Restaurant staff ‘should keep their tips’ – BBC News
‘Waiting staff should receive their tips in full and it should be clearer to customers that gratuities are optional, the business secretary has said.’
BBC News, 2nd May 2016
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Category: service charges
Practical advice on forfeiture – Hardwicke Chambers
‘The tail-end of 2015 threw up one of those London bus-type quirks where in less than a fortnight I acted for a landlord, a lessee and a mortgagee in three cases concerning, at least in part, the issues of (a) service of forfeiture proceedings, and (b) the defendant’s non-attendance at the first hearing at which a possession order was made.’
Hardwicke Chambers, 19th April 2016
Source: www.hardwicke.co.uk
VAT and service charges: indivisible or not indivisible-is that the question? – Tanfield Chambers
‘This article gives consideration of the decision of the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) in Janine Ingram v Church Commissioners for England [2015] UKUT.’
Tanfield Chambers, 26th April 2016
Source: www.tanfieldchambers.co.uk
Just walk away (beforehand) – Nearly Legal
‘Briefly, the issue was that lease clauses for some (but not all) holiday chalet leases in the Gower effectively provided for a 10% per annum increase in fixed charges for maintenance etc. The compound effect of this was that leases that started with a £90 pa service charge in 1974 would have a charge of £1,025,004 pa by the end of the term in 2072. Even by 2012, the amount payable was considerably in excess of the actual costs to the landlord of the services.’
Nearly Legal, 1st January 2016
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
Joint ownership and landlords: who serves notice? – Tanfield Chambers
‘Joint tenancy has been the only means of ownership of property at law since the Law of Property Act 1925 relegated tenancy in common to equitable ownership only. Despite the 90 years which have elapsed, joint ownership as it impacts on day to day management of residential leasehold property is not always understood. It is not uncommon, on an enfranchisement of a terraced house converted into two flats, for the freehold to be acquired by the two lessees jointly. What then? Must both decide on service charge expenditure together? What happens if one of the two refuses to join in, can the other sue? What if one of the two breaches their lease as leaseholder? These are issues which have often arisen in cases I have dealt with. The answers lie in an analysis of the trust law implications of joint ownership.’
Tanfield Chambers, 18th August 2015
Source: www.tanfieldchambers.co.uk
‘It did seem to be expensive’ – Nearly Legal
‘Gateway (Leeds) Management Ltd v (1) Naghash (2) Shamsizadeh [2015] UKUT 333 (LC). If a head leaseholder, or managing company passes on as a service charge, rent charged by a freeholder for property in order to provide services, does this amount to a variable service charge for the purposes of s.18 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, and so only payable if the rent costs were reasonably incurred and if the services or works to which they relate were of a reasonable standard?’
Nearly Legal, 8th August 2015
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘It did seem to be expensive’ – Nearly Legal
If a head leaseholder, or managing company passes on as a service charge, rent charged by a freeholder for property in order to provide services, does this amount to a variable service charge for the purposes of s.18 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, and so only payable if the rent costs were reasonably incurred and if the services or works to which they relate were of a reasonable standard?
Nearly Legal, 9th August 2015
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
Service charges, the burden of proof and reasonableness of decisions – Park Square Barristers
‘Last week wrote an introductory article on a service charge case, The Gateway (Leeds) Management Ltd v Naghash and Shamsizadeh (citation above), a decision of Martin Rodger QC, Deputy President in the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber), in which I acted for the Defendants/Respondents. The facts are set out in that piece, and I do not propose to rehearse them here.’
Park Square Barristers, 15th July 2015
Source: www.parksquarebarristers.co.uk
Service Charges in Mixed Use Developments – Tanfield Chambers
‘By their very nature, mixed-use developments involve multiple parties with competing interests. This often leads to disputes regarding the management of the estate and the cost of maintaining it.’
Full story
Tanfield Chambers, 7th July 2015
Source: www.tanfieldchambers.co.uk
“These wretchedly conceived clauses”: the Supreme Court considers the degree to which ‘commercial common sense’ can be deployed in contractual interpretation (Arnold v Britton & Ors [2015] UKSC 36) – Henderson Chambers
‘Tenants of a holiday park will ultimately be obliged to pay over £1m a year per chalet, after the Supreme Court endorsed leases in which the service charge increases by 10% a year – regardless of the actual costs of providing those services.
