The Michael Palin Centre Extension

The Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children offers a specialist service to children and young people from all over the country. Providing a range of therapy programmes, it has become a centre of excellence in the UK, for the treatment of children who stammer. 

To provide more space for their work they recently commissioned Barr Gazetas Architects to design an extension to their premises in Farringdon. RR Paice & Co was contracted as Project Managers for the building works.

What should be a fairly straightforward project management assignment is complicated by the fact that the site is located in an area of high building density in central London. The elevation of the building where the work will be undertaken has very limited access, making egress difficult and complicating logistical planning. In addition to this the Centre will remain open throughout the build so it is also necessary to ensure the works cause as little disruption as possible.

It is a challenging project but one we are delighted to be involved with. The project is scheduled to begin in early November 2013 and is due for completion in March 2014.

RR Paice 

http://www.rrpaice.co.uk

Landlords must protect deposits

Since 6 April 2007 landlords who take a deposit from an assured shorthold tenant (AST) must protect the deposit in one of the ways prescribed in the Housing Act 2004. Failure to do so renders the landlord liable to return the deposit and pay additional compensation.

Crucially, this also raises the possibly of a landlord being unable to recover possession by using the notice only grounds, as set out in section 21 of the Housing Act 1988.

Increasingly it is apparent that landlords are learning the lesson that the deposit must be safely secured in accordance with the law. However a number of Court cases still continue to occur where landlords are not complying with their obligations.

If you need advice with regard to landlord or tenant issues email: robin@rrpaice.co.uk

RR Paice 

http://www.rrpaice.co.uk

Dilapidations settlements

To improve pre-action communication between Landlords and Tenants the dilapidations protocol was recently revised and was incorporated into the Civil Procedure Rule 35 in January 2012.

I have been looking at the work we have undertaken with regard to dilapidations and I see that since then we have increasingly been acting on behalf of Tenants in their defence of these matters. A large percentage of these cases have been for clients in the Hospitality Industry and in particular Pub Licensees. Many of these Tenants were being served with interim and terminal schedules of dilapidations by Pub Companies or private landlords seeking to regain possession of the property.

When Tenants take on a lease they are often preoccupied with the excitement at the start of a venture and may pay less attention to the terms of the end of the lease. It can come as a shock then, when the lease is terminated, that there is frequently the need to reinstate the property to the condition it was in at the start of the term. The remedial works can result in a large bill for the Tenant.  

This need not always be the case, however, as we have found that many of the schedules that are being served are grossly over costed in respect of the necessary repairs and reinstatement works. In addition many are not served correctly; paying no attention to the requirement now in place for these to be prepared in accordance with the Pre-action Protocol under the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR).

Over the last year we have been successful in assisting many of our clients to significantly reduce their liability and payments in respect of damages. In fact, we recently assisted a client and their solicitors in reducing a landlords claim from a huge £230k to just £30k.
 
If you need help with regard to dilapidations issues email: robin@rrpaice.co.uk

RR Paice 

http://www.rrpaice.co.uk