The woman who tracked down 133 leasehold neighbours, organised an RTM and is now buying the freehold
A leasehold campaigner has overcome enormous odds to boot out the Adderstone Group from the management of her investor-owned building with a brilliant RTM success. And now she is poised to take over the freehold as well. The next few weeks will see whether Karen Peel (above), 54, a businesswoman, succeeds in her efforts on behalf [...]
Prisk to Bottomley: what’s the evidence that the Leasehold Advisory Service is not ‘balanced’? Well, how about this for starters …
Housing Minister Mark Prisk has rounded on Sir Peter Bottomley to demand why he believes that the Leasehold Advisory Service in not ‘balanced’. Sir Peter, the Tory MP for Worthing West, made his comments in the Commons on April 16: “To have clever lawyers, some of whom will appear at LEASE—the Government-approved agency for giving [...]
Is Peverel gearing up for another sale?
It’s a question worth asking, as its current owners venture capitalists Electra and Chamonix will get shot of it at the propitious moment. In February 2012 they bought Peverel, which had been part of the Tchenguiz empire from 2007 until it went into administration in March 2011. The deal involved a £62 million transaction supported [...]
Feuding Chelsea leasehold owners find a court-appointed managing agent makes all decisions
… and that includes suing their ex-managing agent, losing the case and passing on the £10,000 legal bill! Lemmings unaccountably like to hurl themselves off the cliff-face into the abyss … and so, it seems, do Chelsea leasehold owners who cannot agree among themselves. Years of wrangling mean that a rundown four-flat converted Victorian house [...]
Case for reform
Yet again! This time Adderstone told to stop loading sub-letting fees
A Leasehold Valuation Tribunal has had to tell Adderstone, a freeholder, to stop loading sub-letting fees – in yet another ruling on this subject. This time it is the Adderstone Group, based in Newcastle, but Estates and Management repeatedly does the same thing. This is spite of a string of LVT rulings and a clear multiple ruling by the Land Tribunal that a reasonable fee for sub-letting – where there are not special terms and fees in a lease – should be £40 plus VAT. The Land Tribunal ruling can be … Read More...
Prisk to Bottomley: what’s the evidence that the Leasehold Advisory Service is not ‘balanced’? Well, how about this for starters …
Housing Minister Mark Prisk has rounded on Sir Peter Bottomley to demand why he believes that the Leasehold Advisory Service in not ‘balanced’. Sir Peter, the Tory MP for Worthing West, made his comments in the Commons on April 16: “To have clever lawyers, some of whom will appear at LEASE—the Government-approved agency for giving advice on leaseholds—advise managing agents on what can be done with leaseholders within the law does not strike me as balanced.” Sir Peter added his view that either or both Sebastian … Read More...
ARMA-Q
ARMA-Q solves ARMA’s problems, not those of leasehold
ARMA-Q, the scheme to give ethical credibility to the Association of Residential Managing Agents, was given the blessing of the government and the leasehold establishment yesterday with a House of Lords launch. Already the new ARMA-Q regulator Keith Hill (above), a former New Labour housing minister, has six cases of complaint to deal with “which [...]
Stuff a leaseholder and win an iPad! The unpromising debut of ARMA-Q
Tomorrow, May 15, ARMA-Q gets a formal unveiling at the House of Lords and the corporates of the property management world will herald this as a new dawn. In fact, ARMA-Q was unveiled at the organisation’s annual conference last September, and that signified less bright “new dawn” than “same old racket”. One of the sponsors [...]
ARMA-Q must expose managing agents’ ‘financial interests’
Robert Plumb , chief executive of managing agents HML Holdings, which is accredited to LKP and is a member ARMA, considers ARMA-Q and the complexity of transparency for residential managing agents Growing leaseholder empowerment and awareness combined with the immediacy of communications will inevitably mean that managing agents will require a thorough understanding of what it [...]
Why we resigned from ARMA, by LKP managing agent
Nottingham-based Walton & Allen is a battle-scarred veteran of struggles where residents have wrested control from unwelcome landlords and their agents. Leasehold Knowledge is delighted to welcome the company into the fold as an LKP accredited managing agent. Walton & Allen was once a member of ARMA but has lost faith in that organisation. “We [...]
News archive
Small-scale builder left high and dry after Tchenguiz / Peverel meltdown
It was not only thousands of retirement leasehold owners who were tossed in the swell after the Tchenguiz were arrested in March 2011 and Peverel went into administration: a small-scale builder was as well. Des Clark, a self-employed builder in Rochester, Kent, thought building a couple of freehold retirement bungalows on a site with access [...]
Many congratulations today to Mayor Bob!
Bob Smytherman, a director of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership and chairman of the Federation of Private Residents’ Associations, takes over as mayor of Worthing today. The elevation comes 13 years after he was first elected a councillor. A LibDem and leasehold activist, Bob has assured LKP that he has no ambitions to unseat Sir Peter [...]
ARMA-Q solves ARMA’s problems, not those of leasehold
ARMA-Q, the scheme to give ethical credibility to the Association of Residential Managing Agents, was given the blessing of the government and the leasehold establishment yesterday with a House of Lords launch. Already the new ARMA-Q regulator Keith Hill (above), a former New Labour housing minister, has six cases of complaint to deal with “which [...]
Is Peverel gearing up for another sale?
It’s a question worth asking, as its current owners venture capitalists Electra and Chamonix will get shot of it at the propitious moment. In February 2012 they bought Peverel, which had been part of the Tchenguiz empire from 2007 until it went into administration in March 2011. The deal involved a £62 million transaction supported [...]
Stuff a leaseholder and win an iPad! The unpromising debut of ARMA-Q
Tomorrow, May 15, ARMA-Q gets a formal unveiling at the House of Lords and the corporates of the property management world will herald this as a new dawn. In fact, ARMA-Q was unveiled at the organisation’s annual conference last September, and that signified less bright “new dawn” than “same old racket”. One of the sponsors [...]
Feuding Chelsea leasehold owners find a court-appointed managing agent makes all decisions
… and that includes suing their ex-managing agent, losing the case and passing on the £10,000 legal bill! Lemmings unaccountably like to hurl themselves off the cliff-face into the abyss … and so, it seems, do Chelsea leasehold owners who cannot agree among themselves. Years of wrangling mean that a rundown four-flat converted Victorian house [...]
Yet again! This time Adderstone told to stop loading sub-letting fees
A Leasehold Valuation Tribunal has had to tell Adderstone, a freeholder, to stop loading sub-letting fees – in yet another ruling on this subject. This time it is the Adderstone Group, based in Newcastle, but Estates and Management repeatedly does the same thing. This is spite of a string of LVT rulings and a clear [...]
Leasehold websites hit 29,000 visitors
The LKP / Carlex websites have hit fractionally under 29,000 visitors last month – the highest readership ever recorded by the sites. April 16 also saw the Leasehold Knowledge Partnerhip being named in the House of Commons by Sir Peter Bottomley, who has criticised the Leasehold Advisory Service, LEASE, as “unbalanced” and urged LKP’s Sebastian [...]
Ombudsmen will help minor issues but are a ‘million miles’ from dealing with the complex legal acrimony in leasehold, says leading managing agent
The government’s decision to replace the Lords initiative to license managing agents in favour of compulsory membership of ombudsman schemes won’t help resolve real issues behind the acrimony in leasehold. This is the view of Rob Plumb (left), chief executive of HML Holdings, which is accredited to the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. “The general consensus in [...]
