Q: We have one flat occupied by an elderly lady tenant who smokes heavily. The smoke escapes occasionally onto the landing outside her flat entrance door and causes perceived annoyance to some other residents. When this issue was raised with the owner of the flat on a previous occasion she cooperated by fitting new seals […]
Q: Just wondering if you hold examples of fire safety policies appropriate for a block of 30 flats? FPRA Chairman Bob Smytherman replies: The legislation that we as RMC Directors must comply with, is the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005. In practice this involves having an up to date risk assessment for the ‘common […]
Q: Each resident’s lease refers to “the perpetuity period” as eighty years from 1994. The management company owns the freehold, and the freehold lease refers to 999 years from 1993. My question is (although it will not be of concern to me!) what needs to happen in 2074 to ensure continuity for residents of the […]
Q: We have only recently formed a residents’ association and now wish to open a bank account, for an unincorporated organisation, ie club account. One of the questions they have asked is whether we are eligible to receive interest free of tax. I telephoned HMRC this morning but they were unable to help me. They […]
Q: We are a limited company managing our own block. We are looking to renew our director’s liability insurance and have a few queries regarding the quotes we have received: Firstly, is management liability the same as director’s liability? Secondly, is it better to have a specific policy for residents’ associations, or would a commercial […]
Q: What happens when no one is willing to be a director or to continue being a director? Do you know of any other leasehold blocks of flats in a similar situation and what have they done or are doing about it? It seems to us if no buy-to-rent /investment leaseholder is interested, our management […]
Q: We’ve set up our association and have asked the freeholder and head leaseholder for recognition. They have come back asking for: 1. A copy of our constitution, 2. A list of members, including flat numbers and confirmation of signature on authority, 3. Confirmation from the Secretary that all members have paid their fees, 4. […]
Q: Re the above, we have been advised that landlords in the private rented sector are now required to carry out a risk assessment. Do you provide guidelines regarding this and/or a risk assessment form/checklist? Do you also have any advice leaflets that could be given out to tenants? FPRA Committee member Shaun O’Sullivan replies: […]
Q: About 14 months ago there was a change of freeholder and since then there has been a dramatic increase in the cost of our buildings insurance – about 40 per cent. A relatively small part of this can be accounted for because the new freeholder says we need to include terrorism insurance, but otherwise […]
Q: Our owner-managed building in central London consists of 16 flats and is very actively managed by five (otherwise busy) directors, all of whom live in the building. We reckon that by being so hands-on, our service charge is half of what it would be if we employed a managing agent. However — as the […]
