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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

March 13, 2013 by
John Bottomley

John Bottomley

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 the council’s payroll.

The flat, which has been on the market since September 2009, illustrates what a dubious legacy awaits the heirs of retirement leasehold – well recognised now as the absolute worst residential property investment conceivable.

John Bottomley, 59, no relation to the leasehold activist MP Sir Peter Bottomley, faces a doubling of the annual council charges of £647 – after a 25 per cent discount as the property in Handbridge is empty.

The full Chester West and Chester council tax bill is £862 which will rise on properties that have lain empty for more than two years by 50 per cent. This means Bottomley will have to pay £1,293 a year.

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Filed Under: Exit fees, News Tagged With: , ,

McCarthy and Stone replies to Dispatches exposé

September 26, 2012 by

McCarthy and Stone has replied on its website to the exposé carried out by Channel Four’s Dispatches on Monday evening. You can read the page here

It says: “Treating our customers with fairness and respect is at the cornerstone of what we do and over the course of the last 35 years, our staff have helped thousands of people live more enriched lives in retirement.”

Using an undercover pensioner ‘spy’, Dispatches revealed that the McCarthy and Stone’s sales team urged would-be buyers to sell their houses in a complex part-exchange scheme.

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Filed Under: News Tagged With:

Devastating exposé of McCarthy & Stone on TV

September 24, 2012 by

Tonight’s Dispatches programme on retirement leasehold was a brilliant example of television journalism that was extremely damaging to both McCarthy and Stone, and to Peverel.

It is excellent that Peverel’s disgraceful treatment of the pensioners at Strand Court, Rye, has been given a wider airing. Read original story here or search Strand Court on this site.

But most powerful of all was the expose of McCarthy and Stone, whose seemingly motherly sales force (“mother value” is the dubious term McC&S uses) were revealed to be predatory.

Any potential new buyers would have been appalled at the way the sales team coaxes new clients into a disadvantageous part-exchange sales process of their existing home.

Marion Bowley, in Weston super Mare, was offered £140,000 for her pleasant family house. But she sold it herself for £50,000 more after only two weeks on the market.

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Filed Under: News, Peverel Tagged With: ,

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: