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Pimlico News and Free Events

A roundup of some local news, and pointers in the direction of a couple of freebies doing the rounds of SW1, sorry a free flat to rent isn’t one of them, but:

Tickets to see Chelsea at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea FC

Chelsea FC

If you are you aged between 12 to 19 enter Westminster City Council‘s prize draw to win two tickets to the Chelsea vs. Blackpool Premier League match on Sunday 19th September. I don’t know why our Council Tax is buying Chelsea tickets, but don’t you miss out,

Email the following details to

wow@westminster.gov.uk:

  • Your name
  • Your date of birth
  • Your mobile number
  • Please specify if you would like to receive activity updates in the future

Get your Bike Security Marked Free

Warwick Ward Safer Neighbourhood Team would like to invite you to a FREE SECURITY BIKE MARKING event on

SATURDAY 4TH SEPTEMBER 2010 at 2pm until 6pm.

This event will be held outside the PIMLICO ACADEMY on LUPUS STREET SW1.

Please attend if you can and bring your bikes with you.

Mayor of London’s Skyride

London Skyride

London Skyride

This Sunday 5th September you will have the rare opportunity to enjoy a day exploring London on two wheels. There will be a wide variety of entertainment to enjoy, from music and fancy dress to sporting challenges and cycling tips and advice from Olympic star Sir Chris Hoy.

This year, the route will be taking in some of London’s most iconic landmarks. Londoners will get the opportunity to experience the heart of the capital with a circular route that will take in the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral, Parliament Square, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

Sky Riders can join the route at any point and ride as many times as you like – it’s up to you – just get on your bike and have a great day!

Mayor of London’s Thames Festival

Thames Festival

Thames Festival

For the weekend of Saturday 10th, and Sunday 11th September the Thames will be host to an enormous selection of free activities and entertainment.

The festival stretches right along the Thames through London, and the events in Zone 1 (the Pimlico section) from Westminster bridge comprise:

Festival Freedom Stage

All Eyes on Korea

New European Village

BBC Blast on Tour at the Thames Festival

Photography Masterclasses

Cadbury Spots v Stripes

Southbank Centre – Live African Music

Free Thames Festival screening at BFI Southbank

Festival Market

‘Hanging Gardens of Pimlico’

Hyde Park, Formal Gardens

Image via Wikipedia

Congratulations to the Lillington and Longmoore estate in Pimlico, the only council estate to be awarded a Green Flag as one of the best green spaces in the country.

The Lillington and Longmoore estate comprises 943 flats split between 18 blocks which overlook the central gardens. It is the only social housing estate in the country to have been awarded a prestigious Green Flag Award putting it in the same as class as rival horticultural neighbours such as Regent’s Park, Hyde Park and St James’ Park, all of which also recieved the  award this year. Congratulations to the Lillington and Longmoore gardening team and their employers CityWest Homes.

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Be Your Own Surveyor, Wooden Floors.

Richard Greenland

I wrote about external walls last week, this week it’s wooden floors.

Problems with wooden floors are much more common in older houses before the advent of cavity walls and damp proof membranes (DPM). Joists were commonly built into potentially damp solid walls. Later, with early cavity walls they were only built into the dry inner skin, and on modern buildings they are built on metal hangers or DPMs and don’t penetrate the walls at all. This is one of many reasons why in my opinion contemporary houses are the best they’ve ever been (a few others being shallow foundations, damp, lack of thermal or sound insulation, and drafts in older buildings). Modern buildings can suffer from shoddy workmanship just like older buildings, but better materials and techniques are now available and we have rigorous Building Regulations.

Floor sinking excessively below skirting board

Look for rot or woodworm along the outside walls and particularly in the corners where damp tends to collect. Also look for sinking floors. If there’s a gap of more than about 4mm beneath skirting boards, the skirtings certainly wouldn’t have been fixed that way so it gives warning of possible collapse. Ceilings which have visibly sunk at the edges offer similar evidence. The joists may need splicing or replacing on metal joist hangers built into the wall to isolate the timber from sources of damp. I did this recently and the bill was over a thousand pounds for one room so it’s significant.

Ground level floors in older buildings are commonly supported on stubby walls built on dirt in the cellar with no DPM. They inevitably suffer damp damage and woodworm is common (it likes damp and dies in dry wood). The timber bearers should be placed on DPM. Any rotten timbers need replacing with treated timber. Also cut the ends from any floorboards or joists touching potentially damp walls. Leave a ½” to 1” gap on all sides. The skirting will cover it.

