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LKP and Carlex websites top 100,000 page views in November

December 3, 2012 by

November figures on the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership and Carlex websites show a surge in leaseholder readership, with more than 108,000 page views. The figures confirm widespread interest in leasehold and in measures to reform its many abuses.

Visitors to the sites amount to nearly 23,000 – a figure that rebuts advice from the (three) officials in the Department of Local Government and Communities who have repeatedly told ministers that they were unaware of widespread dissatisfaction among leaseholders.

Leasehold Knowledge website traffic for November (left), and Carlex (right)

Ministers are at last taking note of this issue, which has undermined confidence in the leasehold housing market. Few big central London developments built in the last ten years have not rebelled against the managing agent appointed by the housebuilder. Some developers – Berkeley, Barratt, McCarthy and Stone – have realised the reputational risks of simply selling off freeholds or management contracts to the highest bidders.

The retirement leasehold market is virtually static and has proved to be a disastrous residential property investment. The consequence is a further brake on the housing market as older homeowners decline to sell their blameless freehold family houses  – the value of which has stood up very well – and downsize.

(Website “hits” stand at 223,00, but these are unreliable as every time a “hit” is recorded by the calling up of a post it includes the post’s url and all the urls of any graphics and pictures. So a post with four pictures is counted as five hits etc.)

Filed Under: Carlex, News

Undercover pensioner ‘spy’ to lift the lid on retirement leasehold 8pm tonight

September 23, 2012 by

Tomorrow night (Monday) at 8pm Channel Four’s Dispatches carries out a special investigation into the fraught world of retirement leasehold with much of the material provided by an undercover pensioner ‘spy’.

Carlex activists have been interviewed for the progamme, and Carlex/LKP has given the filmmakers, October, full assistance over the past few months – although what they have unearthed is entirely their own achievement. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Carlex, News Tagged With:

Free leaseholders’ conference in Worthing on July 25

July 4, 2012 by

John Fenwick, who led the residents at Oakland Court

John Fenwick, who won the £137,000 LVT action at Oakland Court in Worthing, is to address a free conference for leaseholders in the town on July 25.

He is to be joined by Sebastian O’Kelly, director of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, who is also chairman of the Campaign Against Retirement Leasehold Exploitation (Carlex).

Fenwick, 65, will discuss how he managed to mobilise the other residents and fight this action against his landlord, the Oakland Pension Fund, which concerned the notional rent paid for the house-manager’s flat going back to 1986. Full reports on this and the other cases mentioned can be found on this website.

“It is a fantastic victory,” said Fenwick, a former law firm employee. “Eight of our members are in their 90s, 13 in their eighties, 12 in their seventies and six in their sixties.”

Three times the landlord’s legal team appealed against the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal’s decision even to hear the case, a procedure impossible in civil courts.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Carlex, News Tagged With: , ,

New chairman for Carlex

July 4, 2012 by

Sebastian O’Kelly has been appointed chairman of Carlex to replace founder Melissa Briggs, who has decided to stand down owing to ill health.

“Melissa was the driving force of Carlex in the four years of its existence, and the most effective campaigner I came across in journalism,” said O’Kelly. “She pushed retirement leasehold up the news agenda, won extensive print and broadcast coverage, and achieved widespread support in Parliament, both in the Commons and the Lords.”

Full statement on Carlex here

Filed Under: Carlex, News Tagged With: ,

Pensioners in £137,000 victory

May 17, 2012 by

Leasehold residents wrongly charged for warden’s flat … dating back to 1986!

Landmark victory at Oakland Court, in Worthing, means notional rent for a warden’s flat cannot be paid out of service charges

 

In a landmark case, 40 elderly leaseholders have won an epic battle against paying for the notional rent of their warden’s flat through the service charge.

Since 1986 this has cost the residents in Worthing, Sussex, £137.000.

The battle was fought in the face of repeated delaying tactics by their landlord, the Oakland Pension Fund, which challenged whether the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal should hear the case.

This form of delay is difficult in the civil courts, which is where this case is now headed unless the leaseholders get their money back.

But they are permitted with LVTs, which were set up to provide supposedly low-cost, simple tribunals to resolve leasehold disputes.

John Fenwick, who led the residents

“It is a fantastic victory,” said John Fenwick, 65, a former law firm employee who led the action. “Eight of our members are in their 90s, 13 in their eighties, 12 in their seventies and six in their sixties.”

The case has huge implications for other leaseholders who are being charged for the notional rent of their house manager’s flat, even though this is not mentioned in the lease.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Carlex, News, Oakland Court Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Esther Rantzen speaks at ARHM

May 5, 2012 by

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

Filed Under: ARHM, Carlex, News, Peverel Tagged With: ,

ARHM president Baroness Greengross says sorry to pensioner for ‘barrack-room lawyer’ jibe

April 30, 2012 by

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.

Filed Under: ARHM, Carlex, News Tagged With: , , ,

‘You are all barrack-room lawyers with too much time on your hands,’ ARHM president tells complaining pensioners

April 25, 2012 by

At the House of Lords debate on Monday, Baroness Greengross, a Crossbencher peer and the president of the Association of Retirement Housing Managers trade body, caused outrage by claiming complaining pensioners in retirement developments were “barrack-room laywers” with too much time on their hands.

“She has a nerve,” said Julia Scott, who lives in North West London. “Her own organisation has been a fig leaf for rapacious practices for years, with a code of practice with fine-sounding words that are in fact almost entirely discretionary.

“The first question to ask it is: where does its money come from and, then, who pays it? The answer is pretty obvious to all who live in retirement developments.”

Baroness Greengross
Baroness Greengross said many complaints in retirement developments could be dealt with by a mediation scheme, as if the huge sums involved in stealth charges and assorted rip-offs were trifling.
“It is difficult, not least for the providers of schemes, who are dealing with people who are often prepared to spend 12 or more hours a day focusing on those issues and who can make amazing barrack-room lawyers – I do not want to be insulting – because they have so much time to concentrate on that. So it is a difficult as well as an important issue.
“Housing designed for older people whose needs change as they age faces an almost built-in conflict of interest. They need more services as they age, so the costs are going to rise as more care is provided.
“Their income tends to be less over the years. They wish to reduce the cost but they need more services. Older and frailer residents are more costly, so when residents manage the schemes themselves they may wish to sell to active, fit and therefore younger people.
”You could express what you think about this to her at greengrosss@parliament.uk (provided you have the time, that is).
Filed Under: ARHM, Carlex, House of Lords, News, Parliament Tagged With: , ,