20 october 2023

Sherry Fard featured in London Daily News 

Associate in the Property Dispute Resolution team Sherry Fard’s comments have been featured extensively in an article in London Daily News, an independent news network.

The article looks at the rise in the number of residential property disputes in the courts, up by over 50 per cent compared to last year, based on figures supplied by Spector Constant and Williams. The rise is due in part to disputes over service charges.

Sherry is quoted, saying: “While the property tribunal deals with various areas of property law such as lease extensions, variations of leases, enfranchisement disputes, they have a huge number of service charge disputes, which has been on the increase over the years. There are various factors driving these disputes. Leaseholders are now more aware of their legal rights and the power of the internet has played a part in this over the last 20 years. More recently, the increase in living costs and mortgage payments means people are more careful with their expenses. Given it is now more difficult to get on the property ladder, those who own properties require a certain level of service. Add to that the costs of services and maintenance has increased and this increase falls on leaseholders.”

The article goes on to outline what landlords can do, with Sherry quoted further. She explains that landlords should engage with leaseholders effectively, ensure they have a paper trail, address grievances properly, and appoint a knowledgeable managing agent:

“The choice of managing agent is also very important. They need to be more aware of the law and procedures and service charges. Unfortunately, many of them have very basic knowledge and, with the service charges only increasing due to the rising costs, this is no longer acceptable for leaseholders.”

Read the article