June 2015 #332 – Law Journals

Residential Service Charges: Look before you leap

Douglas Rhodes reports on landlords’ options for the recovery of legal costs in residential service charge disputes at the First-tier Tribunal ‘The First-tier Tribunal is often thought of as a no-costs forum, due to the fact that there is no general rule that the loser pays the winner’s costs. However, there is a surprisingly wide …

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Construction Focus: Penalty shoot-out

A recent case has held that a parking charge was commercially justifiable, and not a penalty. John Starr outlines the case and how it affects liquidated damages clauses in construction contracts ‘A party is entitled to breach its contract and a provision in a contract which is designed to deter breach will generally be unenforceable …

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Residential Tenancies: How not to lose a landlord’s rights

Alexandra Anderson and Sarah Hennessy discuss the pitfalls surrounding collection of service charges by property managers ‘The court considered that, as a matter of ordinary language, there is an obvious difference between a liability to pay and the incurring of costs… a liability must crystallise before it becomes a cost.’One of the biggest risks to …

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Planning Update: Carry on planning

Matthew Stimson looks at changes to the planning system introduced shortly before the general election and predicts that the new government’s policies will continue in this direction ‘Several of the previous government’s most recent initiatives were designed to boost housing development.’ In the field of town and country planning at least, the election of the …

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The Right To Manage: Block by block

William Bethune and Gillian Palmer consider a Court of Appeal case that has held that only tenants of single blocks can exercise the right to manage under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 ‘The leaseholders’ right to manage (RTM) falls short of the clean break afforded by collective enfranchisement.’ The Court of Appeal’s decision …

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Deregulation Act 2015: Redressing the balance?

Rebecca Francis reviews whether the new Deregulation Act is cause for concern to landlords ‘The changes to the tenancy deposit scheme (TDS) regime were introduced late in the day, into a Deregulation Bill that had until then contained little of interest for landlord and tenant lawyers.’In recent years, residential landlords have found themselves operating against …

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ESOS Compliance: Alternative routes – a £90,000 gamble?

With the compliance deadline for the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme Regulations 2014 coming at the end of the year, Malcolm Dowden assesses their implications ‘The Regulations themselves create a ludicrous and certainly unintentional situation, in which the turnover and balance sheet test would be met only if the undertaking’s balance sheet total was precisely €43m …

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