for any unit with a void period is then apportioned to the landlord. However, in the case of a new building, where there is only a gradual take-up of the available units, this traditional method may be unfairly prejudicing the landlord. This is because, in the early part of the year, the expenditure on such costs as security and common electricity may be quite low. With the increase in occupancy, these charges may rise dramatically but the landlord has to pick up the void percentage of the whole year’s expenditure, rather than a proportion of the lower cost when the various units were actually void.
A fairer split could be to separate the individual expenditure items into those incurred when the property was filling up and those incurred when the building was fully let. The landlord would then only pick up his proportion of the costs in the first period and not a proportion of the annual total.
Obviously, the apportionment could be split over even shorter periods and there are other questions of fairness to be considered, such as the temptation to hold back payment until the later (non-void) period. However, overall, this revised method may be a fairer way of apportioning the first year’s service charge to the landlord of a new property.
Thursday, January 5th, 2012 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Service Charge
A recent article by Shoesmiths considers the balance required between landlords’ desire to maximise income and tenants’ wish for improved terms of acceptance. Inevitably this often comes to a head over service charges.
Read the full article here
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
Alex Wellman of Inside Housing has reported that a problem has arisen over the service charge claimed by a housing association for the maintenance of an estate where some of the properties are privately owned. Two Rivers Housing lost an appeal recently against a previous judgement so that non-tenants of the association did not have to pay for a proportion of the cost of the cutting of grass on the estate.
Read the full article here
Thursday, December 15th, 2011 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Service Charge
In FM World it was reported that 80 per cent of respondents to the latest FM 100 Poll believe facilities managers should be involved in negotiating service charges paid by their organisation to the landlord. Many FMs have said they are not involved, but would like to be.
Read the full article here
Monday, December 12th, 2011 in Commercial, Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
An article on the Rentman website notes that the largest ever leaseholder tribunal case between managing agent Peverel – owned by the family trust of property tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz – and London’s St George Wharf Residents’ Association has been settled out of court for an undisclosed seven-figure sum.
Read full article here
Sunday, November 20th, 2011 in Landlord, Managing Agent, News, Residential, Service Charge
Andy Stern in the Property Owners Directory points out that the Lands Chamber of the Upper Tribunal has ruled against a freehold owner that claimed legal fees in its bid to recover unpaid service charges. The London Rent Assessment Committee had initially determined that a lessee of Castelnau Mansions in southwest London should pay £11,258.02 in unpaid service charges for his flat. An amount of £4,663 for legal fees was included as an item in the service charge accounts.
Read the full article here
