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Coronavirus: Employment Update 3

Last night, the Prime Minister announced that:  "Travelling to and from work [is permitted], but only where it is absolutely necessary and cannot be done from home".  and “To ensure compliance with the Government’s instruction to stay at home, we will immediately close all shops selling non-essential goods, including clothing and electronic stores and other premises, including libraries, playgrounds and outdoor gyms, and places of worship….”. This immediately raised ques...

Coronavirus: Employment Update 2

As Friday saw the Government asking pubs, clubs and restaurants to close and yesterday saw the Government putting out increasingly urgent calls to everyone to stay at home and stressing that “life shouldn’t feel normal right now”, we appreciate now is likely be a very unsettling and questioning time for our business/employer clients and contacts. In order to help highlight certain key issues for our business/employer clients and contacts, we have considered: What the Government support of...

Coronavirus: Landlord and Tenant (Property) Update 1

This week has been a whirlwind of change for everyone across the Country and the World.    In particular in England and Wales radical changes have been brought in surrounding residential properties, both for homeowners and rental property.  In brief, this weeks key changes so far are: No new possession claims may be brought against tenants in England and Wales;Mortgage lenders agree to provide “payment holidays” to borrowers, in certain circumstances No new Possession claim...

Coronavirus: Employment Update 1

On Wednesday 18 March 2020 the Prime Minister announced that schools will be closed from this afternoon and will remain closed for most pupils (the vast majority) until “further notice” (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51952314). The Prime Minister also stated that schools will remain open for the supervision of children of NHS staff and other front-line workers, as well as for vulnerable children. He also announced a national voucher scheme, to ensure that pupils eligible for free school...

New Bournemouth Office!

We are delighted to announce that we have now officially opened our new Bournemouth Office!  Details are on the website and our Directors, Alex and Ben, will be based from this and the London office from now on.  The addition of the new office is the next phase in the firm's planned expansion and cements our aims to ensure our staff and clients benefit from a true work-life balance, embracing technology and cloud-working to ensure clients are thoroughly looked after, no matter whe...

Intestacy - leaving no Will behind

If you pass away without leaving a valid will your estate will pass in accordance with the law, known as the intestacy rules.  The laws surrounding intestate estates are designed to pass your estate to members of your family in the fairest way possible.  However, the rules are strict and inflexible, failing to suit personal circumstances and wishes.  Issues commonly arise where there are dynamic family structures and tensions in the family.  Furthermore, the rules don’t all...

Expansion of Civil Partnerships to heterosexual couples

Following the historic case of Steinfeld & Keidan -v- Secretary of State 2018 this time last year, which found that to deny heterosexual couples was discriminatory, the Government have agreed to expand the Civil Partnership Act 2004 to allow heterosexual couples to enter into a civil partnership. The Civil Partnerships, Marriage and Deaths (Registration etc.) Act 2019 was given Royal Assent on the 28th March 2019, the Civil Partnership Act 2004 has not yet been amended to reflect the change...

QUALITY? YES WE ARE!

We at Jamieson Alexander don’t like to show off, but today is an exception. The Law Society have awarded us their Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) kitemark, recognising the hard work and dedication of our conveyancing department, headed up by Angela Morreale. We pride ourselves in ensuring that all clients receive a personal service, and our Conveyancing department is the leader in customer care. Purchasing your dream home, or even an investment property, can be a stressful time for even the ...

Civil partnerships for all… or for none?

The Supreme Court has today unanimously ruled that opposite-sex couples should have the same right to a civil partnership as has been enjoyed by same-sex couples only, since 2004.  The Civil Partnership Act 2004 introduced same-sex couples to entitlement to the same legal treatment in terms of inheritance, tax, pensions and next-of-kin arrangements as marriage, if they entered into a legal relationship known as a civil partnership.  Importantly, the right to a civil partnership was not...

Rent2Rent Property Investment

For many investors, the 'Rent-to-Rent' model is way to derive passive income from the property market with minimal investment capital. The premise of a Rent2Rent scheme is quite straightforward. Essentially, they come in 2 flavours: (1) Lease: The investor takes a tenancy from a property owner, commonly for 3-5 years, and then lets individual rooms to sub-tenants. (The properties are commonly large houses with at least 5 rooms; investors will often add to these by converting reception rooms int...

A picture says a thousand words...

They say "...a picture says a thousand words", and I believe it's true. You can't fake happiness and conversely, as some celebrities often find, it's difficult to take back some actions once they've been caught on picture or film! Today, we're pleased to show a number of new team photos on our website, showing Jamieson Alexander's ongoing commitment to not only building a team, but building a strong, professional and happy team - something our clients benefit from daily. Have a great week a...

The Great Property Trap?

The BBC has reported recently on unwitting purchasers of new build Leasehold Houses. According to the BBC News article major developers Bellway Homes and Taylor Wimpey (amongst others) have been selling some of their new build houses on 150 leases, with the purchasers having been poorly advised in respect of the same until after completion of the sale. Most worrying is the fact that the individuals in question do no seem to have been advised by their conveyancing solicitor prior to purchase of...

Do you Let out property through Air BnB? Are you in breach of your Lease?

A recent Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) decision has held that an owner of residential leasehold property that rented the property out on the Air BnB website was in breach of the terms of their lease. A leaseholder of a flat in Enfield, Middlesex recently lost her appeal to overturn an earlier decision by the First Tier Tribunal in which they held that by her advertising on the internet the property for short term lettings, she was in breach of a restriction in her lease to use the prope...

Welcome to the newest member of the team...

We have had a few new team members recently (more about them later...) but it is with great pleasure that we welcome the newest addition to the Jamieson Alexander extended family: Master Eli James Colenutt was born today at 01:40. All our congratulations and very best wishes go out to Ben and Rachel – both she and Eli are doing well, and we are sure they will be very happy. We are sure you will join with us in wishing them well. ...

Absent Freeholders - what can you do?

If you own leasehold property and your Freeholder is failing to maintain or insure it, you are putting your investment at risk. If your lease is shorter than 90 years you should be thinking about obtaining a Lease Extension in the next few years to avoid it dropping below the threshold for marriage value of 80 years, but if the Freeholder is absent you might not know where to begin with the process. ...

Court fees increase - again

Today, 21 March 2016 the fees payable for Possession claims and general applications including divorce proceedings in Courts in England and Wales have risen, with very little in the way of notice being given by the Courts. In some cases Court fees have risen by 100%; applications by consent now attract a fee of £100.00, up from £50.00 if they were filed with the Court last week. An increase in the issue fee for a claim for possession in the County Court has risen from £280.00 to £35...

Bad block management?

I am often approached by clients who own residential leasehold properties flats which are in blocks that are being poorly managed. More often than not the failure to repair and maintain the block is having a negative impact on the value of the individual flats, and it is also common for the failure to regularly repair to cost the leaseholders more in the long run as poor maintenance increases the cost of repair works when they are finally carried out. It is important in such situations ...

A Fox(tons) in the headlights...

In the late 2000's the High Court upheld a decision of the regulator from 2008 and found in favour of the Office of Fair Trading that Foxtons' letting terms were unfair to Landlord customers, and Foxtons went on to re-write their lettings terms removing the unfair terms as far as necessary. More recently it would seem that Foxtons have upset a client, and that particular client happened to be a Lecturer at King's College London. Dr Chris Townley now lectures in Law, having previously ...

Employment Contracts - Are yours up to date?

If you are an Employer employing staff in England or Wales you are no doubt aware that you must provide all of your Employees with written terms of employment, or you'll be in breach of Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA). But whilst a written statement of terms of employment which complies with section 1 of ERA may satisfy the minimum legislative requirement on an Employer, it does little to protect the Employer or assist them in managing Employees generally. Whether the...

Court Fees increase – limiting access to Justice?

From 9 March 2015, in a move opposed by the Law Society and the majority of legal practitioners in England and Wales, the Court fees payable on the issue of Civil Court proceedings were increased significantly, by as much as 600%. In England and Wales if you wish to sue another party in the Court you would issue a claim in either the County Court or the High Court for the amount of money you believe you are owed together with any interest accrued. Before 9 March 2015 the Issue Fee pa...

Managing Tenant risk, and acting quickly

Even with the utmost due diligence at the outset, Landlords can find themselves with tenants that default on rent, or damage their property, or otherwise cause an intolerable nuisance. It is essential in mitigating the loss suffered by Landlords in such circumstances that good ground work and swift action is taken. By groundwork of course I mean ensuring that a formal comprehensive tenancy agreement is prepared at the outset of the tenancy and entered into by all parties in occupatio...

Letting Agents’ fees and Consumer rights – changes are here…

As of 27 May 2015 Lettings Agents in England are under a statutory duty to publicise the fees they charge. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 imposes on all Lettings Agents in England a requirement to display prominently both in their office and on their website a detailed list of the fees that they charge, including detailing whether those charges are per person or per property.The fees displayed should include any applicable VAT. If the fee is not determinable in advance, for instance beca...

Good tenants are like gold dust – Bad tenants can cost you a lot more than lost rent

Here at Jamieson Alexander we get terribly upset when clients come to us whose residential tenants have stopped paying their rent and as a consequence our clients are facing repossession by their mortgagees. All too often we hear of the investor new to the rental property market that's spent years saving up a deposit for a buy to let property, only to have their very first tenants default on the rent in the first few months. It is unwise to let mortgaged residential property out unle...

I'm going to purchase a buy-to-let property – renting property is easy right?

Renting out investment property could provide you with a decent return for your investment compared to the rates of interest available in banks and building societies today.Indeed the decent income combined with the capital growth that the property market has seen in recent years has lured many more people to consider investing in property that previously have not done so. But investors must be cautious; as with any investment there are risks, and letting property carries its fair share o...

The Right to Manage – is it right for me?

Do you own a leasehold flat in a block that's poorly managed or managed in such a manner that you are forced to pay the managing agents many hundreds or thousands of pounds a year in service charges? If the answer is yes, you may have considered taking steps to enfranchise the Freehold collectively, but enfranchisement can be an expensive option, particularly if there is no need to extend the leases and the Leaseholders' main aim is to take control of the management of the block....