Modern buildings have fewer problems with wooden floors. The most common are caused by internal leaks such as slow leaks to baths, showers and plumbing. It’s a good idea to check under the bath if you can. New plaster under the bathroom may indicate a problem covered up but not resolved!

In older buildings the joists are usually under-sized by current building regulations and somewhat springy. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but upstairs floors were commonly chopped about at chimney breasts with trimmer joists held up by little more than the plaster. I’ve also come across houses with chimney breasts removed, where the joists which were previously built in have become effectively unsupported and merely wedged into place. Again look for sinking floors and ceilings (see above).

I’m thinking of doing solid floors next week.

BW,

Rich

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Be Your Own Surveyor, External Walls – Inside.

Richard Greenland

There are three main types of damp and outside walls are prone to all. I’ve already covered this in detail in previous blogs.

In summary, rising damp doesn’t usually travel beyond 1.2 metres above ground level unless the masonry is very hydrophilic (attractive of moisture). It shows itself by damage to plaster and efflorescence. This is white crystalline deposits of sulphur and carbonate salts from soil or masonry, dissolving in moisture and coming to the surface, giving a blistered appearance to the plaster. It can be treated by injection (£500 or more for a typical terrace).

Penetrating damp can also cause efflorescence. It can appear anywhere, from multiple causes. Faults with masonry include porous stone or brick, loose render (the cement outer coating of the wall) and deteriorating pointing (the cement finishing between bricks or stones). These may require scaffolding to rectify and can be expensive.

Penetrating damp unconnected to the masonry includes leaking gutters and downpipes, dripping overflow pipes, leaky roofs, water splashing over the hopper where the gutter joins the downpipe, and earth piled high against outside walls acting as a conduit over the damp-proof membrane (DPM). Most are easily and cheaply rectified.

The third type, condensation, appears on cold surfaces such as single-glazed windows where it runs down and damages the sill and walls to the sides, or on outside walls where ventilation is poor, such as behind wardrobes or inside cupboards. Insulating well and removing furniture from outside walls, plus putting in a mobile dehumidifier, will help.

Other issues are corroding metal wall ties on early 20th century cavity walls. Early cavity wall buildings up to the ‘40s or ‘50s are prone. Modern ties are galvanised or plastic, and designed so that condensation doesn’t settle but drips off the middle and down the cavity. It can be very expensive to get remedial work done. Unfortunately there’s no simple way of telling unless the brick skins have already started to separate and become unstable.

‘Concrete cancer’ is a problem of system-built (prefab) buildings from the mid 20th century, with pre-cast concrete walls. It’s caused by efflorescence of salts damaging the concrete and corroding the reinforcing rods. That’s why these buildings are generally unmortgageable, although many may be structurally sound.

Modern houses should have out-and-down facing cavity trays of plastic or lead above openings (windows and doors), cavity closers at the sides and a folded-over plastic DPM underneath. This prevents water migrating from outer to inner skin across the cavity at the window reveals (sides). If there is evidence of damp migrating in around openings, the trays may be faulty or missing.

I’ll write about assessing wooden floors next week.

All the best,

Rich

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Be Your Own Surveyor, External Walls – Outside.

Richard Greenland

Most UK homes have walls of masonry, e.g. brick, block, stone or concrete, either with or without a cavity. The cavity separates the damp, cold outer layer from the dry, warm inner layer. There are exceptions using modern timber framing methods, and Elizabethan houses are often timber-framed with a cavity, so it’s nothing new! Cavity wall insulation really helps keep the inner skin warm and condensation-free. Most homes built before about the second decade of the last century have solid walls.  If masonry walls are about 9 inches thick or less they are solid (a brick is 4 inches thick, so two bricks plus plaster = about 9 inches). Thicker walls doesn’t necessarily indicate a cavity as earlier homes were often built with very thick solid walls.

The first check should be whether the walls are plumb. If there is significant lean it’s usually perceptible to the eye. You can visually line up the edges of the house with other buildings as a rough gauge to see when walls are out of plumb. Are the two edges parallel? To check if it’s your building that’s leaning, dangle a plum bob (a bit of string with a weight attached) out of an upstairs window. If it’s parallel to the wall, all well and good. If the variation between top and bottom is more than a third of the thickness of the wall, it’s potentially unstable. I wouldn’t necessarily leave a house because the walls were leaning slightly, particularly if they were very thick, but it could be due to subsidence. If unsure get a structural engineer’s report. Underpinning if needed will cost several hundred pounds per linear meter, depending on depth, access, soil type etc

Another cause is that roofs can push them out. The rafters are diagonal and press out sideways on the walls, unless they are tied in at the bottom by ceiling joists which are continuous throughout the whole width of the house. Tying them in is not complicated, but re-righting leaning walls is generally impractical.