Prisk to Bottomley: what’s the evidence that the Leasehold Advisory Service is not ‘balanced’? Well, how about this for starters …
Housing Minister Mark Prisk has rounded on Sir Peter Bottomley to demand why he believes that the Leasehold Advisory Service in not ‘balanced’. Sir Peter, the Tory MP for Worthing West, made his comments in the Commons on April 16: “To have clever lawyers, some of whom will appear at LEASE—the Government-approved agency for giving [...]
Ex-Israeli intelligence operatives settle dispute with Tchenguiz
The spectacle of Vincent Tchenguiz publicly falling out with his team of former Israeli intelligence operatives has come to an end, with the latter describing themselves as “very happy” with the settlement. Black Cube launched an action against Tchenguiz in the UK for £330,000 plus interest for work carried out for the tycoon following his [...]
Winter of misery ends for couple in leasehold flat, thanks to LKP
A couple who endured squirrels rampaging in the roof and rainwater running down the walls of their leasehold flat have at last had their complaints vindicated, thanks to the intervention of Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. Ade Bankole, 38, and his wife Otitokan Oluwo, 35, had been complaining to Peverel since October last year without success. Rivulets [...]
Sebastian O’Kelly and Martin Boyd praised in House of Commons: put them on the board of LEASE and clear up the ‘muck’ of leasehold
Sir Peter Bottomley (left) yesterday made his strongest Commons intervention yet on the scandals in leasehold. He named and praised the two keys figures in the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, named and criticised Tchenguiz and urged a full debate on leasehold under the cover of parliamentary privilege. He attacked the role of LEASE, the Leasehold Advisory [...]
The Right To Manage Federation chalks up its 28th leasehold RTM success in central London … as it fights epic Plymouth RTM duel in the Land Tribunal
LKP has learned that the Right To Manage Federation has achieved its 28th leasehold RTM success in central London on the same day that it fights to free a Plymouth retirement development in the Land Tribunal. After an inexplicable – and scandalous – hold-up of 14 months, the right to manage at Regent Court finally comes [...]
Been ripped off over leasehold insurance? Take your complaint to the secret ombudsman, says Peverel
UPDATE April 18 16.08: Peverel statement at end of article A retirement leasehold resident disputing Kingsborough insurance commissions with Peverel has been told that she must take her dispute to an ombudsman, whose rulings are not published. Joan Wade, who has lived at Grasmere Court in Worthing since 2003, was appalled to receive a letter [...]
‘Secret ombudsman schemes are so much better for leasehold than licensing managing agents,’ says DCLG
The Lords amendment by Baroness Gardner that would see leasehold managing agents required to have a licence will be sabotaged in the Commons tomorrow. Instead, the Department of Communities and Local Government wants to insist managing agents belong to an ombudsman scheme. Ombudsmen are widely popular among the vested interests in the status quo of [...]
Troy Court £912 leasehold sub-letting fee cut by £400 thanks to LKP (with more to come?)
The Kensington leasehold resident who faced a demand for a ludicrous £912 sub-letting fee for renting out her flat has had the sum reduced by £360, after contacting Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. The property manager Blenheims has conceded that Claire Jenkinson should not have been invoiced £360 (inc VAT) for the freeholder’s undefined legal expenses. It [...]
Lords amendment sneaks regulation of leasehold managing agents into the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill
A sneaky Lords amendment by Baroness Gardner (left) has seen the licensing of leasehold managing agents added to legislation to license the widely-abused letting agency business. And Sir Peter Bottomley is urging the Government – in the form of officials at the Department of Communities and Local Government – from blocking the measure at the [...]
Tchenguiz falls out with his ex-Israeli intelligence operatives … and now they are suing each other
UPDATE April 13, 18.29 LKP / Carlex “As mentioned in the court documents which you referred to, Black Cube should be described as a creative intelligence agency run by a group of “ex-Israeli intelligence operatives” or “IDF (Israel Defense Force) intelligence’s veterans”.” LKP is happy to publish this clarification Fast women, fancy cars, yacht in [...]