Henderson Chambers, 16th June 2015
Source: www.hendersonchambers.co.uk
The Supreme Court interprets fixed service charges – 36 Bedford Row Property Blog
‘The Supreme Court has handed down judgment in Arnold v. Britton & Ors. [2015] U. K. S. C. 36, concerning the construction of service charge clauses for holiday chalets in Oxwich Bay, South Wales (pictured). In so doing, it has taken the opportunity to reiterate and re-emphasise some fundamental principles of contractual interpretation.’
36 Bedford Row Property Blog, 11th June 2015
Source: www.36property.co.uk
Contract entitled landlord to raise service charge irrespective of increase in costs, says UK Supreme Court – OUT-LAW.com
‘Lease provisions that would ultimately increase service charges payable by the tenants of a number of holiday homes near Swansea to more than £1 million a year should be allowed to stand, the UK’s highest court has ruled.’
Full story
OUT-LAW.com, 11th June 2015
Source: www.out-law.com
“New for Old”: New terms in renewed leases under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 require good reasons – New Square Chambers
‘In the absence of agreement, the terms of any new lease to be granted under the provisions of Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 are to be determined by the court in accordance with sections 32 to 35 of that 1954.’
Full story (PDF)
New Square Chambers, February 2015
Source: www.newsquarechambers.co.uk
Service Charge Disputes in the First Tier Tribunal – Hardwicke Chambers
‘Over many years of representing landlords (usually by their appointed property management company) in leasehold service charge disputes before the Tribunals, various themes have developed. One of them is my frustration, in the majority of cases, at the quality of evidence with which I must present my client’s case. It actually isn’t that difficult to get your best evidence before the Tribunals and secure the best possible recovery. Especially with the benefit of hindsight!’
Hardwicke Chambers, 17th December 2014
Source: www.hardwickec.co.uk
Indecent homes and major works charges – NearlyLegal
‘The DCLG has released the “Social landlords reduction of service charges: mandatory and discretionary directions 2014“, in force as of today, 12 August 2014.’
NearlyLegal, 12th August 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
Come friendly bombs… – NearlyLegal
‘Terrorism insurance is an increasingly contentious issue in service charge cases; in short, many leaseholders think it is unnecessary and simply serves to increase the their service charges (and, potentially, acts as an additional source of commission for landlords, itself a very contentious issue). Well, in Qdime Ltd v Various Leaseholders at Bath Building (Swindon) and others [2014] UKUT 261 (LC), the Upper Tribunal has given an unqualified endorsement of terrorism insurance and, in the process, may well have greatly extended the number of properties which are now required to obtain such insurance.’
NearlyLegal, 13th June 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
Former landlords and s.20B LTA 1985 – NearlyLegal
‘In Ground Rents (Regisport) Ltd v Dowlen [2014] UKUT 144 (LC), the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) had to – once again – grapple with s.20B, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. The facts are quite straightforward. Imagine, if you will, that there is a modern development of three blocks of flats. It was developed by Countryside Properties (UK) Ltd, who were also the original landlords under all the long leases. Once the leases had been created, the freehold was transferred to the appellant.’
NearlyLegal, 13th June 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
Don’t ask the surveyor – NearlyLegal
‘Windermere Marina Village v Wild [2014] UKUT 163 (LC) is an important decision about the vexed question of apportionment that arises in many residential service charge disputes.’
NearlyLegal, 2nd June 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
HB and Exempt accommodation: unreasonably high rent – NearlyLegal
‘I admit that SS v Birmingham CC [2013] UKUT 418 (AAC) has been on my to do list for a while and that, possibly, the main reason for finding the time to write it up is because I’m on a two hour strike (#fairpayinHE). But, it is a really quite important case about the application of the unreasonably high rent rule for “exempt accommodation” in Reg 13 and Sch 3 of the 2006 Housing Benefit regs. The principal question of law concerns the meaning of “suitable alternative accommodation” in those regs.’
NearlyLegal, 23rd January 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
Putting it off – NearlyLegal
‘Before I come to the facts of Scriven and others v Calthorpe Estates [2013] UKUT 469 (LC), I need, I think, to give a fair bit of background. Even by the comprehensive standards of NL, this is pretty obscure.’
NearlyLegal, 8th January 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