A little surface cracking of render is usually due to thermal movement as the building expands and contracts over the seasons and at different times of day. They are nothing to worry about, just a reminder of where someone should have put an expansion joint but failed to do so! Cracks more than three or four millimetres wide can indicate ground movement of the foundations. This is also indicated by the courses (layers) of bricks becoming uneven and out of level. Go to the edge of the building and look along the mortar joints. Are they straight and level? Or do they dip at piers and rise at windows? The latter indicates that the heavier parts of the building are sinking on it’s foundations. If the building has been rendered, you can look along the window sills, or along any coping. Again, a little movement isn’t necessarily a concern, especially if the building is over 100 years old and most of the movement may have occurred early in its life.

Render (a wall-coating of sand-and-cement) should be checked for adhesion to the wall by tapping it with a screwdriver handle or similar. If it sounds hollow, it may be partly detached and need replacement. This can let water in. Try scratching it with an old screwdriver, if you can easily it’s too soft. In a misguided attempt to save money, some buildings are rendered with as little as 1 part cement to 12 parts sand, which is far too weak, porous and soft.  It’ll need chipping back and replacing with a minimum 4:1 mix and a waterproofing additive.

If the masonry is unrendered, check the pointing (the outer layer of harder cement in the joints). Is it loose or missing? Are the bricks or stones themselves crumbly from frost or wind damage? Soft, cool-fired bricks are particularly prone to this, as are Yorkshire gritstone and schist. This can allow moisture penetration. Rendering is generally cheaper and more reliable than re-pointing. A bonding chemical called SBR is used to prime the masonry. If walls are very loose, sheets of perforated metal (expanded metal lath or EML) should be bolted to the walls to provide an adhesive base. With scaffolding this can be quite expensive.

I’ll write about inspecting external walls from the inside next week.

Rich

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Victoria at the Center of London Tube & Bus Overcharging

Oyster card

Image by boxman via Flickr

The BBC submitted a Freedom of Information request which shows Transport for London (TfL) has refunded £40,000 this year to customers who have been over-charged for topping up their Oyster Card by faulty machines. The information also shows there have been 2,421 complaints in 2010 about being double charged when adding credit to the electronic travel smartcard, and that the machines at London Bridge, Victoria, Liverpool Street and King Cross stations led to the highest number of complaints.

So don’t take your Oyster charges on trust, check your bank account after topping up, TfL say that they aren’t aware of any over-charging until the issue was reported by a passenger.

As well as checking your bank balance – do you have an old Oyster Card hanging around? A total of 16.5m PAYG cards sat idle during the year from April 2009 to April 2010. The average amount on each card was £1.80, meaning that nearly £30m has been left unused on Oyster pay-as-you-go (PAYG) for at least a year. Additionally last year alone, 31,000 PAYG cards were issued and topped up but never subsequently used, even though they held £246,000 worth of travel on them. That’s a big saving if you can find and use that missing Oyster Card!

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One Response to “Victoria at the Center of London Tube & Bus Overcharging”

  1. Sam says:

    I know I sound like a luddite – but I don’t really trust Oyster. I used to always get a train ticket including an all day pass but then I realised that sometimes I am not using it to it’s full max so should get an Oyster instead. Oyster claim that they will never charge you more than what an all day pass will cost – but it always seems to cost more (when you see the amounts deducted at each station) where Oyster win is in the fact it’s too time consuming for me to check every transaction!

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London Holiday Rental Flats, & Serviced Apartments – Spot the Scam

The Citizens Advice Bureau Logo.

Image via Wikipedia



When you are renting for a short visit you are most likely going to be renting blind, going off an internet description. Scammers take advantage of this and sadly every week a new visitor to London turns up to find that the property that they have paid for doesn’t exist.

Only the other week I received this question:

I am looking to book a holiday apartment for 9 days during August
I have found a selection of lovely apartments within our budget and just wanted some feedback seeing as the landlord/agent who we are dealing with has stated no viewings are available and they ask for 75% of total rent/deposit to be paid up front.
Here is the website

http://unitrusthomeservices.com/

They advertise most of them on Gumtree also but this is the place to handle the booking.

