25.05.12 Charter Quay wins £500,000 from landlords – with help from LKP-accredited managing agent HML Andertons

This week’s £90,000 victory to recover service charges at Charter Quay (above) brings total LVT winnings at the prime riverside site at Kingston, Surrey, to more than half a million pounds. HML Andertons, an LKP-accredited managing agent, helped recover much of the latest tranche of money. Read more here

25.05.12 Landlords must use their own address to demand payment – or they won’t get it

In an important ruling, the Land Tribunal earlier this month stated that service charge and ground rent demands must be made by the landlord using his own address, not that of his managing agent. Otherwise he won’t get the money. Read more here

25.05.12 Failed ‘right to manage’ leaves Brighton residents with £30,000 legal bills

A group of 120 leaseholders in Brighton have failed in their bid to win “right to manage” at a Leasehold Valuation Tribunal and have been left with a legal bill of more than £30,000. Read more here

19.05.12 Stop this “legal torture” of pensioners, says Sir Peter Bottomley in post on LKP

A senior Tory MP has posted on LKP today to express his utter disgust at the delaying tactics used by the freeholder  – whose lawyers included Laceys, who proclaim themselves the “honorary solicitors” of ARMA – at the Oakland Court LVT earlier this month.

Sir Peter Bottomley, MP for Worthing West, claimed that this amounted to “legal torture” and he condemned the entire LVT process, referring to “the series of actions and expensive stratagems faced by elderly frail constituents without the financial resources to play unending tribunal games with a relentless money grabbing opponent”.

The £137,000 action [see below] was won by the 40 pensioners, but two of the original applicants died and three went into care before the LVT was heard.

Three times the landlord’s legal team appealed against the LVT’s decision even to hear the case, which would have begun the process. This procedure is not possible in the civil courts, where a case is either heard or thrown out.

Sir Peter writes: “It is shocking that the pension fund or its beneficiaries should have claimed money wrongly from elderly leaseholders. I cannot believe that other freeholders could have backed this long running and unnecessarily expensive and protracted process.

“If the beneficiaries claim similar freeholders act in the same ways, that makes matters worse. If the beneficiaries did not know or did not approve of the use and reuse of legal actions to appeal clear just decisions, they should have known and they should have told their lawyers to end what I saw as legal torture.

“Ministers, senior judiciary and the legal standards bodies need to take effective action to make ineffective, impossible or unprofessional the series of actions and expensive stratagems faced by elderly frail constituents without the financial resources to play unending tribunal games with a relentless money grabbing opponent.

“I pay tribute to John Fenwick [who instigated the action] and the leaseholders’ legal representatives and pro bono barrister.

“He should be nominated for a community award.”

Read below and follow the link for our original report, and the full LVT ruling

17.05.12 Pensioners win £137,000 over notional rent for their warden’s flat

Forty pensioners in sheltered housing in Worthing, West Sussex, won a landmark LVT ruling earlier this week when they established that they should not have been charged a notional rent for their house manager’s flat. The charges date back to 1986.

The ruling establishes a strong precedent in retirement leasehold where loading notional rents for these flats became a favoured practice from the 1990s. Nothing in the lease justifies them, however. The landlords, the Oakland Pension Fund, must now repay the money. It is likely that there are thousands of similar arrangements for charging for warden’s flats across the country.

There were considerable delays before  the LVT considered the case – more than a year was wasted – which meant that several of the original applicants died. In civil courts this could not have occured, and it is a clear example of the failure of the LVT system as a low cost, speedy and simple recourse to justice, which is what was intended.

 

Read our full report here

 

16.05.12 After the £1 million fiasco at St George Wharf, new managing agent wins an award!

Last September, the Berkeley Group paid out £1 million to residents at the landmark St George Wharf (left), in Vauxhall, who had complained of loaded service charges, inter-company contracts and inflated insurance contracts.

Nine months on, the new managing agent Rendall and Rittner wins the Property Week Resi Award for “property manager of the year” at a black tie dinner in central London last night.

Many congratulations to them, for having cleaned out those particularly whiffy augean stables … and commiserations to LKP-accredited managing agent JJ Homes, who made the short-list.

15.05.12 Emotional delegate tells ‘Lease’ it is failing ordinary leaseholders

In the last ten minutes the Lease annual conference today burst into life  when a furious delegate grabbed the microphone and said the quango was failing to represent the interests of ordinary leaseholders.

“I see around me here landlords and managing agents and lots of lawyers who won’t even speak to me because I cannot afford their fees,” Julian Shersby, 49, told the conference. Read more here

11.05.12 A lot of resigning at Peverel

Are changes afoot at Peverel, with managing director Lee Middleburgh and retirement MD Keith Edgar off for a spot of gardening leave? Not according to the company spokesman who tells LKP: “Lee Middleburgh is group managing director of Peverel Property Management and Keith Edgar is managing director of Peverel Retirement.”

