Flat-Living.co.uk
News
Case law: Qualifying as a self-contained part of a building for leasehold enfranchisement In Craftrule Ltd v 41-60 Albert Palace Mansions (Freehold) Ltd [2010] EWHC 1230 (Ch), the High Court considered the definition of a qualifying building under section 3 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 (LRHUDA 1993). The High Court decided that “a self-contained part of a building”, referred to in section 3, could mean part of a building even if that part would be capable of being subdivided into two or more further self-contained parts. The decision is of importance to tenants of long leases seeking to enfranchise. Tenants of a self-contained part of a building, that may also have the potential to be treated as two
or more separate parts, can join together to serve an initial enfranchisement notice under section 13 of LRHUDA 1993. This may be significant where the tenants of one of the two or more potential subdivisions would otherwise fail to satisfy the requirement that the initial enfranchisement notice is served by “not less than one half of the total number of flats”. The case has confirmed that tenants have the flexibility to group together in various configurations that satisfy the requirements of a self-contained part of a building. Freeholders may be disappointed that another potential argument to defeat an enfranchisement claim has been ruled out.
OM Property Management delivers improvements OM Property Management, part of Peverel Property Management, has developed a new order tracking system in a bid to increase transparency of work carried out by contractors at developments it manages across England and Wales. This innovative new functionality, which will be available via its online customer website, will ensure
customers are kept up to date on maintenance works at their development. Late 2005 the company first launched their customer website to provide property owners and tenants with development specific and financial information which was part of its objective to provide excellent customer service. In 2007, this website won the RICS Award for Property
Management Strategy and Delivery - Private Sector for demonstrating innovation in property management. Since then, the business has been evolving its web technology even further by developing a new “Maintenance Update” area which will provide up to date and real time information about the status of maintenance works directly to customers.
Tragic security gate accidents On 30th June a six-year-old girl died after becoming trapped in an electric gate in Manchester as her mother watched on helplessly. Emergency services were called to the entrance to flats off Maine Road in Moss Side. The family of a five-year-old girl who died after being trapped by a sliding automatic gate have paid tribute to her. On 3rd July Karolina Maria Golabek, a pupil at Penybont Primary School, died after the incident at a block of flats in Bridgend. The waist-high black metal gate is at the entrance to a small car park at a three-storey building.
Residentsline have been providing buildings insurance for blocks of flats and apartments for over 15 years and have just
06
relaunched their website to provide further unique facilities for their Clients. This includes a log-in facility to view insurance documents and access for property managers to access their clients insurance claims online.
Flats first to fall…and first to rise At their lowest point in February 2008 flat prices fell almost twice as fast as all house prices (1.6% drop in all residential property prices, 2.9% drop in flat prices). Fear not. Some commentators believe that although private sector buy-to-let flats have been hard hit, flats in traditionally owner occupied blocks have fared much better than those that are, in the main, let out. Also, flat prices are often the first to fall in a recession, but have been shown to bounce back to pre-recession levels quicker than house prices. And what about those developers? Having mothballed sites and sold off swathes of new homes at up to 50% off the official valuation to keep the cash coming in, some have survived to build another day. Many haven’t.
