LEGAL CORNER
The right to self manage your apartment building – power to the people By Owen Hill, Consultant Solicitor
Every once in a while I meet someone who owns an apartment
in a building and is unhappy about either the performance of the managing agents or the level of the service charges – sometimes both. All buildings that have been sub-divided rely upon
service charge arrangements to apportion the costs of communal areas. So a low level building with no gardens or car parking will need not much more than occasional attention whereas a high rise tower will have lifts, arrangements for external window cleaning as well as maybe lawns and plants to tend and parking areas. Some city centre schemes also have 24/7 concierge services - just like in the movies. The costs vary enormously from one scheme to the
next but the universal truth in all these arrangements is that no one is ever entirely satisfied. My dear grandmother (God bless her) moved into a sheltered
retirement scheme and was outraged when she delivered her shopping list to the front desk and was told that she would have to make her own way to Sainsbury’s... However, buried in 180 pages of the obscurely
named ‘Common hold and Leasehold Reform Act’ of 2002 is a statutory procedure that enables occupiers to take control of the management of their building so long as more than 50 % of them vote in favour of the proposal. It does not deny the landlord the right to receive ground rents payable under the leases but it does mean that the tenants can determine the quality and cost of services to the building. The legislation will not make it cheaper to clean the windows or easier to mow the lawn but it does give the consumer that pays for the service the right to participate in the process and benefit from either reduced costs or improved services – maybe even both!
Plan for the worst, hope for the best By Marinella Hollies, Partner
According to the Office for National Statistics, there were 118,140 divorces in 2012 – that’s 13 divorces an hour!
These breakdowns create complex, separated families with differing interests and quite often, underlying resentments. All of this can cause estate planning problems. In these circumstances, it is so important to have an up to date Will. I regularly meet with clients who have remarried but have their own children from a previous marriage. They want to be certain that ultimately, their assets will go to their own children but at the same time, they need to make adequate provision for their new spouse. How often have I been told by a client that he is certain that his new wife would make provision for his children after his death. In that situation, I often have to highlight what could go wrong. There are various ways in which the interests of
all the parties can be protected. One option can be a Life Interest Trust for the spouse. Capital can be preserved by the trustees for the client’s own children on the spouse’s death. If the client wants his children to have some assets before then, that can be done - but there may be Inheritance Tax consequences.
Disputes with stepchildren can be another area
where problems can be pre-empted by a well drafted Will. Where it is a lengthy second marriage, stepchildren have more often than not been treated the same way within the family as a stepparent’s own children and their expectation may well be that they would also be treated equally in a new Will. Whilst there may be perfectly good reasons why the children are then treated differently in the Will , it doesn’t prevent a stepchild who feels they have not been adequately provided for from making a claim for a share of an estate or a greater share, by applying under the Inheritance (Family & Dependants) Act 1975. Court proceedings are inevitably both financially and emotionally expensive. If there are good reasons to treat the children
differently, then it is always a good idea to leave a letter explaining those reasons to help the children understand why the Will has been drafted in the way it has been and, hopefully, it will mean that they will understand what you wanted to achieve and why, thus making it less likely that they will challenge that decision. It is never easy to consider the problems that can
arise within a family unit but it is important to do so when preparing your Will as this could avoid you unwittingly leaving greater issues for the whole family.
133
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164