All’s fine then, but there has been quite a bit of activity recently, with Lee resigning from the directorship of 15 companies on May 2, and Keith laying down the burden of a whopping 49 on the same day. Read the full list here

5.05.12 Premier Block Management signs up to LKP

Another property management has signed up to the ethos of LKP to put leaseholders first: Premier Block Management, founded by Simon Goodkind and based in Elstree, Hertfordshire. LKP would like to offer a warm welcome to Simon and his team. Premier’s page on LKP can be seen here

5.05.12 Hanover rounds on OFT for  bungling exit fee investigation

The Hanover Housing Association, which manages 17,000 retirement properties, wants a court case on exit fees on sales, but the Office of Fair Trading doesn’t – even though it has been investigating them for three years. This stance is the complete opposite of what the OFT advised Carlex last February. It urged Carlex to take a class action , suggesting that hard-up pensioners are better qualified to get a judgement on this issue than well-remunerated officials in the OFT. If the bonfire of the quangos ever gets started, here is another one for the pyre. Read more here

4.05.12 Carlex questions whether Esther Rantzen should be ARHM guest speaker

The Carlex campaign is openly questioning why Esther Rantzen is the guest speaker at the annual jamboree of the Association of Retirement Housing Managers, where Peverel manages 65,000 of the 105,000 units under the members’ management.

Retirement management is the most controversial area of block property management. You can read more here

3.05.12 Redrow boss Steve Morgan talks to LKP

It was back to the boom days last night for a champagne reception at the top of the Gherkin tower in the City. The event was hosted by Steve Morgan, legendary founder of Redrow, who was launching his exclusive ONE Commercial Street just to the east of the City.

The apartments are to be managed by Rendall and Rittner, which manages 27,000 units and raises £70 million a year in service charges.

Morgan was happy to give LKP a tour of his new scheme and we discussed the issue of property management, which is not traditionally high on a developer’s agenda.

“After we have sold the units developers don’t usually think much about it, although it obviously carries reputational risk if things go wrong,” he said.

He was interested to hear of LKP’s meetings with other housebuilders and its passion to get a consumer-oriented approach into property management, as well as LKP’s accreditation process.

In other words: straight dealing, transparency and not having a laugh with stealth charges and sneaky commissions. England and Wales offer uniquely rich pickings here because, alone in the world, they retain leasehold tenure, which puts homeowners – or tenants, as leaseholders are in law – in a permanent position of vulnerability.

There were plenty of Far Eastern potential buyers at last night’s do, and estate agents will admit that it is a hurdle to get them to lay down £1 million plus for an apartment and then be told that they are just tenants. They go along with it in London because they have a general faith in English law and realise it is the local way of doing things.

But they don’t like it at all, and they would like it a good deal less if they were aware of the scandals surrounding the property management of high-end London sites, as revealed in LVT rulings.

LKP suggested to Rob Perrins, MD of Berkeley Homes, that buyers at its new site in Kensington High Street would probably be only too happy to pay a little more for commonhold – if it meant avoiding the time-consuming hassles with property management and the freeholder experienced by residents at St George’s Wharf or Chelsea Bridge Wharf.

It is a new departure for Redrow to build luxury flats in London, and another large scheme is being built at Kingston, in Surrey.

LKP has discussed the issue of leasehold management with the chief executives of Berkeley Homes, Barratt, Persimmon and Bellway.

2.05.12 LKP hits 20,000 site visits and Premier Block Management signs up to our accreditation scheme

Premier Block Management, run by Simon Goodkind, and based in Elstree, Herts, is the latest managing agent to sign up to LKP. A huge welcome to Simon and his team, who run sites from London down to the south coast. Premier has been accredited on the same day LKP site visits topped 20,000, almost all since last December. These verifiable figures from StatPress show how the LKP message is getting through to both ordinary leaseholders and the property management industry.

2.05.12 Meeting with Bruton Street Management

A full and frank discussion this morning with Andrew Kafkaris, of Bruton Street Management, who provided evidence for Baroness Gardner at last week’s House of Lords debate. Understandably Richard, who used to be the RA chairman at Millbank Court, in Pimlico – which he now manages – has strong views about leaseholders being aware of what they have signed up to rather than complaining that it is all so unfair afterwards. He has interesting views on how the RTM process could be improved, as well as the expensive and convoluted LVT process. Hopefully, Bruton Street management will become accredited to LKP in due course, and we will shortly be publishing his article.

30.04.2012 ARHM president Baroness Greengross apologises to pensioner for ‘barrack-room lawyer’ jibe

In last week’s Lords debate on leasehold regulation, Baroness Greengross, the president of the Association of Retirement Housing Managers, said complaining pensioners were ‘barrack-room lawyers’ with too much time on their hands. She has today apologised to a Carlex supporter for her remark. Further details can be read here or visit www.carlex.co.

