Latest blog posts

The most common way for a leaseholder to extend their lease involves a solicitor serving a Section 42 notice (S42) on their freeholder under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993. This notice not only compels the Freeholder to grant the lessee a new lease equal to the existing term plus 90 years at a peppercorn ground rent, ... Read more >>

A question came up on a recent party wall job which led to an interesting debate on what the section 11(11) expenses should cover when one owner re-builds a party fence wall as a party wall and the other owner later makes use of it.Section 11(11) of the Act states that:Where use is subsequently made by the adjoining owner of work carried ... Read more >>

All new leases with terms of 7 or more years or assigned leases with at least 7 years remaining must be registered with Land Registry and to do that a lease plan is required.A Lease Plan is an appropriately scaled metric drawing depicting the land or part of a building over which the lessee has exclusive or shared access.For a Lease Plan ... Read more >>

As a result of the extreme weather over recent weeks I’ve taken a couple of calls from owners who have experienced dampness penetrating through solid walls as a result of driving rain. You’d think that a 215mm thick solid brick wall would provide a sufficient barrier to rain but often defects will arise which means that’s not the ... Read more >>

We prepare several fee proposals for party wall services every week. Clients like the assurance of a fixed fee and as specialist party wall surveyors we’re confident to provide such. The more difficult question is what the adjoining owner’s surveyor is likely to charge?It’s probably best to start by explaining why the adjoining owner’s ... Read more >>

In normal circumstances our clients will have agreed to purchase a property at a set price prior to instructing us to undertake a survey. That’s not possible if the subject property is being sold at auction.Auction houses tend to publish their catalogues, both in hard copy and online, about a month in advance. In the 2-3 weeks leading up to ... Read more >>

Thursday evening’s collapse of a section of the ceiling at the Apollo Theatre in London brought in to sharp focus the need to maintain ceilings in period properties.Looking at the pictures of the Apollo’s interior there is much ornate plasterwork but being built in 1901 the base of the ceiling will undoubtedly be of lath and plaster type. ... Read more >>

Many estate agents and mortgage brokers are reporting lengthy delays when it comes to getting surveys completed for properties. Hotspots such as West London are amongst the most affected by the backlog but there seems to be a general lengthening in the time span for survey fulfillment. Although RICS (the Royal Institution for Chartered Surveyors) ... Read more >>

I’ve had to prepare a couple of valuations recently for owners that wanted to either buy or sell a roof space.The most common scenario is where a property has been converted but the roof space, or part of it, has been retained by the freeholder; often for the purpose of housing cold water storage tanks serving the flats below. As the flats ... Read more >>

We’re now 6 weeks in to phase 1 of the work and I’d estimate that we’ve fallen a couple of weeks behind the program.The reason appears to be the lack of availability of sub-contractors but hopefully we’ll pull back the time during the phase 2 program which appears to be a bit more generous.Anyway, it is nice to see the shape of the ... Read more >>