Run by one person who has been on both sides of the notice.

Damion Robinson

I started on the tools. By the end of it I was a director running large projects, with a construction company of my own and a property portfolio alongside it. I’m a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Building, MCIOB, and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, MCIEH. The environmental health side matters here because the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, the thing every council notice is built on, is an environmental health tool. I read the notice with the same guidance open that the officer used to write it.

Running the construction company meant inspecting the work as well as ordering it. Site inspection was a daily part of the job rather than something I handed off, and it’s the same eye that reads a schedule of works attached to a service charge demand and asks what was actually done. On paper that’s Level 6 diplomas in construction contracting operations management and in occupational health and safety practice, a Level 5 diploma in retrofit coordination, SMSTS and a black CSCS manager card. I’m a certified member of IOSH and an associate of the Chartered Association of Building Engineers. I’m also a Domestic Energy Assessor accredited through ecmk and a PAS 2035 certified Retrofit Coordinator.

I’ve also been a landlord for the last 20 years. The portfolio has ranged from single flats to commercial units and every size of HMO up to nine bedrooms, so I’ve received the notices, applied for the licences and paid the service charges myself. I’m not advising from a textbook.

I’m part of an active network of leaseholders’ associations, landlords and investors across Merseyside. Between us, challenging a demand or getting a form submitted correctly is a daily job, not an occasional one. That’s where the fixed prices come from. When you’ve done something often enough, you know what it costs.

The other side of that network is professional. I work alongside people who spent their careers inside the system: retired environmental health officers who wrote improvement notices for a living, former planning officers and building control inspectors, and surveyors who’ve sat on the other side of the tribunal table. When a case is unusual, it goes to that panel with your details removed, so what you get isn’t one person’s opinion. It’s the view of people who know how the council, the freeholder and the tribunal actually think, because they were once the ones doing the thinking.

I’m also a leaseholder, and I’ve taken my own service charge dispute against a large freeholder to the First-tier Tribunal. Section 20 notices, section 27A applications, statements of case, bundles, Ombudsman complaints. That’s where the leaseholder services on this site come from.

The idea behind Landlord Services NW is simple. Landlords and leaseholders who get a serious piece of paper have had nowhere to go except a solicitor charging by the hour, and for most of these problems that’s the wrong tool. The work is technical and procedural. It needs someone who can read a specification, understand the legislation the notice sits under and follow the process exactly. That’s what this is, at a fixed price, with the paperwork done properly.

Credentials

• Chartered Construction Manager, MCIOB
• Member of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, MCIEH
• Certified member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, CertIOSH
• Associate of the Chartered Association of Building Engineers
• Level 6 diplomas in construction contracting operations management and in occupational health and safety practice
• Level 5 diploma in retrofit coordination
• SMSTS and black CSCS manager card
• Domestic Energy Assessor, accredited through ecmk
• Retrofit Coordinator, PAS 2035 certified
• MSc Building Surveying and MSc Sustainable Buildings, in progress
• 17 years in construction, from the tools to director level, hands-on in domestic renovation and building pathology
• 20 years as a private landlord, from single flats to commercial units and HMOs up to nine bedrooms

The Act Now Energy relationship

I also own Act Now Energy Ltd, a Liverpool company that does EPCs, property surveys, retrofit assessments and building works. When a council notice needs works, Act Now Energy can survey and price them. That’s useful, because the people pricing the job have already read the notice. It’s also a conflict of interest, and I’d rather say so than have you work it out.

So the rule is this. The consultancy fee is fixed and paid before any survey. The scope agreed with the council is put in writing and given to you before any quote. You choose who does the works, and the consultancy side carries on the same whether it’s Act Now Energy or someone else. Where this site suggests Act Now Energy, it says so and says why.

What this isn’t

Landlord Services NW is not a firm of solicitors and doesn’t give legal advice. I prepare documents, deal with councils and freeholders, and act as a lay representative where a tribunal allows it. When a matter needs a solicitor, such as possession proceedings, a prosecution or a lease extension claim, I say so and refer you to one.

Landlord Services NW Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 17472734, registered office 50 Picton Road, Wavertree, Liverpool L15 4LH. The company is registered with the Information Commission, registration number ZC264570.