30.04.2012 Oops! No surprise why this word is causing ARMA difficulty

ARMA now supports transparency, regulation, good governance, ombudsman, open debate, protection of leaseholders’ interests etc etc … having for years benefited from the subscriptions of large companies which have loaded stealth charges, trousered sneaky commissions or awarded their own subsidiaries absurdly generous contracts. All paid for by ordinary leaseholders.

This has been upheld time and again at LVTs, which is why so few in the property industry, Parliament or the civil service are still persuaded by this organisation.

It is a fig-leaf that no longer covers the naughty bits.

FACT: No managing agent has ever publicly been expelled from ARMA.

27.04.2012 Murdoch and Baroness Hanham: two remarkably similar performances this week

A highly experienced – and opinionated – leasehold pundit offers this analysis of two public hearings in London this week. Read more here

27.04.2012 Countrywide looses £16,000 and leaseholders come back for £40,000 more

Spectacular LVT win by 64 leaseholders in Wolverhampton over flood repair bill against one of the country’s largest managing agents. Read more here

26.04.2012 CentreForum think tank calls in LKP for new leasehold study

In three weeks time another important report into leasehold is to be published, this time by the liberal think tank CentreForum and LKP has been asked to contribute. More here

25.04.2012 ‘Not everything was wonderful at Peverel’, concedes new boss Janet Entwistle

The new boss of Peverel has given an interview to Property Week. She wants time, but leaseholders are jettisoning the company as quickly as they can. The interview can be read here

24.04.2012 BBC’s ‘Don’t get even, get Dom’ features City Heights, Nottingham

The story of how Neil Healey and residents from City Heights in Nottingham managed to get back £420,000 of over paid charges. The management was Solitaire / Peverel Group.

24.04.2012 Peverel and Tchenguiz named in Parliament … and Leasehold Knowledge praised

The House of Lords debated leasehold reform yesterday and named both Peverel and Tchenguiz. A report on the costs and effectiveness of Leasehold Valuation tribunals will be provided, and both ARHM and RICS are revising their codes of practice. The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership was praised in the debate for its efforts to clean up the sector. LKP met Baroness Gardner of Parkes, who opened the debate, in March. Our report and link to Hansard can be found here

 

23.04.2012 Lords debate on leasehold reform today

Read our full report later this afternoon on the House of Lords debate on leasehold service charges and reform. The debate is being promoted by Baroness Gardner of Parkes following meetings with Leasehold Knowledge Partnership last month.

18.04.12 Gearing up for Lords debate

The debate in the House of Lords proposed by Baroness Gardner of Parkes has been widened slightly to embrace: “what proposals they (the government) have with regard to residential service charges and other matters affecting leasehold blocks of flats”.

LKP is today meeting members of the Centreforum, liberal think tank, which is also writing a report on this issue, of which more later. It is time to beat the drum to sum up the Lords interested in this issue to ensure the maximum attendance … and result.

2.04.12 Grant Shapps alone in resisting leasehold reform

The powerful British Property Federation approves in principle further protection of leaseholders and the £1-2 billion they spend a year in service charges. All the trade bodies – even the less appetising ones – support regulation, making Housing Minister Grant Shapps alone in thinking that leaseholders, who are repeatedly scammed in this foetid corner of the property world, need no further protection. He reiterated this view in a letter to Zac Goldsmith MP as recently as March 23. Read and weep here

30.03.12 Lords to debate leasehold abuses

The House of Lords is to debate residential service charges next month.

The move comes from Baroness Gardner (left) following meetings with Melissa Briggs and Sebastian O’Kelly, of the LKP, in February.

Baroness Gardner, a former Westminster councillor who as an Australian comes from a country where English leasehold law was uprooted, has raised the issue of leasehold abuses several times in the past.

She is particularly interested in examples of money being pocketed by freeholders or managing agents – such as insurance and energy commissions (see below) –  without leaseholders’ knowledge.

Baroness Gardner will be raising to wider public awareness the staggering LVT rulings at prime riverside developments in London in recent months.

The £1 million payment residents at St Georges Wharf, Vauxhall, and the devastating LVT ruling against Estates and Management at Charter Quay, Kingston, is likely to form part of of her evidence.

Likewise, the rapacious stealth charges inflicted on pensioners living in retirement developments.

The debate is scheduled for April 23.

29.03.12 Managing agents are offered ‘incentives’ of up to £250,000 to place energy contracts – as rewards for spending  leaseholders’ money!

