Category: property

housing, London, property, real estate, society, Uncategorized

Smart Ways to Slash Your Energy Bills Today

bruceandholly
Offshore oil platform labeled PETRO-AVANT with a burning flare at sunset
An illuminated offshore oil platform rises above the sea beneath a dramatic sunset sky.

You will have heard about the recent increase in the UK energy price cap. Around 4%, And you will have got the usual advice about moving to fixed price tariffs. Maybe saving you £150 a year on the increased cost. Big deal! In this article we focus on some practical ways in which any householder can make a significant reduction in their energy bills simply by reducing their energy usage to what they actually need. Remember that 400 years ago no- one in the UK had even heard of fossil fuels. Yes there were fewer of us. Under 9 million. And remember that in 1650 most working families lived in a single room. And their diet was whatever they could pull out of the ground. Probably quite healthy by today’s standard. Only rich people ate meat. So you didn’t even need an oven. Just something to boil the peas. Or heat the kettle. If you got too cold you might throw a log on the fire. Or just wrap up.

For me, the biggest contribution to reduced electricity use has been the transition from tungsten filament to modern low energy light bulbs. An 85% saving in energy costs. And do you remember those horrible halogen light bulbs which became part of that transition? The blinding white light? Like a pair of car headlights shining in your face. So now we’re all low energy.

I’m not tempted to take up the £7,500 government grant to replace my gas boiler with a heat pump. It feels too much like an emerging technology. Like being asked to invest in a brick phone. I’m just not going to go there. And even heat pumps burn energy. Replacing gas with more expensive electricity. And I’m not sure it would even work. So I’ll wait until something better comes along. And I’m not rushing out to buy an electric car. I can’t remember the last time I filled my car with petrol. It spends most of its time parked up. I only use it occasionally to stop in seizing up. Living in London, means I am able to use my freedom pass to get about. Combining my freedom pass with a senior rail card makes travel very affordable for me. It only cost me £10 to get from West London to Southend. How cheap is that? Even if I didn’t have a freedom pass, I might still choose to use public transport where it is possible and afforable to do so and maybe purchase a network rail card , which is available to anyone. So I don’t understand why the government isn’t doing more to get people out of their cars and use public transport. What did Rachel Reeves do instead in her first budget? Increase the cap on bus fares from £2 to £3. Not 5% or 10%. But a whacking 50% increase. A £3 bus cap may not sound much. But it’s £6 for a return trip. And £12 if there is two of you. Well that’s really going to encourage bus usage!

Nor am I going to install solar panels on my roof. It’s too much of a fire risk. Like charging an e-bike in my back bedroom. How do I know that it’s going to be correctly installed? And what is the real saving? The thing about solar electricity is that it cannot be stored. It is electrical energy which is being produced when we least need it. And yes – I know that plug-in solar panels have just come on the market. But it feels too much like a toy. Even at a cost of £400 for the equipment, the trickle of energy it would produce would take me 5 years to get payback. And I don’t understand why renewable electricity cannot be stored? In the final part of this article I’m going to list out those simple ways in which you can cut your own energy bills. Here they are

  • Don’t keep your central heating on ‘constant’. Time it so that it only comes on when you need it. Maybe for an hour in the morning and again later in the day. Just to take the chill off. You can always put it on for an extra hour if you need it. But don’t keep it bubbling away.
  • Set your living room thermostat to 20°. Does it really need to be hotter? It means your heating will only come on when you really need it.
  • If, like our ancestors, you spend most of your life in a single room, do you need to heat the whole of your house? Maybe invest in an oil-filled radiator for that room. It will only cost about 50 pence per hour to run even if you are running it full blast. Less if you set the thermostat correctly so that’s it switches off at room temperature.
  • Leave your car parked up and use public transport where it is practical and affordable to do so. Avoid the hassle of pay by phone parking when you go into town. I recently treated my adult sons to a network rail card giving them a 1/3 discount on off-peak travel. I still think that the £40 discounted fare is too much for an off-peak return trip for two adults traveling from Farnborough to London Waterloo. But it’s better than £60. And I hate to think what it would cost at peak times.
  • Microwave, microwave, microwave. Instead of using a conventional oven. Even for things which you are not supposed to microwave, like fish. You can always finish it off in the frying pan. Microwaves use a typical 85% less energy than a conventional oven.
  • If you are unlucky enough to have an oil fired central heating system and have seen a 100% increase in cost since Trump’s war with Iran. My advice? Just switch it off. You’ve probably got an immersion heater if you need hot water for a bath. So use that when you need it. But remember to switch it off.

business, housing, Law, London, politics, property, real estate, society

Kings Speech 2024 – What it means for conveyancers and other property professionals.

bruceandholly
Photo by SevenStorm JUHASZIMRUS on Pexels.com

King’s Speech 2024 – what it means for conveyancers and other property professionals.

We are not talking about the big-ticket stuff – like House of Lords reform.  Instead, we are focusing on the small-print in the Starmer agenda.  The things which are likely to affect our day-to-day work.  We also mention things which we would have expected to see mentioned in the King’s Speech, on which there has so far been silence.  Here are the things which interest us.

A Planning and Infrastructure Bill

This is exciting.  For too long, the ‘no’ lobby has been in the ascendancy.  And all at a time of housing crisis. Planning has become two politicised.  Planning pre-conditions have become long shopping lists, within a process which has become like treacle.  Even so, the government’s announced proposals for reforming the planning system are modest: with the restoration of house-building targets and the reclassification of some parts of the green belt.  When what is really required is a speeding up of the whole planning process.  Which shouldn’t be problematic for a self-financing public service.  We’re sure many developers would be willing to pay a little bit extra by way of planning-fees, to pay for the additional staff needed to get their applications through the system.  And if it is blocked by local politicians, to get it quickly in front of a government-appointed planning inspector.  Why should that be difficult? 

Leasehold Reform

Some of it we have heard before. Like replacing a leasehold system which has existed for more than 1000 years by a new system of commonhold.  The legislation already exists in the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002.  But it didn’t work when Tony Blair tried to introduce it more than 20 years ago.  Because nobody wanted it.  So why will it work now?  Despite its imperfections, residential leasehold is the most workable system for selling flats and maisonettes.  So wouldn’t it be better just to make the reforms needed to get the existing residential leasehold system right, instead of trying to force something which nobody wants.  At the moment, we are waiting for the new government to bring into force detailed provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, which received royal assent in the last days of the Conservative government.  But it is not just about bringing it into force, because the detail will be in the regulations which, as far as we’re aware, have yet to be published.  So there is some work for the new government to do before that legislation can take effect.  We are also expecting the new government to waste no time in pushing forward with the Renters Reform Bill, which had been tabled by the previous Conservative government but dropped as soon as the general election was called.  It always seemed to us that the last government’s commitment to removing section 21 no-fault evictions was always a little half-hearted, we assume because of the landlord-lobby.  Funny thing about the section 21 evictions process, was that it was not seen as problematic in 1989 when the private-rented sector was opened up, because the residential market was so different, with residential landlords competing with each other for the best tenants, not the other way round, as it is today.  It meant that if, in 1989, you were a reputable tenant who was unlucky enough to be given the section 21 notice of eviction, there would be dozens of other potential landlords bidding to accommodate you.  And remember, that in 1988, most councils still had their social rented stock.

Absences

As well as the reforms which the new government has announced, there are also some things missing, which we would have expected to find within the King’s Speech or other government announcements.  We are surprised that there has been no mention at all of any scaling back of right-to-buy, not even from the crazy discounts introduced by the Cameron government.  What is scandalous is that up to 40% of ex-right-to-buy properties are now in the hands of private landlords, meaning that local authorities are having to rent back ex-right-to-buy properties on their own estates, just to meet their statutory housing needs.  What nonsense is that?  Is our system of housing benefits really so generous that it can afford to throw money at private landlords, because there is no longer any significant affordable rented sector?  No wonder first-time buyers and private renters have been priced out of the housing market.  The other thing, for which there has been no mention, is any revamp of the measures brought in by the Gordon Brown government to bring long-term empty dwellings back into occupational use.  The problem with Brown’s empty dwellings management orders, was that the whole process was too cumbersome to be of any use.  At the last count there were approximately 260,000 empty dwellings in the UK.  What a waste!

Legislative Agenda

We have also taken a few moments to look at the government bills which are currently before Parliament.  Presently, there are only five government bills, most of which we think are uncontroversial.  These include a new Arbitration Bill, building on the existing 1996 legislation, to restore London as the world’s arbitration capital.  Who is going to argue with that?  And there is also the bill to re-nationalise Britain’s railways.  With only four clauses, this bill is astonishingly short for what has become one of the new government’s landmark policies.  It does no more than prohibit a re-letting of existing railway franchises except to a government-owned company.

Law, property, real estate, Uncategorized

Rentcharges – The New Law

bruceandholly

One of the first actions for the new government should be to bring into force the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, which received Royal Assent in the dying days of the last conservative government.  In this article, we look at Part 7 of the 2024 Act, which introduces new protections for freeholders, whose titles are expressed to be subject to historic rentcharges.  Here, we are not talking about estate rentcharges, which are a legitimate means of ensuring that everyone pays their fair share towards estate maintenance.  We are talking instead about the old fashioned rentcharge, probably created more than hundred years ago, where tiny sums of money are charged out of property and payable to the owner of the rentcharge.

Until the Upper Tribunal decision in Roberts v Lawton [2016] UKUT 395, lawyers never gave much thought to this type of rentcharge.  Who cares that the landowner is liable to pay another party a couple of quid a year, even if they knew to whom the money is to be paid?  But in the Roberts v Lawton case, the Upper Tribunal held that failure, even to pay those few pounds, could result in the rentcharge owner exercising their rights under Section 121 of the Law of Property Act 1925, to walk in and take possession of the property or – more likely – grant a lease out of the property to its own nominee, which was what happened in the 2016 case.  The effect of creating that lease was to freeze the title to the property, making it un-saleable and unmortgageable, which meant the property-owner could be held to ransom.  Because that’s what the 1925 Act said that the rentcharge owner could do.  And that is currently still the case until the new legislation is brought into force.

The creation of new rentcharges of this type was abolished more than half a century ago by the Rentcharges Act 1977.  But there are many thousands of rentcharges of this type still in existence, giving rentcharge owners the powers of enforcement set out in the Law of Property Act 1925.  Furthermore, there is nothing to prevent ownership of rentcharges of this type, commonly known as ‘chief rents,’ being traded, just like stocks and shares.

Once it is brought into force, Section 113 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, will introduce a new section 120B into the Law of Property Act 1925, which will prevent rentcharge owners from exercising any of their rights of recovery until they have first given the property owner a 30 day ‘wake up’ call, by serving formal notice demanding the outstanding rentcharge arrears and providing the following additional information:

  1. The name and address of the rent owner as well as a calculation of the arrears and details of how to make payment;
  2. Enclosing a copy of the instrument creating the rentcharge and proof of the rent owner’s title to that payment.

Even property-owners who receive such a notice but are dilatory in their response may still be protected by the new section 121(1A) of the 1925 Act, which will prevent rentcharge owners from going into possession of or granting themselves leases from the owner’s property in relation to any arrears covering a period after 27 November, 2023 (although the old remedies will still be available for pre-existing arrears recovery).  It means, effectively, that, as regards arrears accruing after 27 November, 2023, rentcharge owners will be limited to what they can recover through the small claims court as a simple monetary debt, which is how it should be.

business, career, jobs, Law, property, real estate, self improvement, society

Conveyancing – How to Increase Your Productivity and Your Chargeable Output

bruceandholly

Conveyancing – Four Ways to Increase Your Productivity and Your Chargeable Output

Conveyancing is piecework.  Forget hourly rates.  In a competitive legal market, residential clients want to be able to compare quotes.  And professional rules now require transparency when it comes to pricing, so that prospective clients can see at a glance what they are going to have to pay.  But whenever you quote a prospective client, you need to be able to work within budget.  If you overrun that budget because you under-quoted or did not appreciate the extent of the work-tough!  You’ll be doing some free work. That’s not the client’s fault.  Unless you can genuinely say that additional complications cropped up which no one could have ever previously foreseen or because of something your client didn’t tell you.  So it’s all about packing in as much personal productivity as is possible for each working hour of your day.  Here are some tips:

  • Always dictate-dictate-dictate your work.  Never try to hand-type everything.  It’s just too much hard work.  Maybe like me, you lost your secretarial support more years ago than you can even remember.  Never mind.  There is Microsoft voice dictation.  If you’re working on a computer which is Windows 10 or above, you’ll find voice dictation somewhere.  Just go to ‘settings’ and ‘ease of access’.  Dictating your work can be annoying to those around you, particularly if you have to keep repeating the same phrase until your voice recognition gets it right.  Sometimes it never gets it right.  If I say the word ‘comma’, it will tell me to ‘call my mum’.  If I say ‘draft’ as in document, I will always get the draught which blows in from an open window.  So why do I use voice dictation?  Because even with its faults, it’s still three times quicker than trying to type everything out longhand.  Because even if you can touch type, you can’t type as fast as you can speak.  So by using voice dictation I can triple my chargeable output.
  • Standardise-standardise-standardise.  Take a tip from Henry Ford.  Install a conveyor belt.  Metaphorically speaking of course.  Try to create your own all-purpose templates, which you can easily and quickly populate before sending out.
  • Front-load your work, so that you can do as much as possible in one shot.  Don’t wait for the other party solicitor to send across to you their title documentation, download it yourself and save a week.  Never issue documentation in draft if the you can send out something which is a engrossment-ready.
  • Finally, never compromise on the quality of your work or the service which you provide to your client.  Make sure that everything is right first time, the moment it is sent out.  Don’t rely on your client to pick up your mistakes.  Take the trouble to organise your electronic file so that everything is correctly labelled and stored in its correct folder, so that you can find anything in an instant instead of having to trawl through the whole file.  It also makes it easier if a colleague has to look after your file in your absence.
housing, Law, London, politics, property, society, Uncategorized

Right to Buy Service Charges

bruceandholly

Thousands of people have done well out of Margaret Thatcher’s right to buy, including Labour’s Angela Rayner.  But not everyone has been so lucky.  Amongst the least-lucky are those leaseholders who purchased high-rise flats under right-to-buy and are now facing sky-high service charges.  Amongst those, are the leaseholders in Verulam House in Hammersmith Grove who are facing service charges of between £17,500 and £21,500 for window replacements which they say are not needed.  One of the problems for right-to-buy leaseholders is that although they are the ones picking up the bills, they have little say in the matter because they will always be in a minority.

Although residential leaseholders now have extensive rights to take over the management of their flats, they can only do this by acting collectively.  For example, the statutory ‘right to manage’, introduced by the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, can only apply where a majority of qualifying leaseholders are on board with it.  But this is of no help to right-to-buy leaseholders where the majority of flats in a high-rise block are still owned by the local authority and let out as social housing.  The most, to which those right-to-buy leaseholders are entitled, is the right to be consulted over proposed service charges under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.  But even this right to be consulted, is cut down for right-to-buy leaseholders because they do not have the same right to nominate their own contractor as is enjoyed by other private leaseholders.  And even the prices may be higher as councils are constrained in their choice of contractor because of the need to comply with rigid procurement regulations, which means that they cannot shop around for the best deal.