Jackson leasehold forfeiture taken up by Private Eye, The Oldie, Mail and TV
Leasehold Knowledge Partnership’s coverage of the forfeiture of £800,000 flat of Dennis Jackson, 73, at Plantation Wharf is being followed up by the rest of the media. The Oldie has now covered the story, following items in Private Eye and the Mail. On Sunday a TV film crew did interviews, of which more later.
£912 sub-letting fee demanded at Kensington’s Troy Court – after prostitutes moved in
Troy Court in Kensington High Street – one of the most desirable addresses in the country – has been so plagued by unwelcome tenants, including prostitutes, that it is making flat owners pay eye-watering sub-letting fees that in one case amount to £912, including VAT. Claire Jenkinson is so incensed by the “astronomical” demand passed [...]
LKP / Carlex visitors top 23,000 a month
March figures show that the LKP website had 12,548 visitors (right), with sister site Carlex attracting 11,179, confirming their position as the most important editorial resource for leasehold readers. Pages read totalled 39,963 for LKP and 37,967 for Carlex. The total number of “hits” was far higher at 115,000, but these are a less reliable [...]
House of Lords launch for ARMA-Q on May 15
The ARMA-Q initiative is set for a House of Lords launch on May 15, with the following letter from ARMA chief executive Michelle Banks sent to invited stakeholders:
Anchor Trust upsets retirement residents by allowing sub-letting – where the lease prohibits it
UPDATE APRIL 5, 17.51: In a statement justifying its policy, Anchor refers to the Office of Fair Trading report which stated that “terms in long leases preventing sub-letting have potential for unfairness” and that “permission [to sub-let] should not be unreasonably withheld”. See below A curious dispute is brewing at our sister site Carlex over retirement developments owned and managed [...]
One in the Eye from LKP
This week’s issue of Private Eye, the satirical magazine, has reported the Dennis Jackson forfeiture case, in which Leasehold Knowledge Partnership has been involved for the past six months. Headed “Grabbit and grab some more”, the article compares Jackson’s travails through the courts with the never-ending Jarndyce v. Jarndyce in Bleak House. The main point [...]
Fury at ‘life-shattering’ forfeiture case held in a secret court
Both the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership and Dennis Jackson, a leaseholder at Plantation Wharf in Battersea, have complained to the Ministry of Justice that a forfeiture case was held in a secret court. Jackson, 73, had his lease forfeited on January 30 and had 28 days to ask a court to lift the order before it [...]
Dead squirrels in the roof and rivulets of water down the walls … couple feel let down by Peverel
UPDATE APRIL 8: From Mr Bankole: Dear Mr. O’Kelly, Still with huge gratitude for the efforts you have expended into seeing OM Property Management Company/Peverel attend to their responsibilities in effecting the repairs of our roof and other issues associated with it. The surveyor and a contractor came along with a staff of OM Property [...]
Will a new spin doctor on £90,000 with ‘personal integrity’ work wonders for Peverel?
Can this be our old friends at Peverel tarting up their image in leasehold management by recruiting a ‘Head of Communications” for £90,000 a year? It sounds like it from the description … “to restore the reputation of this multi-brand, market leading service provider with its customers, staff and the media”. The job is based [...]
LKP wins Best Online Editorial at LSL Property Press Awards 2013
The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership has won the Best Online Editorial at the LSL Property Press Awards 2013 staged in central London last night. The award was presented to Sebastian O’Kelly, of LKP, by veteran broadcaster and journalist Andrew Neil, who edited the Sunday Times for 11 years. In handing over the award Neil said the [...]
Heirs of empty retirement leasehold flat now face doubled council taxes … on top of plummeting re-sale value, on-going service charges and an exit fee if it ever does sell
A son trying to sell his deceased mother’s retirement leasehold flat has been told that he will have to pay double the council tax on the empty property. The flat has fallen foul of Chester’s efforts to penalise owners of empty properties so that they are brought back into use – and increase revenues for [...]
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