A devastating leaked document shows that Energy Renewals is offering staggering sums to ARMA members to place gas and electricity contracts for the blocks that they manage. The inducement comes after numerous scandals over stealth charges and insurance commissions revealed at record-breaking LVT rulings. Read the full report here

27.03.12 Government receives a full and frank message from LKP

Prompted by an invitation by Housing Minister Grant Shapps, three representatives of Leasehold Knowledge Partnership had a positive meeting with the Department of Communities and Local Government today.

The department was eager to learn more about LKP and its fast-growing accreditation scheme.

The meeting dwelt at length on the origins of LKP and why such an organization is necessary.

The department was reminded of the massive LVT settlements at prime London riverside developments, and strong criticisms of the freeholders who appoint themselves as managing agents, insurance brokers, CCTV providers and the rest.

The predatory charges at retirement developments that Carlex made into a national scandal were referred to and the department was reminded of the  London Assembly’s hard-hitting report Highly Charged.

Shapps is reportedly in touch with the LA and wants to meet for talks about this.

Developers are distancing themselves from the familiar offenders – big managing agents who were handed out vast numbers of leasehold units to manage during the boom years, and lost no opportunity to load service charges, insurance commissions and numerous other extras.

LKP made clear its views on the feeble codes of practice of trade bodies such as ARMA or RICS. The former has been particularly craven by declining to name a single managing agent who has been expelled from the organization over the past 10 years for malpractice – rather than simply for failing to pay its ARMA subs.

The consumer-driven approach of LKP was made clear.

It was accepted that LKP would be consulted along with the trade bodies in future discussions of leasehold issues.

The department argued that the record sums paid to London riverside leaseholders may indicate that the present system functions. But all the actions here have cost tens of thousands of pounds and have involved highly successful professional residents living in owner-occupied blocks.

The young homeowner, probably living in a block with many rental properties, is extremely vulnerable and most simply sell up and leave a block where rip-off practices prevail.

22.03.12 LKP gauges views of property managers in East Anglia

What picture emerges from LKP’s tour of Cambridge, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex? Read more here

21.03.12 Boris summons LKP for talks

Boris Johnson has invited LKP to discuss the London Assembly’s hard-hitting report into leasehold service charges, called Highly Charged, that was issued earlier this month.

 

The meeting will take place within the next two weeks.

In a statement to LKP the mayor’s office said: “The Mayor recognises that leasehold service charges are an important issue for both leaseholders and local authorities, with many Londoners concerned over seemingly unfair costs, a lack of transparency in how charges are calculated and the lack of good quality information and advice about the issues.

“In particular there are concerns in London that the nature of the housing stock may make it difficult for leaseholders to exercise their right to manage.

“Like you, the Mayor welcomes the Assembly’s report, and hopes that the report will be given due consideration by all interested parties. The Mayor will be encouraging the authorities and agencies to whom the report recommendations are addressed to do their best to implement the recommendations as far as reasonably practicable.”

Apart from the obvious issue of rip-off stealth charges – which have been the subject of record LVT payouts (including £1 million to the residents at St George’s Wharf, Vauxhall) – cash-strapped leaseholders face being hit for huge bills to make their homes eco-efficient.

The mayor is keen to ensure these bills are limited and that leaseholders can pay the bills with interest free payments over a number of years.

16.03.12 Latest Accreditation news re Urban Bubble & Premier BM

Manchester based Urban Bubble, established four years ago by a disgruntled leaseholder, who manage 1800 units approximately have contacted us re becoming accredited, and have supplied their completed paperwork.  Premier Block Management of Elstree are proceeding through the accreditation process.

New page published today

In the “I want to break free” section, a chronology of the many and varied leasehold laws to give readers the background and history on this difficult form of tenure.

Tour of Cambs and East Anglia arranged

LKP’s tour of Cambs and East Anglia starts next Tuesday.  We are hoping to meet at least six managing agents next week and a few leaseholders. The following week we will be meeting the DCLG, (Department of Communities and Local Government), the British Property Federation, more representatives from the Berkeley Group and hopefully the management of the RPTS/LVT.

Various developers and managing agents who also hold freeholds have now supplied us with their leases.  Their is a wide variation in writing styles and we are commenting to the different companies concerned from a leaseholder perspective.

LKP has been formally invited to attend the LEASE conference in Mid May – we will probably be the only genuine representative of Leaseholders present with no vested interest.

15.03.12 Only 15 alternatives to dreaded leasehold

The Land Registry has given LKP details of the 15 developments in England and Wales that have been built with Commonhold tenure – ie the form of ownership that exists just about everywhere in the world except … er … England and Wales. Thanks to leasehold we have aristocrats still owning chunks of London and, of course, housebuilders love it as they sell a place twice over: once to the leaseholder, and then the added perk of flogging the freehold to pension funds (if you are lucky) or dodgy creeps (if you are not) who set themselves up as the building’s managers and start “monetising” by preying on the leaseholders. The full list of commonhold properties can be read