Source: http://www.leaseholdlife.info/index.php/fpra-the-impact-of-the-green-deal-on-blocks-of-flats
Timestamp: 2013-05-24 00:20:39
Document Index: 673642637

Matched Legal Cases: ['UKSC ', 'EWCA ', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 3', 'art 4', 'art 5', 'art 6']

Leasehold Life - FPRA: The Impact of The Green Deal on Blocks of Flats
Home Bio Sharon Crossland AIRPM Testimonials Child & Child Solicitors Katie Cohen: Partner FPRA (Federation of Private Residents Associations) Bob Symtherman: Chairman Hera Property Management Services Suzanne Wicks: Managing Director Painsmith Solicitors David Whitney: Solicitor & Mediator Rosetta Consulting Ltd Kat Callo: Author, Director & Strategy Consultant SA Law LLP Chris Alexander: Solicitor Your Home Property Management James Cooke: Director Wellington Mansions: Block Management Diary Photo Gallery Completed Works & Installations 2012: January to June 2012: July to December 2010: January to June 2010: July to December 2011: January to June 2011: July to December 2009: January to June 2009: July to December 2005 - 2006 2007 - 2008 Guest Contributors Barristers Jonathan Upton: Tanfield Chambers Chartered Valuation Surveyors Brett Williams: CP Bigwood Exceptions To The Rule For Freehold Sales myleasehold Buying Freeholds & Lease Extensions From Local Authorities Leasehold Services ALEP Why Weren't We Offered The Right Of First Refusal? Colin Stokes: adiuvo Providing Leaseholder Support 24/7 Dudley Joiner: RTM Federation Right To Manage: Truly The Way Forward? FPRA & Chairman Bob Smytherman Baroness Gardner & The Housing Strategy Debate Could This Be The Next Big Scandal Facing Leaseholders? FPRA Launches New Members Area Is RTM Always Right For Leaseholders? Impact Of Green Deal On Blocks Of Flats Leasehold Reform? Law Commissioner Says No! James Butler: Landmark Lease Advisory Services How Landmark Lease Started Nicholas Kissen: LEASE Warning to Freeholders: Consult Carefully Over Section 20 Nigel Wilkins: CARL Chairman Key Objectives For Leasehold Reform Service Charge Help Freehold Rent Charges Is RTM Right For You? Parking Enforcement Setting a Service Charge Budget Local Authorities & Private Landlords Damon Thomas: Fast Trak Solutions Private and Social Landlord Issues: A Combined Solution? Managing Agents James Cook: Your Home Property Management Why Is The Leasehold Sector So Complicated? Are Some UK Property Managers Too Big To Care? Solicitors Chris Alexander: SA Law LLP Am I Liable For Service Charge Arrears Which Pre-Date My Purchase? Old & New Leases: The Subtle Difference Christopher Bernard & Shamin Kashem: HPLP Solicitors What To Do About Squatters Joint Ownership & Transfer Of Equity How To Buy The Freehold When The Landlord Is Resident David Whitney: Painsmith Solicitors How Are Lease Extensions Valued? Lease Forfeiture For Breach Of Covenant Recovering Insurance Premiums: Always Check The Lease! The Thorny Issue of Buildings Insurance Graham Jaffe: JPC Law Acquiring The Freehold From A Dissolved Company Can We Buy The Freehold? Katie Cohen: Child & Child Acquiring The Freehold From A Bankrupt Individual Bankrupt Individual Freeholder Laura Severn: Brady Solicitors Demands For Service Charge Payments: It's All In The Detail! No Dogs Allowed! It's A Risky Business! A Brief Guide To Directors & Officers Insurance Mark Chick: Bishop & Sewell LLP Commonhold: What Is It? Could We Covert To It? Serving Notice Of Enfranchisement Under The 1993 Act Property & Construction Malcolm Thomas: Property Tectonics Fire Safety In Residential & Commercial Buildings Legal Updates Tanfield Chambers: Jonathan Upton April 2013 Brickfield Properties Limited v Botten [2013] UKUT 0133 (LC) Carey-Morgan v de Walden [2013] UKUT 0134 (LC) Daejan Investments Ltd v Benson [2013] UKSC 14; [2013] 1 W.L.R. 854 Hillfinch Properties Ltd v Lessees of Southbourne Court [2013] UKUT 096 (LC) Tobicon Limited v Collinson [2013] UKUT 047(LC) March 2013 Morshead Mansions Ltd v Mactra Properties Ltd [2013] EWHC 224 (Ch) January 2013 Johnson v County Bideford [2012] UKUT 457 (LC) Phillips v Francis [2012] EWHC 3650 (Ch D) February 2013 Sadd v Brown [2012] UKUT 438 (LC) December 2012 Arnold v Britten [2012] EWHC 3451 (Ch) Campbell v Daejan Properties Ltd [2012] EWCA Civ 5103 November 2012 Birmingham City Council v Keddie [2012] UKUT 323 (LC) & Crosspite Ltd v Sachdev [2012] UKUT 321 (LC) September 2012 Peverel Properties Limited, Peverel OM Limited v Hughes [2012] UKUT 258 (LC) News Block Management General News A New Lease of Life: Making Leasehold Fit For The 21st Century Are Leaseholds On the Way Out? Call for Leasehold to be Simplified Is It Time to Abolish Existing Leasehold Laws? Leasehold Life Daily MP's Fully Aware of Leaseholders Plight This Exploitation of Leaseholders Must Stop! Legal Costs Bypassing LVT's £500 Limit On Legal Costs Legal Expenses Recovery LVT & Disallowing Costs Recovering Legal Costs From Leaseholders Managing Agents Are You At Risk From Rogue Property Managers? Right to Manage Only 4,365 RTM Companies Created Since 2003 Questions Raised Over Tenants Right to Manage Subletting Fees Buy to Let Councils & PRS Landlords Councils & Rogue Landlords Local Authorities Need To Work With Landlords Private Sector Leasing General News Bailed Out Buy to Let Is Bad for Britain Consumer Protection Still Suffers as PRS Grows Cowboy Agents & Landlords in the Firing Line Again! Landlord Complaints Increasing Say Shelter Landlord Home Address Home Address Disclosure Landlord Repairs Crackdown The Rental Sector Needs Improving Should We Move To Longer Leases? UK Migrants & The PRS PRS Tenants Protest Against Unfair Fees Landlord Licencing Licencing Plan Receives Widespread Support Mandatory Licencing Could Be The Way Forward Newham Council To Licence All PRS Landlords Construction & Surveying General News