Guest Contributors

Leasehold Life is very pleased to introduce the following industry experts as guest contributors:






ALEP

ALEP exists to ensure that valuers, solicitors, intermediaries and others involved in leasehold enfranchisement adhere to an agreed level of conduct and service.

Membership of this professional association is a badge of assurance to leaseholders and freeholders that they can be sure of a consistently high level of service, integrity and professionalism.

Consumers of members' services will ultimately have an independent and relevant authority to whom to complain if the agreed service levels are not adhered to. ALEP also provides a unified voice for practitioners in leasehold enfranchisement in operational and regulatory matters affecting the sector.

Bob Smytherman - Federation of Private Residents' Associations





Brett Williams - CPBigwood

Brett Williams, BSc (Hons), MRICS, FIRPM. Brett is a Partner art CPBigwood. He is in charge their Residential Service Charge Department, managing approximately 15,000 flats in some 400 developments in over 100 towns/30 counties throughout the UK. He is also the immediate past Chairman of ARMA, having held the role for three years.

Chris Alexander - SA Law LLP

Chris Alexander is a property litigation solicitor at SA Law LLP who advises landlords, tenants and managing agents on all aspects of residential landlord and tenant law. This advice includes service charge disputes, disrepair claims, forfeiture, lease extenstion, collective enfranchisement, right of first refusal and the appointment of managers. Chris also writes the Leasehold Lawyer Blog giving commentary on issues in the world of residential landlord and tenant law.

Colin Stokes - adiuvo

Colin Stokes, along with his wife, is the co-founder of adiuvo, Latin for 'to help or assist'. The company was was formed in 2006 when, as London property managers, they decided there must be a better solution to managing agents 'out of hours' provisions.

Damon Thomas - Fast Trak Solutions

Damon Thomas is the Director of Fast Trak Solutions, a company established to act as the ‘middle man’ between local authorities, letting agents and private landlords. Leasehold Life was very pleased to be invited to have a chat with him because not only has he seen a way of reducing social housing waiting lists but he believes his service will improve the somewhat tarnished image and perceptions each sector has of the other.

David Hewett

David Hewett, FCA FRICS FIRPM is the outgoing Chief Executive of ARMA.




Dudley Joiner - RTM Federation

Back in 2005, Dudley Joiner provided assistance to residents in a block where his mother-in-law owned a flat. By leading an action group to prevent the freeholder terminating the resident warden service (and after all avenues had failed), RTM was used and the estate became the first retirement block in the country to achieve RTM and the Right to Manage Federation was born.

Graham Jaffe - JPC Law

Graham is Senior Partner and Head of the Enfranchisement Team at JPC Law. Graham is highly experienced in all aspects of leasehold enfranchisement as well complex non-contentious landlord and tenant matters. Graham is a regular contributor to Flat-Living, News on the Block and is well known in the field for being a highly regarded expert.

James Butler - Landmark Lease Advisory Services

James Butler is the Director of Landmark Lease Advisory Services Ltd, a small company based in St Albans, providing an analytical and litigative service to leaseholders in England and Wales. James is a 29 year old ex-soldier who became a surveyor in the summer of 2003. Landmark came to the market in early 2010 to bridge the previously unbridgeable gap between leaseholders and the professionals by providing different methods of dispute resolution. The company's new blockguardproduct enables leaseholders to identify potential problems in the running of their property and tackle them before they turn into fomal disputes.

Katie Cohen - JPC Law

Katie Cohen is a Partner at JPC Law which has a specialist Leasehold Enfranchisement Team. She has contributed to News on the Block, run a webinar for LexisNexis on this area of law, written articles for Property Law Forum and Flat-Living and been an interviewed for City AM.
Katie is a regular on the Property Tribes Forum and has experience acting for both landlords and tenants. Katie is a full member of ALEP.

Malcolm Thomas - Property Tectonics

Malcolm Thomas is the Associate Director or RICS-registered property and construction consultancy, Property Tectonics. They currently have a new service for landlords and management companies (including residential buildings) called Fix Our Building, currently being rolled-out in Greater Manchester.


Mark Chick - Bishop & Sewell LLP

Mark Chick, is a leashold reform specialist and a member of Bishop and Sewell LLP. He is also author of the websites Leaseholdinfo.com and Leasehold Reform News.

Nicholas Kissen - LEASE

Nicholas Kissen was in private practice as a solicitor for nearly twenty years and was a partner in a long-established firm in Ealing before joining the Leasehold Advisory Service in April 2002. He is a senior adviser with joint responsibility for professional training and development. As such he has considerable experience of public presentations on all aspects of residential leasehold law.

Nigel Wilkins - CARL

Nigel Wilkins is Chairman of leaseholder campaign group CARL. He has represented the interests of leaseholders over a number of years, not just by regular communication with Government and providing input to the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 but also in the media, appearing on Radio 4's Money Box programme and writing for the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph.