7th July 2022

Milton Keynes

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Speakers

Confirmed speakers include:

Fraser Akehurst - Associate Director – Service Charge, Fortus Business Advisors & Accountants

Fraser Akehurst
Associate Director – Service Charge, Fortus Business Advisors & Accountants

Since qualifying as a chartered accountant, Fraser has gained a wealth of experience in the property management sector, having worked with Landlords and Property Management Companies for over 10 years. From performing audits, factual findings reports and bespoke agreed upon procedures on large scale operations, to advising on best practice and streamlining year end processes, Fraser’s experience spans Private Residential and Commercial, Retirement housing and Housing Associations, and delivering bespoke solutions to their year-end accounts processes.

Justin Bates, National Leasehold Group Speaker

Justin Bates
Barrister, Landmark Chambers

Justin is a barrister at Landmark Chambers. He is the Deputy Editor of the Encyclopedia of Housing Law and the co-author of Leasehold Disputes, amongst various other publications. The legal directories say that there is”…no one better for service charge disputes…” and he is “widely recognised as one of the best of his generation.”

Sarah Chatfield - Director of Home Ownership, Anchor Hanover

Sarah Chatfield
Director of Homeownership Anchor

Sarah has worked in social housing for nearly 30 years, mainly specialising in leasehold management. She has worked for large G15 organisations such as Clarion, Hyde HA and Metropolitan Thames Valley HA and is currently the Director of Home Ownership for Anchor Hanover – England’s largest provider of specialist housing and care for people in later life. She is a Board Member of the National Leasehold Group and an associate of the IRPM as well as a qualified lawyer. Sarah specialises in all aspects of leasehold management including Service Charges, re-sales and staircasing, income collection and front line housing management.

Amanda Gourlay - Barrister, Tanfield Chambers

Amanda Gourlay
Barrister, Tanfield Chambers

Amanda, a barrister at Tanfield Chambers, is recognised in Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500. She is known for her expertise in residential landlord and tenant law, covering service charges, the appointment of a manager, the right to mange, breaches of covenant, forfeiture and associated legal costs. That expertise is regularly deployed in courts and tribunals ranging from the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to the Court of Appeal, where she was led by James Fieldsend in Sheffield City Council v Oliver [2017] EWCA Civ 225 and represented the successful leaseholder in Skelton v DBS Homes (Kings Hill) Ltd [2017] EWCA Civ 1139.

She is a contributor to the 4th edition of “Service Charges and Management” by Tanfield Chambers. Her popular and well-regarded blog, Law and Lease, summarises and comments on service charge decisions. In 2016, she was awarded the fellowship of the Institute of Residential Property Management.

Yesdan-Izzet

Yezdan Izzet
JPC Law

Yezdan Izzet is a Solicitor and Partner in the JPC Law Dispute Resolution Team.

Her expertise covers a wide spectrum of property disputes including landlord and tenant (commercial and residential), forfeiture and possession claims, rent and service charge recovery, lease renewals (opposed and unopposed) as well as real property disputes such as boundary disputes and right of light claims.

More recently Yezdan has developed into a Right to Light expert as well as developing an specialism in advising clients on Development Disputes, including advice on airspace, rooftop and other additional developments. She has experience of broader litigation matters such as contractual disputes and property professional negligence claims. Yezdan is known and respected for representing clients in the High Court, County Court and First-Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) as well as appellate courts.
Siobhan-McGrath

Siobhan McGrath
President of the First-Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) 

Jeff Platt, Section 20 Ltd

Jeff Platt
Managing Director, Section 20 Limited

Jeff is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors with 30+ years’ experience of both commercial and residential property management across all sectors. He has extensive experience of residential leasehold property management with specialist expertise relating to the management and sale of leasehold retirement properties.

Jeff is the author of the Section 20 Consultation section on iSurv, the lead author of the property management section within the RICS UK Residential Property Standards (“The Blue Book”) and the RICS Good Practice Guide on Mixed – Use Property Management. He is a regular Chairman and speaker at Conferences and can provide services as an expert witness.

National Leasehold Group Conference Speaker: Adrian Shaw

Adrian Shaw
Head of Rent & Service Charges, L&Q

Adrian has worked in social housing since the early 1980’s and became involved in low cost home ownership in the late 1990’s. He joined Centra Living (a part of Circle Housing Group) in February 2012 and was responsible for the management of 13,500 leasehold and intermediate housing properties, for the nine Group partners.

 

Following the formation of Clarion Housing Group in December 2016, he was appointed Head of Service Charges. He is an active member of the National Leasehold Group. He is also a member of the CIOH, RICS and IRPM. He is also a board member of Southwark’s newly formed Homeowners Agency.