Affordable housing is housing provided to those who are struggling with their housing costs and whose housing needs are not met by the market. Affordable housing can take...
The Approval of Code of Management Practice (Residential Management) (Service Charges) (England) Order 2016, SI 2016/518 approves the Service Charge Residential...
This Practice Note is about the VAT issues that arise in commercial developments. It first considers a straightforward unproblematic scenario, and then looks at: •...
Where a certificate is required to ascertain the service charge then it has been held in Urban Splash Work Ltd v Ridgway and another [2018] UKUT 32 (LC) that there is no...
Repair and improvements A tenant will not generally be expected to pay for the landlord to upgrade or improve its property as opposed to repairing it. The length of a...
The court may imply an obligation on the landlord to provide certain services in the absence of an express covenant to do so. Where a landlord takes the benefit of a...
Why is structuring a mixed use scheme important? Mixed use developments are schemes which comprise one or more buildings used for commercial, retail and/or industrial use...
There can be only one lease at a time giving a right to possession and occupation of property. Consequently, if a landlord subsequently grants a lease of the same...
Leasehold Reform Act 1967 (LRA 1967) and Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 (LRHUDA 1993) gave long leasehold tenants an individual and collective...
There are two separate regimes governing social housing in England and Wales. Each country had its own combined funding and regulatory authority: in England this is the...
This Practice Note is about the disapplication of the VAT option to tax (see Practice Note: The option to tax land and buildings) for residential and some other property....
The Regulator of Social Housing Social housing is regulated under Part 2 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (HRA 2008). Until 1 October 2018, under HRA 2008, s 92A,...
When reviewing a lease within a moderately small residential flat scheme which consists of a principal building containing the flats and some communal external areas or...
Scheme outline This is the most straightforward residential flat scheme to establish. However, developers do not typically hold and manage rented property, so even though...
Before 27 September 2004, when the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, Part 1 came into force, leasehold tenure was the only option that a developer could sensibly...
What is a concurrent lease? In the context of residential flat schemes, a concurrent lease is a lease of the reversion that is granted by a developer to a management...
Rent As a result of the grant of the concurrent lease, the rents reserved under the flat leases are receivable by the management company, as concurrent tenant, in its...
When do the consultation requirements apply? A landlord must consult with its tenants before: • undertaking qualifying works (defined in section 20ZA of the Landlord and...
Statute limits the amount that may be recovered from tenants of dwellings by way either of service or administration charges. In both cases the landlord may recover no...
Multiple dwellings relief (MDR) applies to certain transactions that involve an acquisition of at least two dwellings or an acquisition of one dwelling that is linked to...
Once is has been determined that there is a notifiable transaction for SDLT purposes, it should be considered whether any reliefs or exemptions are available to reduce or...
The amount of SDLT charged in relation to a chargeable transaction is a percentage of the chargeable consideration for the transaction. The percentage is determined by...
This Practice Note examines agreements entered into under sections 38 and 278 of the Highways Act 1980, considering the obligations they impose and, in particular, the...
Insolvency of private not-for-profit registered providers of social housing The social housing sector in England is commonly described as a ‘no default’ sector. This...
This Practice Note looks at VAT issues in a town centre regeneration scheme, by way of a case study. The scenario described below, based loosely on a real scheme,...
This Practice Note is about the VAT treatment of building work. Specifically, it looks at the types of building work that will qualify for VAT relief, in the form of...
This Practice Note is about the VAT treatment of partnerships, joint ventures and other entities in the context of property development and investment. It considers: •...
This Practice Note is about the zero-rating of VAT for developers selling or leasing dwellings that they have constructed. Why does zero-rating matter? If the zero-rating...
This Practice Note is about the VAT zero-rating for developers selling or leasing residential buildings, other than dwellings, that they have constructed. These are...