Buying a House? Look Beyond the Decorations! Housing & Planning Shake Up Planning Permission: Will A Section 106 Agreement 'Holiday' Stimulate Development? Light Permitted Developments & Neighbouring 'Rights to Light' Right of Light: A Dark Art Social Housing Heading into Trouble Useful Links Anti-Social Behaviour Civil Mediation Providers Citizens Advice Hedgeline Noise Abatement Society Buy to Let Conveyancing Council of Mortgage Lenders Council for Licenced Conveyancers Independent Personal Search Agents (IPSA) Independent Surveyors & Valuers Association Guides Housing Health & Safety Ratings System Local Housing Allowance Managing Contractors The Landlord Handbook 2012 (revised) by ANUK & the LGA Landlord Insurances Part 1: Buildings Insurance Part 2: Buildings Insurance (cont) Part 3: Contents Part 4: Legal Expenses Part 5: Rent Protection Part 6: Home Emergency Assistance, Domestic Assistance Insurance Landlord, Tenant & Company Director Checks Checksure Company Check Companies House Duedil Landlord Referencing Services Rentchecks.com LPA Receivership of Buy to Let Properties Non-Resident Landlords Scheme Office of Fair Trading Housing Department of Communities & Local Government DirectGov Homes & Communities Agency Leasehold Block Management Association of Residential Managing Agents Federation of Private Residents' Associations Flat Living Leasehold Knowledge Partnership News on the Block Legal Civil Justice Council Documents: NetLawman Financial Reporting Council Law Commission Law Society Solicitors Regulation Authority UK Legislation Repossession & Homelessness Crisis Housing Reposessions Social Housing Leasehold Excellence Network FPRA: The Impact of The Green Deal on Blocks of Flats A couple of years ago the Energy Savings Trust proposed that all properties with an Energy Performance Rating of F and G should be banned from being sold or rented from 2015 onwards. This prompted Leasehold Life to ask Grant Shapps, John Healey, Sara Teather and Boris Johnson for their views. Living in a block that was not only built around the 1930's, but had sustained around twenty years of neglect before we took over the managment of it, the proposal was somewhat worrying. The only reply I received was from the Chief Of Staff to Grant Shapps saying that they were "concerned about the workability of such a scheme".Fast forward to 2011 and the Green Deal is currently going through Parliament through the Energy Bill. Agreements are being struck with home improvement firms in an effort to encourage homeowners and property investors to have their properties fitted with energy efficient improvements. There will be no upfront costs because the work will be paid for through a loan payable over 25 years, ideally with money recouped through bill savings.
Leaseholders Out In The Cold?The Federation of Private Residents' Associations forms part of a broad coalition of almost 40 organisations and are a national not for profit organisation that have represented the interests of long leaseholders since 1971.They have long been campaigning for the Department of Energy and Climate Change to ensure that the Green Deal doesn't exclude leaseholders as they believe current policy discriminates against around two million leasehold flat-dwellers. This is because of legislative conflicts and because leases make no provisions for "improvements". The legislation that provides for energy improvement grants don't include communal arrangements, focusing as they do on individuals purchasing in their own names. This means it's not possible for flat owners to take most of the steps that a freehold house owner can. There is also the fact that when it comes to such measures as cavity wall insulation, the structure of blocks of flats belong to the freeholder, not individual leaseholders. In an article on the Property Network site in 2010,entitled 'Will The Coalition's Green Deal Really Benefit Leaseholders?' Chairman of the Association, Mr Bob Smytherman said "that if Government worked with the Department of Communities and Local Government (Leasehold Reform Branch) and made a few simple changes to leasehold legislation, existing blocks of flats could be made as energy efficient as those flats built today".Legislative ChangesThe article goes on to say that the Federation believes that the simple changes to leasehold legislation require s35 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 to be amended to provide that where a lease makes no adequate provision for the reasonable insulation of a property, it should be grounds for it to be varied. As s35(2)(g) of the LTA 1987 (added by 162(3) of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002) already makes provision for additional grounds for variation of leases to be added to s35 by Regulation, primary legislation would not be required, only a Statutory Instrument. An express provision in the lease for “reasonable” insulation would automatically mean that if there were any dispute as to whether the measures proposed were reasonable, a further application could be made to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal under s19 or s27a of the Landlord and Tenant Act1 985 for resolution.The Campaign Is RecognisedThe Housing Minister Mr Grant Shapps has recognised the Federation's campaign and agrees that the energy efficiency of flats will only be improved if there is a mechanism that provides for improvements to be carried out with no upfront cost to leaseholders, tenants and freeholders. However he goes on to say that an important consideration is whether this mechanism would mean imposing costs on leaseholders "above and beyond those that could be met from reductions in energy bills". Further Amendments To The BillThe Association are also calling for further amendments to the Bill to include the Private Rental Sector: