Basic Facts About Shared Ownership Shared Owners buy a share of a Long Lease. Rent is paid on the part of the Lease which is not purchased. Shared Owners normally pay 100% of the Service Charge and from the point they purchase any share in the property. Shared Owners may purchase further shares of the… Read More »
What is a qualifying Long Term Agreement? A ‘Qualifying Long Term Agreement’ is a contract between a landlord and a company or individual to supply goods, services, or works to a building or estate for: 1. A period of 12 months or more. AND 2. Any affected leaseholders will be required pay a Service Charge… Read More »
Basic Facts about Leases A lease is a binding legal contract between leaseholder and landlord, and possibly one or more third parties such as a management company. There is no one standard lease type and they can vary dramatically. Once a lease has been made it is can be very difficult, sometimes impossible, to change… Read More »
Why Checking Your Lease is important The starting place for resolving any service charge dispute is your lease. Your lease tells you: What you can be charged for How your service charge bill should be calculated When and in what format your service charge bill must be sent Who provides the services where you live… Read More »
Basic Facts The Government estimates that in 2014 there were 4.1 million Leasehold dwellings in England and Wales. Whilst the majority of Leasehold dwellings are flats, a house can also be a Leasehold dwelling. Leaseholders are a kind of tenant. They do not own the property, they only purchase the exclusive right to use the… Read More »
How are Service Chargeable Cost divided between the properties in a Building? The process by which the total cost of the services provided by a landlord (or managing agent) gets shared between the individual dwellings, or commercial units, in a building or estate pays is referred to as ‘apportionment’. In order to carry out the… Read More »
Basic Facts No matter how thoroughly checks are carried out before the purchase of a Leasehold property, there remains the possibility that problems will still come up after purchase. The problems which come up most frequently normally relate to concerns about either (or both) the level of a Variable Service Charge or the management of… Read More »
What is The Average Service Charge Bill? There has been some recent and interesting research done on the level of the Service Charges in England Wales. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has undertaken research into Service Charges in England and Wales and published a report in December 2014 entitled: market study of the residential property service.… Read More »
Making an Effective Complaint Effective complaints about problems with Service Charges will do two things: Provide good grounds for claiming that some kind of error in management of the building, calculation of the service charge, consultation or invoicing, has occurred. Include a credible statement of how this error has had a detrimental effect on them… Read More »
Our Top 10 Mistakes Landlords make with Service Charges Whilst no two properties are exactly the same, nor landlords, there certain things which we see landlords getting wrong time and time again. If you are concerned about your Service Charge bill, whether it’s your annual bill or a Major Works bill, and you aren’t sure… Read More »