My answer was as follows:

Scam Property is always a steal of a bargain, genuine property just cannot compete on price. This Studio is an absolute bargain. To give you an indication the market leader for serviced Studios in Central London is Dolphin Square who charge £185/night. We compete with them by offering a similar product at half the price – which is in itself an absolute bargain. This studio is in one of the most exclusive addresses there is and is offered at 1/3rd of our price, or 1/6th of the going rate. That screams scam, before you even look hard.

The website looks very genuine, & most impressive. However the phone number is not a landline number but an 070 number forwarding service, and the website domain was registered less than a month ago (5th July).

Personally my interest would end at this point. But you might like to dig further, especially if they are prepared to take payment by some protected service such as Credit Card.

The website was registered by:

Abraham Isaac
31 Queen Anne Street Marylebone
London, London W1G 9DL

There is actually a Doctor’s surgery at that address:

Leonard M Selby
31 Queen Anne Street
Marylebone
London
W1G 9HT

Tel: 020-7636-5250
Business Type: Doctors (General Practitioners)

Sorry to spoil your holiday.

Sadly the message was followed soon after by another reply as follows:

Sorry I have to say that this “unitrusthomeservices” has tricked us.

The past Tuesday we arrived london from Madrid (Spain). We had seen this fantastic flat on Gumtree and it liked us. We booked it for three weeks and they asked us to make the reservation with a money transfer to an account from Halifax, it was 560 pounds. Well, we arrived london and tried to contact the person that e-mail us from unitrust. No answer. We tried with the number in the website and nothing. We have gone to the police station for two days and they have said we should go to the Citizens Advice Bureau, anyway they have taken the address and the name of the person from unitrusthomeservices.
After three days walking about Police Station, hotels and agencies of lettings we have actually rent a room on a shared flat and can be relaxed.

So if you are thinking of renting a London Flat from abroad bear in mind the following points:

  • Scam Properties are a Bargain. If it seems too good to be true – it is.
  • Only deal with established businesses. Check out the address. Only deal with a working Landline Number, if there is only a mobile or number forwarding phone number move on.
  • If it’s a business it won’t be advertising using free ads on Gumtree, Craigslist, et al
  • Only pay by a reversible method (Credit Card, Paypal).
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    One Response to “London Holiday Rental Flats, & Serviced Apartments – Spot the Scam”

    1. Sam says:

      Did you see that guy who is wanted for the holiday homes scam?
      http://ow.ly/2rM0t

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    Be your own Surveyor – Solid Internal Walls.

    Richard Greenland

    I blogged about timber-frame internal walls last week, this week it’s solid internal walls. Older houses will usually have lime mortar, which is much softer but less prone to cracking (it absorbs the movement). Modern houses will have cement mortar.

    Many of the same things apply as for timber walls. Use a spirit level to check door frames for level. Also look out for wallpaper crinkling diagonally at the corners where walls join indicating settlement (see last week’s blog).

    EFFLORESCENCE

    Rising damp is indicated by plaster becoming loose or peeling off below about 1.2 metres high, and by ‘efflorescence’, the appearance of fine carbonate and sulphate salt crystals on the surface, which often push through the plaster. These may need injecting with a silicone-based damp-proof membrane (DPM). A typical terrace can be done for about £500 but get competitive quotes. A few older houses have a slate DPM, which has been used since the time of the Romans!

    Internal walls may have become overloaded by having large sections removed, for instance to knock a lounge and diner into one. This is indicated by diagonal cracking to the sides of the opening, as the walls compress where the lintels above are carried. Lintels should be on concrete padstones with a minimum bearing of 150mm. Sadly many original works in Victorian and Edwardian houses, or DIY works uncertified by Building Control, have a lot less. I have seen Victorian houses with very undersized wooden lintels, bearing on little more than the plaster! It’s a myth that old houses are better. They’re simply the ones that haven’t fallen down in the interim. Modern houses, with proper insulation, draft- and sound-proofing, and subject to the full scrutiny of Building Control, are in my opinion the best they have ever been.

