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Sacked leasehold managing agent tries to silence critics

October 31, 2012 by

Below is an attempt by solicitors of a managing agent to stop leasehold residents from criticising a managing agent whose contract has been terminated.

The document is interesting because it is the first time we have encountered an attempt to silence directors of a residents’ management company (RMC).

The other prominent case where a confidentiality agreement was made was when the well heeled residents of St George’s Wharf, Vauxhall, received a £1 million check for excessive service charges in September 2011. This record win came in the form of a cheque from the prestigious Berkeley Group, which builds luxury Thames-side developments. It was a strange episode as the chief executive of Berkeley was quite happy to discuss a pay-out that his company had prevented the residents talking about.

It can be read here

Or: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-2039128/MARKET-WATCH-Flat-owners-win-record-1m-payout.html

The confidentiality clause in this case has wording that is extremely loose, particularly in urging the directors to use their “best endeavours” to prevent other shareholders – that is, residents – from criticising the out-going managing agent.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: News

Full LKP / Carlex briefing notes on leasehold for MPs

October 31, 2012 by

The following document was handed to MPs and Lords who attended the Carlex / LKP leasehold meeting at Westminster yesterday:

From ‘legal torture’ to £1 million repayments to leaseholders

A briefing by the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership and the Campaign Against Retirement Leasehold Exploitation- LKP/CARLEX.

The meeting has been kindly hosted by Sir Peter Bottomley MP, who will speak together with Baroness Gardner of Parkes. Representatives of AgeUK, the British Property Federation, CentreForum, HML Holdings, and the London Assembly will also be in attendance, some of whom will be speaking along with speakers Sebastian O’Kelly and Martin Boyd from LKP/Carlex.

   Actions being supported by LKP/CARLEX

  1. For the Government to enable sections 152 and 156 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002.
  2. To address the unfairness in Leasehold Valuation Tribunals where leaseholders legal fees are capped at £500, whereas those of the freeholder are unlimited (and can be reclaimed in the residents’ service charges after a win).
  3. Parliament intend for “right to manage” to be a right: unless there is a compelling reason to oppose it, leaseholders should be granted RTM. But Leasehold Valuation Tribunals are often being used to thwart RTM on trifling grounds. The Government is urged to review and remove the anomalies in the RTM legislation.
  4. Leasehold managing agents need statutory licensing and regulation. This regulation needs to be entirely separate from the existing compromised trade bodies. 

[Read more...]

Filed Under: News

Bottomley demands meeting over leasehold with Housing Minister Mark Prisk after LKP / Carlex conference

October 30, 2012 by

Sir Peter Bottomley chairs meeting for leasehold reform at his Westminster offices this afternoon

Sir Peter Bottomley is to calling for an urgent meeting about leasehold issues with Housing Minister Mark Prisk, following the Leasehold Knowledge Partnerhsip / Carlex conference at Westminster this afternoon.

“It is quite clear that pensioners and other leaseholders are facing serious issues and this need to be addressed,” Sir Peter told a gathering of 20-30 including interested MPs and Lords.

Many of those attending, such as Caroline Spelman, MP for Meriden in Birmingham, had been contacted directly by Carlex suporters and urged to attend.

“There are desperately serious problems facing elderly constituents about service charges and the systems of redress,” said Spelman, who has asked LKP / Carlex for a dossier of information on the fraught issue of retirement leasehold.

The meeting was also addressed by veteran leasehold campaigner Baroness Gardner of Parkes, who is raising the issue of commonhold and the need to build more of it in the Lords on November 19.

“Being born Australian and owning a flat there I know full well that commonhold is a far less complicated form of property tenure, and less susceptible to abusive practices,” she said.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Parliament Tagged With:

Speakers at next week’s MPs meeting on leasehold

October 24, 2012 by

The line-up of speakers at next Tuesday’s Leasehold Knowledge Partnership / Carlex  meeting at Westminster for MPs and Lords, which is being hosted by Sir Peter Bottomley (left), MP for Worthing West, has been finalised.

They will include the authors of three key reports on leasehold which have been published this year.

The event, which is to be chaired by Sebastian O’Kelly, Carlex chairman and director of LKP, is anticipated to attract about 20 MPs or Lords who have an interest in this sector.

The speakers include:

Chris Paterson, of the think tank CentreForum, whose much publicised report ‘A New Lease of Life’ was published in August. It urges a £2 a leaseholder levy to fund an independent regulator – unconnected with any of the existing trade bodies.

Steve O’Connell, a member of the London Assembly, who chaired the report ‘Highly Charged’, which was published in March this year. It stated that 500,000 London leaseholders pay more than half a billion a year in service charges. Leasehold complaints have risen sharply and with many more leasehold properties likely to be built, there is going to be growing pressure for reform.

Mark Spall, of AgeUK, is a long standing advisor on retirement residential issues. He will discuss the charity’s report ‘Making It Work For Us: A residents’ inquiry into sheltered and retirement housing’, which is to be published on October 31.

Martin Boyd, of Carlex / LKP, is a leaseholder at Charter Quay in Kingston, Surrey, who has orchestrated four Leasehold Valuation Tribunal victories against his landlord, winning back more than £500,000 in over-paid service charges. The cases amount to devastating criticism of current leasehold practices.

Robert Plumb, chief executive HML Holdings plc, an LKP accredited managing agent, who has been conspicuous for calling for higher ethical standards in the leasehold sector. Plumb has stated that leaseholders must be informed if managing agents have joint ownership with their freeholder.

Sir Peter Bottomley and Baroness Gardner of Parkes, who have instigated the three debates in Parliament on leasehold this year will also address the meeting.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Parliament

After £11,500 Peverel victory, Strand Court dumps second managing agent

October 24, 2012 by

In June Leasehold Knowledge Partnership and Carlex reported how former wartime squadron leader Eric Matthews, now aged 95, had won back £11,500 off Peverel in a brilliant Leasehold Valuation Tribunal victory over insurance and other commissions at Strand Court, in Rye, East Sussex.

And last month Matthews was interviewed in the Channel Four Dispatches documentary on retirement leasehold, which gave considerable prominence to the issues at Strand Court. The case has also featured in The Oldie magazine and been the subject of considerable comment on websites, including this one and Channel Four.

But, sadly, the last year has not seen Matthews and his neighbours enjoy “the broad, sunlight uplands” that their victory over Peverel had promised.

Instead, the 50-unit retirement development has become enmired in a second dispute with Peverel’s successor: Burkinshaw Block Management.

Daniel Burkinshaw, a small managing agent based in Tunbridge Wells and a rising young star in ARMA – he was a speaker at the annual conference earlier this month – was appointed managing agent on a one-year contract in November last year.

But after only eight months, on June 25 this year, he was given his marching orders with a letter terminating his contract. Strand Court is in the process of being handed on to Housemartins Property Management.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Peverel Tagged With: ,

Progress report on our Houses of Parliament briefing

October 16, 2012 by

There is exactly two weeks to go before the LKP/Carlex briefing at the Houses of Parliament things are moving along at a pace.

  •  All MPs and Lords have now received a formal invitation to attend from Sir Peter Bottomley MP.
  • Our speakers are lined up.
  • Key members of staff from the Ministry of Justice and Department of Communities and Local Government have been invited.

In the mean time please keep writing to your MP to encourage them to attend.

Filed Under: London Assembly, News, Parliament

Exclusive report: A look at the new rules for the LVT

October 12, 2012 by

LKP looks at some of the key points in the proposed new rules for the replacement to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT) which disappears next year. The LVT is to be reformed as part of a new “Property Chamber” (PC).

A change in the administrative rules may not sound very exciting but the proposals under consideration are the biggest changes seen at the LVT in the last 12 years. Most importantly these changes are ones that will worry many managing agents and landlords and be welcomed by may leaseholders.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) began taking over responsibility for the LVT from the Department of Communities last year. This move will be complete when the LVT is reformed as part of the new PC some time next year. The MoJ has recently finished consulting on the procedural rules for the proposed PC. This new body is intended to take over from six existing first tier property related tribunals, including the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Leasehold Valuation Tribunal

ARMA and the myth of self regulation

October 11, 2012 by

“Success in a Consumer Focused Future” is the misleading title of today’s ARMA trade body conference exclusively for those working in the industry. Members have just watched a role out of the framework for it’s ARMA-Q project aimed to help continue “raising professional standards in the industry”.

ARMA CEO Michelle Banks, who was appointed at the beginning of the year, claims, with more than a little hope and a lot of faith, the new “self regulatory regime will mean reliable, professional and cutting edge service”. 

The audience has also been hearing that Keith Hill ex MP is appointed as the new “independent” regulator. Keith is currently the Chair of the Lambeth Living which looks after some of Lambeth’s housing stock. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

LKP organise leasehold briefing at the Houses of Parliament

October 10, 2012 by

Things have been quiet on the LKP site for a few weeks because we have been a little busy behind the scenes.

LKP and the Campaign Against Retirement Leasehold Exploitation (Carlex) have been organising a briefing meeting on leasehold issues for both MP’s and Lord’s at the Houses of Parliament. The meeting is due to take place at the end of the month and will set out the issues faced in the leasehold sector and some of the potential ways forward. Representatives from various organisations will be attending to give MP’s a broad spectrum of views.

For many years MP’s have somehow been persuaded they need to do nothing in the leasehold sector. Grant Shapps spent two years convinced there is already “balance” even though he had no information on which to base his claims..

Please urge your MP go along on the 30th October at 3PM. MP’s will have received their invite and details of the event in the next few days. It may help if you could remind your MP why leasehold issues causes you a problem.

More news to follow as we get closer to the date of the meeting.

Filed Under: News, Parliament