Proceeds of Crime Act – Brent to Receive Over £500,000 for Illegal Landlord House Conversion

Property Surveying

Norwich Crown Court has this month reached a decision on a case concerning a landlord in Brent, London who converted a house into 12 flats without the appropriate planning consent. He faces well over £1.4m in fines.

£500,000 of this will be due to Brent Council and the total of £1.4m constitutes the largest damages order ever seen for an incident of this type – reflecting the earnings Mr Ali illegally made from renting out the properties.

Follow this link or the one above to find a surveyor in London if you are planning on purchasing property or converting property to flats. A Chartered Surveyor will be able to advise on planning implications and meeting Building Regulations.

In Case You Missed It…… String of deaths leaves Britain’s most expensive house up for sale

PropertySurveying.co.uk

In our monthly newsletter, we highlighted a story concerning Britain’s most expensive home. A vast mansion in London with 45 bedrooms, a £300m price tag and a macabre past…

Read the rest of the article by clicking here

Five ways to help sell your home in a difficult market

A number of well peddled clichés surround the selling of a home, but some points slip under the radar. We expose five things you should address before selling your home, maximising its attractiveness to choosy buyers in a difficult market…

To see the rest of the article, and read inside tips from UK Chartered Surveyors, click here.

Draft Waste Plan Remains Viable for Worthing

Worthing Surveyor  – The withdrawal of one of the six waste disposal sites from a draft waste plan for West Sussex has still left it “sound”, the county planning committee was told.

Members heard that land at Decoy Farm,Worthing, had been taken out of the document following an objection from the borough council, which owns the site.

Some objections raised included the negative affect on house prices. Your local surveyor will be able to advise if you are worried about a local development affecting the value of your home. He can be found on either of the links above.

First Day on Site Ends with Terrible Injuries

Nottingham Surveyors – A first day on site for a Nottinghamshire labourer near Worksop, ended with the employee hit by a falling excavator bucket. The result was the loss of one eye and part of his scalp, a punctured lung and a two week coma. The case has recently been brought before Mansfield Magistrate’s Court and resulted in 250 hours unpaid work and £300 towards legal costs for the excavator driver.

The case has been referred to the Crown Court for further sentencing of the construction company itself. It highlights the importance of Health and Safety and effective project management. To instruct a qualified professional to manage a project, click here.

Devon Empty Homes Partnership Brings 1,000 homes Back into Use

Exeter Surveyors – Since 1990, Exeter City Council, working with local registered social landlords and the Homes and Communities Agency, has now brought 1,000 homes back into use.

Integral to the policy has been the Private Sector Leasing Scheme which works with landlords to bring their empty buildings back up to the decent homes standard.

Find a Devon Chartered Surveyor to supervise and advise on home / property refurbishments and extensions here

GE instructs Agent to sell The Ark

Hammersmith Surveyors – One of Britain’s most famous ‘white elephants’, (a building constructed at great expense but left unoccupied)  which stood empty between its construction in 1991 and an internal £20m refurbishment in 2006, is now being offered to potential buyers at an asking price of £78.7m. The property, known as ‘The Ark’ due to its shape, is the iconic headquarters of General Electric in Hammersmith.

This will give a 6.5% yield for the 166,000 sq ft building and interest is expected to be high as the Hammersmith and Chiswick markets have been thriving both in terms of occupier and investment deals in recent times. Find a local surveyor in Hammersmith and Fulham here or elsewhere here.

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England’s most expensive streets

Certain areas of Britain have also been shown to be extremely property rich recently. Around 185 streets in England has an average property price over £1m, with some of the most expensive being Scargate (Yorkshire), Sedley Taylor Road (Cambridge), Sandbanks (Poole), Quarry Park Road (Stourbridge) and Druidstone Road (Cardiff).

We have local, Chartered Surveyors in all of these areas. If you are thinking of purchasing property, or need a professional opinion on a property you already own, find your local surveyor here.

Vast development on Salford Quays Up for Sale

Manchester Surveyor – Property giant Savills have justbegun marketing a huge 433,600 sq ft development on the fringes of Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, with an official guide price of £32.5m.

The property contains seven office buildings with floorplates stretching from sub-1,000 sq ft to 12,300 sq ft. There are also 2,149 car parking spaces.

Our surveyors specialise in Asset Management work and large scale surveying instructions. For developments like this, our surveyors in Manchester are an experienced, professional and reliable choice.

Birmingham Council most Successful in Floundering RTB Scheme

Birmingham Surveyors – Of the currently ailing Right to Buy scheme, Birmingham Council has received the most expressions of interest with 696, but sold just 65 properties in April.

A spokesperson for the Local Government Association blamed the mortgage market for the disparity. ‘The LGA will continue to press the government for a review of the right to buy policy after one year,’ he said.

The floundering Right to Buy scheme is the subject of a new article in our monthly newsletter. Subscribe via this link.