A new online tool has been released; letting leaseholders interested in taking over management of their building know whether they could work with their neighbours to do just that.
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Category: Legal Advice
The Corporate Manslaughter Act – Construction Death Conviction
Construction company convicted for the death of a geologist, killed in a collapsed trench, and fined £385,000 under new legislation.
On the 15th February 2011 the first conviction under the Corporate Manslaughter Act of 2007 reached its completion. The case saw Gloucestershire-based firm Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings convicted for the death of Alex Wright, a 27 year-old geologist killed in a collapsed trench site near Stroud. The company was deemed to have allowed the geologist to work in a dangerously unsecured deep trench and was fined, three days later, the sum of £385,000.
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Proposals to Change Planning Laws
The Government has announced a consultation following its proposal to amend the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 (as amended) to grant permitted development rights to changes of use from commercial uses to residential uses.
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Your Home is not your Castle
Did you realise that almost 20,000 council workers now have the right to enter your home without a warrant or police escort?Â
Research has disclosed that the average local authority now has 47 employees who are authorised to enter your private home without a warrant and in some councils there are hundreds of these inspectors.Â
Believe it or not, in some instances it is possible to enter your home to clarify the the energy rating on your fridge and to measure your garden hedges. To read the full article, click here.
The Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009
The Marine and Coastal Access Act places a duty on the Secretary of State to make, where such access does not already exist, a continuous route open to the public next to the coast all the way around the coast of England and Wales. This could have big implications on a few properties next to our coast. To read the full article, click here.
Who can enter your home without a warrant?
It is absoluteley amazing to most persons, the number of persons who can access your property without a warrant.Â
The Home Office confirmed there are more than 1000 laws which prevent an Englishmans home being as private as his castle and potentially more than 20,000 persons may have access to your home without requiring a warrant.Â
A full detailed article in the www.propertysurveying.co.uk  article archive will be posted shortly.
Chartered Surveyor Help ?
An interesting article explaining some of the ways an Independent Chartered Surveyor may be able to help you has been written by a member of the propertysurveying.co.uk team. This lists the work undertaken from building surveys to valuation work as well as the less common party wall, expert witness, retrospective valuations and other related work undertaken by multi discipline professional independent chartered surveyors. Read more here