Both bodies say the two property management organisations together will create a more united and stronger voice as leasehold reform looms. The UK’s two most high-profile property management bodies The Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) and The Institute of Residential Property Management (IRPM) are to merge. Both organisations want to establish
New industry research suggests half a million people could be living in unsafe buildings With government support limited to one specific type of cladding, these residents could be left with excessive bills to make their homes safe Resident groups form an unprecedented coalition with managing agents and building owners to
The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP has taken a strong stance on the issue of cladding and forcing the removal and reinstatement of a safer product. For months James Brokenshire has been warning landlords of at-risk properties to get on
BDC 319 : Aug 2024
Both bodies say the two property management organisations together will create a more united and stronger voice as leasehold reform looms. The UK’s two most high-profile property management bodies The Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) and The Institute of Residential Property Management (IRPM) are to merge. Both organisations want to establish a ‘united and stronger’ voice for the industry at a time when managing agents and property management professionals face unprecedented changes and as leaseholder reform legislation begins to make its way through Parliament. The proposal will be subject to approval by members at each organisation’s upcoming general meetings. ARMA executive chair Nigel Glen says the bodies have worked together on a wide range of topics including the building safety crisis, mental health and wellbeing in the sector and regulatory reform. Nigel claims a merged organisation would give it greater power and enable it to support both managing agent firms and professional individuals. “Combining our resources, data and expertise allows us to more effectively support our membership through guidance and business support, raise standards through enhanced professional qualifications, multi-channel training and ongoing professional development opportunities, and provide a more influential and representative voice to our ongoing government and stakeholder engagement,” says Glen. If approved, the two organisations and their respective secretariat teams would come together before the end of the year and the two brands would be retained for a period of time under the new organisation. This is similar to when landlord organisations NLA and the RLA joined forces recently. It is proposed that IRPM boss Andrew Bulmer would become CEO of the new organisation, while Glen would become the executive chair of the new board.
New industry research suggests half a million people could be living in unsafe buildings With government support limited to one specific type of cladding, these residents could be left with excessive bills to make their homes safe Resident groups form an unprecedented coalition with managing agents and building owners to call on the new Chancellor to establish a fund to make these homes safe Following new evidence that the scale of the cladding crisis may affect up to half a million people, cladding campaigners, residents, property managers and the UK’s largest freeholders have formed an unprecedented coalition to request a multibillion-pound fund to remediate unsafe buildings. In an open letter to the new Chancellor, the group has called on the Government to step in following failures in the building safety regime that have dated back decades. Without support, leaseholders may be left having to pay the price, which is likely to run into the billions. The Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA), which represents the largest property managers in the country, has conducted an analysis of apartment buildings in the UK and found that over half a million people may be living in unsafe buildings that passed building control when they were built. Materials now deemed to be unsafe include High Pressure Laminate (HPL) – which has been found to be at least as flammable as the ACM cladding that was used on Grenfell Tower – but the Government’s existing fund is limited to ACM cladding. The freeholder signatories are coordinating remediation work on buildings with ACM cladding in every major city in the UK, but the process has revealed numerous additional safety issues and there are concerns that the cost of fixing these problems will fall on to residents unless the Government steps in. Given the scale of the task, the group is calling for a multibillion-pound, government-backed fund to be established so that these buildings can be made safe as soon as possible. Nigel Glen, Chief Executive Officer, The Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) said: “The Grenfell tragedy highlighted the dangers of ACM cladding, but it has also revealed a much wider building safety crisis which could affect over half a million people. These buildings are being fixed by building owners and managing agents as quickly as possible but, without Government support, the process could take decades and leave leaseholders with life-changing bills on top of the anxiety that has already been caused.” Martin Boyd, Leasehold Knowledge Partnership said: “Nearly 1,000 days after the Grenfell tragedy there is a huge amount of worry among leaseholders that the problems are getting worse, not better. The government must help find solutions rather than just telling everyone these are complex problems.”
The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP has taken a strong stance on the issue of cladding and forcing the removal and reinstatement of a safer product. For months James Brokenshire has been warning landlords of at-risk properties to get on and remove dangerous cladding. Yesterday Brokenshire announced a change to the housing health and safety regulations to force the landlords to make good these works with no apparent financial risk to the leaseholders. The Association for Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) welcomes the move as it has been lobbying for Government intervention ever since the Grenfell Tower tragedy. Immediately after the tragic fire, ARMA flagged to Government the problem under leasehold as to who would likely pay for the cost of fire safety remedial works and that this could seriously delay remedial works. ARMA has publicly asked for Government loans to be make available and for remediation to be taken into a national programme to avoid such delays as the safety of residents must always be the uppermost concern. Dr Nigel Glen, Chief Executive Office of the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA), comments: “We congratulate the Government for taking this strong approach to ensure remedial works on affected buildings can get under way immediately. People need to know they are safe and able to live their lives. We have always said time is of essence here and work should be completed first and then worry about who pays later. The costs to cladding removal has given many residents grave anxieties and now some headway should start to be made more quickly. “The Secretary of State has said that ‘leaseholders must not pay’. We keenly await details of how that will work in practice given the structure of leasehold. For example, in the case of Citiscape in Croydon, the First tier Tribunal Property determined that the leaseholders were liable for the costs under the terms of their lease. That may well be the case across all the buildings under discussion, depending upon their leases. And where Landlords are not the guilty party re installing the cladding is it fair that they will be expected to pay? Clearly there is more work to be done but this is a welcome and significant step.”