    Check if there are still chimneys outside but the chimney breast has gone from the rooms below. If so, what is supporting the chimney? DIY builders sometimes remove the supporting masonry leaving two tons of bricks teetering dangerously on the party wall. You don’t want to be living in a house like this when there’s a storm! I worked on a job in London where a man died when he attempted to remove a chimney from the bottom up and it collapsed on him. Ideally the chimney should be taken right out from the top (see my blog on roofs). Failing that it can be supported on lintels between the walls to either side, or cambered out from the party wall although this is less secure.

    Finally, party walls. In modern houses they should be thick enough to avoid undue  noise disturbance from next door. Older houses with two-brick thick walls plastered on both sides would normally pass modern acoustic tests. Unfortunately many older terraces only have party walls one brick thick and sound insulation is poor. Without drilling into the wall, the only way to tell is to listen when the neighbours are active and gauge how much noise there is.

    I’ll write something on external walls next week.

    Rich

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    London Cycle Scheme – the Future of Advertising Flats to Rent?

    Is sponsorship a good way of advertising Flats for Rent? Barclays have certainly snapped up a bargain, Barclays are only paying £25m towards the £140m cycle scheme which now bears their name, and they get more than just the name ‘Barclays Bikes’ – they also get 100km plus of road painted Barclays blue – and an advert on every bike. Eat your heart out Foxtons Minis, throw away your canvas bags Marsh & Parsons, have your notepad back Douglas & Gordon, Chestertons & Frank Knight!

    Of course Barclays are reaping a whirlwind of negative publicity, anti-war activists who have placed large stickers about the conflict in Afghanistan on the back of bikes to highlight Barclays investment in the arms trade. The activists claim 4,000 bikes got stickers & the messages read:

    • ‘£20M INVESTMENT IN BIKES. £7300M INVESTMENT IN BOMBS’
    • ‘FUNDING DEPLETED URANIUM BIRTH DEFECTS IN IRAQ’.

    Other demonstrators left stickers on bikes at Hyde Park Corner in protest at Barclays’ sponsorship of the scheme, unhappy about the bank’s record of investing in defence companies.

    The Guardian on the bikes

    London can now claim the dubious honour of hosting what is surely the largest piece of corporate branding in existence. It’s not just the scale, the mind-blowing square footage, that is shocking about this – it’s the principle. We’re not talking about some supersized billboard here: we’re talking about the mayor selling off the very road beneath our wheels – one of the few parts of a city that counts indisputably as public space. Whether they realise it or not, whether or not they even care, from now on thousands of cyclists are doomed to commute on a giant Barclays ad….There is something, too, in the gibes suggesting this is not just Barclays blue but Tory blue. Neither New Labour nor former mayor Ken Livingstone did anything to prevent the growing privatisation of the city, but it is hard to imagine Livingstone selling off a chunk of the public realm in such brazen fashion.”

    The Standard calls for a new name:

    The Standard calls for a new name for Boris & The Cycle Scheme

    The Standard calls for a new name for Boris & The Cycle Scheme

    London is saddled with the lifeless name for its scheme of “Barclays Cycle Hire”. We badly need a nickname for the scheme. I’ve already suggested the Bozza. All other ideas welcome, the wittier the better

    Not good publicity – but then there is no such thing as bad advertising. When Foxton’s illegal and fraudulent business practices became the feature of a BBC TV program their business actually increased.

    So Pimlico Flats need to get our company bike covered in slogans, and have George repaint Winchester St. pavement. That will get the tenants renting our flats.

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    New Voluntary HMO Licensing Scheme

    Oxford City Council

    Oxford City Council

    Prior to the 2004 Housing Act many Local Authorities (such as Westminster City Council) had their own Licensing Schemes for HMOs (Houses in Multiple Occupation). The 2004 Housing Act unified the many local schemes, provided a legal definition of an HMO, and set up national licensing of HMOs (properties where the occupants don’t live as a single household and share facilities). HMOs of 3 storeys and 5 or more occupants were assigned Mandatory Licensing (the Local Authority were required to operate a licensing scheme), and many members of the local licensing schemes were automatically ported across to the new national scheme. HMO’s of less than 3 storeys or 5 occupants were no longer licensed, and although the 2004 Housing Act did allow Councils to apply for permission to license these properties as well, no Local Authorities applied set up voluntary schemes.

    One of the last actions of the outgoing government in April 2010 was to issue an order which allowed local authorities to set up licensing schemes for all HMOs – basically reverting to a system similar to that which existed prior to 2004. Oxford Council is the first Council to use their powers to set up such a scheme (although five additional licensing schemes are in existence in England, along with a further fifteen selective licensing schemes, which are designed to deal with areas of low demand that are blighted by antisocial behaviour), and they give their reasons for this as:

    • Local residents in Oxford have told us that the Council needs to do more to control the impact of HMOs
    • We’ve tried using all our existing powers but they haven’t been enough to make the difference that is needed. We believe that additional licensing will provide us with those extra powers that we need and that it will have a really positive impact.
    • Our aim is to improve the living conditions for tenants within HMOs as they provide the worst accommodation in the City. We also want all landlords to take greater responsibility for managing their properties and ensure that the houses they own don’t blight our neighbourhoods with rubbish and anti-social behaviour.

    The Council go on to say something rather strange about how they will implement the scheme:

    “Due to the size of the scheme, we will be targeting the highest risk HMOs first. These are the three storey properties and those HMOs where 5 or more people live. We will also be requiring licence applications from all the landlords of those HMOs where we’ve had to take legal action in the past. We’ve estimated it’ll take a year to deal with these high priority HMOs and after that we’ll begin licensing the rest.

    The reason I find that statement strange is that they should have been operating a licensing scheme for 3 storey properties for over 4 years now (Mandatory Schemes started in April 2006), so it’s a bit weird to announce a scheme for all properties and then say that you are going to prioritise something that you should already have been doing for years! The rational behind a lot of Oxford’s thinking appears to be driven by their own limited resources. Oxford estimates that 20% of the properties that should have been licensed under the mandatory scheme haven’t been due to landlords taking properties out of use, changing the tenure, selling them, leaving them vacant, or actively avoiding licensing.

    Critics of this scheme point out that:

    • The proposed scheme is one which involves annual licensing so landlords will have to reapply, and pay for, a new licence every year. The primary rationale is that the current 5-yearly licensing system has meant that the Council has already spent all the license fee money they derived when the mandatory scheme came into force and so have no money to staff the scheme without providing an annual income.
    • A rationale for the scheme is the belief that it will encourage landlords to deal with anti-social behaviour. Given that private landlords have no legal liability for the behaviour of their tenants and no powers to do anything about such behaviour it is hard to see what the council expects Landlords to achieve in this area.

    Schemes like this should be beneficial to Landlords providing accommodation which meets Housing Standards, as it will drive from the market the accidental Landlords who provide low quality accommodation at cheaper rents. Whilst being good news for professional landlords it may not be quite such good news for tenants seeking affordable accommodation (particularly Students in Oxford), inevitably as the slum accommodation is removed from the market the cost of the remaining property will rise, and rents will also include the cost of the licensing scheme which is to be funded by it’s fees (as an example the initial application fee for 2 storey HMO with 3 or 4 occupants is £362 with an annual renewal fee of £150).

    PainSmith Solicitors believe that this scheme has the potential to be challenged, and having spoken to counsel are prepared to discuss the possibility of taking such a challenge forward on a no win, no fee basis if a group of interested landlords wished to come forward.

    The next few months will be of great interest to Landlords and Tenants alike, not only is there some uncertainty about whether this scheme can be implemented, but the philosophy behind it (regulation of Landlords) is that of the previous administration and contrary to the libertarian instincts of the current government.

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    Pimlico Art Gallery Henry Moore Exhibition to Close

    Tate Britain

    Tate Britain

    The exhibition of the works of radical, experimental and avant-garde, Henry Moore (1898–1986), one of Britain’s greatest artists is due to end on Sunday.

    The Guardian describe it as ‘The most important exhibition of Moore’s work for a generation’ , so if you haven’t seen it, you may wish to judge for yourself before it closes this Sunday 8 August.

    The exhibition takes a fresh look at his work and legacy, presenting over 150 stone sculptures, wood carvings, bronzes and drawings.

    Moore rebelled against his teachers’ traditional views of sculpture, instead taking inspiration from non-Western works he saw in museums. He pioneered carving directly from materials, evolving his signature abstract forms derived from the human body. This exhibition presents examples of the defining subjects of his work, such as the reclining figure, mother and child, abstract compositions and drawings of wartime London. The works are situated in the turbulent ebb and flow of twentieth-century history, sometimes uncovering a dark and erotically charged dimension that makes us look at them in a new light. Exhibition Tickets cost £12.50p.

    Londonist has prepared a map of Moore sculptures to be seen for free around London generally, with blue pins representing outdoor works and red indicating indoor pieces


    View Henry Moore’s London in a larger map

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