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Prisk to Bottomley: what’s the evidence that the Leasehold Advisory Service is not ‘balanced’? Well, how about this for starters …

April 23, 2013 by 8 Comments

LEASElostitsway-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 O’Kelly and Martin Boyd, of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, join the board of the government quango, which receives a £1.4 million budget.

Sir Peter made his intervention as the Department of Communities and Local Government stamped its authority during the debate on the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill.

It dumped a Lords amendment, from Baroness Gardner, to license block managing agents in favour of compulsory membership of various anonymous ombudsman schemes – whose rulings (to industry relief) are not published.

In a letter to Sir Peter – and forwarded to LKP / Carlex – Prisk writes: “I receive a full and varied postbag on residential leasehold issues, but I am not aware of any groundswell of complaints about the quality or propriety of LEASE’s service, and neither are my ministerial colleagues or policy officials here at DCLG.”

Had the DCLG officials turned up to last year’s annual conference of LEASE, to which they were invited, they would have witnessed a dramatic example of leaseholder dissatisfaction with LEASE.

The event at a Mayfair hotel, which cost £310 a head, was disrupted when an emotional leaseholder (who had not been invited) grabbed the microphone and told the conference:

“The Leasehold Advisory Service is failing to fulfill its parliamentary mandate by excluding leaseholders. It should be even-handed and defending their interests. Instead, it has organised an event purely to the benefit of landlords.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Home Middle Left, LEASE, News, Slider Posts Tagged With: , , , ,

Lords amendment sneaks regulation of leasehold managing agents into the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

April 13, 2013 by

trixieA 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 last minute.

The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill is now heading back to the Commons next Tuesday (April 16) with the following: [Read more...]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: ,

Minister holds roundtable talks on leasehold

February 12, 2013 by

MpriskHousing Minister Mark Prisk (right) is holding an hour-long roundtable discussion on residential leasehold tomorrow.

The meeting is to be attended by trade body representatives such as Michelle Banks, of ARMA – a former civil servant at the Department of Communities and Local Government – RICS, and the Association of Retirement Housing Managers (ARHM). Representatives of the Ministry of Justice will attend, as well as the two civil servants at the DCLG who handle leaseholder issues.

Also attending will be Sir Peter Bottomley, MP for Worthing West, who has an interest in leasehold abuses, and barrister Stephanie Smith, who took on the case at no charge of the “legal torture” pensioners at Oakland Court, Worthing.

LKP / Carlex will be attending as an observer.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , , , , ,

Plantation Wharf leasehold pensioner has forfeiture order on his £800,000 flat

February 10, 2013 by
Dennis Jackson at Wandsworth County Court

Dennis Jackson at Wandsworth County Court

Dennis Jackson, a neighbour of Commons speaker John Bercow and TV chef Nigella Lawson, has had his leasehold £800,000 riverside London flat at Plantation Wharf forfeited by court order.

Unless a deal is brokered, retired photographer Jackson, 73, has until February 27  to pack his bags and get out of the attractive split-level apartment in Battersea in south London. He has been living there for 16 years.

Sir Peter Bottomley, Tory MP for Worthing West who has an interest in leasehold issues, has urged Jackson’s lenders, the Prudential, to intervene to prevent the flat being lost.

Three years ago Jackson refused to pay £9,000 in service charges for works he says were never carried out and was taken to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. But although he won some points, the freeholder, Cube Real Estate, successfully argued that its £70,000 in legal costs be awarded against him.

On January 30, his lease was forfeited at Wandsworth County Court. Forfeiture of a lease – which is not the same as repossession – means that Jackson will lose all the equity he has in the property amounting to more than £600,000.

“I face absolute ruin because of this,” says Jackson. “I was arguing about service charges for items such as new hallway carpets and now I face losing my home and my entire life savings.

“I am looking at complete and utter destitution.”

The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership claims that this is the worst case of forfeiture it has encountered.

“This is not remotely justice,” said Sebastian O’Kelly, of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. “An argument over £9,000 becomes a legal bill of £70,000 and now a totally undeserved windfall for the freeholder of £800,000. Nothing better illustrates the absurdity of English leasehold law than this.

“If the forfeiture order is not overturned, it will be a national scandal.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Plantation Wharf Tagged With: , ,

Tory MP backs pensioners in leasehold right to manage dispute

February 3, 2013 by

Colvile2Tory MP Oliver Colvile (right) yesterday pledged his support to the two leasehold retirement developments in Plymouth that are locked in leasehold right to manage disputes with their freeholder.

At two packed meetings at Elim Court and Regent Court in his  Sutton and Devonport constituency, Colvile told the residents that he would support them in their litigation and to generate publicity for their cause.

Colvile said he would look into an application to the Bar Council pro bono unit to see whether the right to manage cases – both of which are going to appeal at the Land Tribunal – would merit free high-end legal representation.

He also said he would contact staff at Plymouth University law school to examine the case.

The residents left Colvile in no doubt of their strength of feelings towards their landlord, Avon Freeholds, and managing agent Y and Y Management. Both are London based.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Gurvits, News, RTM, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Bottomley meets Joseph Gurvits and Israel Moskovitz over leasehold right to manage disputes at Plymouth retirement developments – but residents are determined to fight it out

February 1, 2013 by

BottomleySir Peter Bottomley MP (right) held a meeting yesterday at his Westminster offices with the freeholder and managing agent who are locked in right to manage disputes with leaseholders at two Plymouth retirement developments.

The meeting was an informal exchange of views between freeholder Israel Moskovitz, property manager Joseph Gurvits and Sebastian O’Kelly and Martin Boyd of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. The meeting was also attended by Sophie Hutchinson, parliamentary research assistant of Oliver Colvile, the pensioners’ MP, and Elena Andreadis, property manager for the sites.

Earlier this month Elim Court lost its third attempt at exercising its right to manage against Mr Moskovitz’s Avon Freeholds at the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal owing to errors in the paperwork. Regent Court obtained right to manage in February last year, but the issue is being appealed at the Land Tribunal in April.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Gurvits, News Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Managing agent Joseph Gurvits named in Commons – an hour after MP attends ARMA round-table conference on tougher ethical standards

January 24, 2013 by
Regent Court in Plymouth, where pensioners are fighting London freeholder and managing agent Joseph Gurvits in a right to manage action

Regent Court in Plymouth, where pensioners are fighting London freeholder and managing agent Joseph Gurvits in a right to manage action

The behind-the-scenes concern of senior politicians over managing agent Joseph Gurvits broke into the open yesterday when he was named in the House of Commons.

Gurvits was named – without comment and together with Peverel and Tchenguiz – in a brief intervention in the rental housing sector debate yesterday by Sir Peter Bottomley, MP for Worthing West, who is concerned about the treatment of pensioners at two retirement developments in Plymouth.

Residents at Elim Court and Regent Court are locked in Leasehold Valuation Tribunal disputes with Gurvits, who is deploying the legal means available to frustrate their attempts to exercise their right to manage.

Housing Minister Mark Prisk replied: “I will look into those cases very carefully—I am aware of them—” but he would not intervene in the judicial process in LVTs.

Sir Peter made his intervention in the House immediately after attending a meeting of the Association of Residential Managing Agents at the British Property Federation. The meeting was to discuss ARMA-Q, the new more rigorous regulatory scheme for the association.

Curiously, Gurvits’ Y and Y Management company, which manages the Plymouth sites, is a member of ARMA, while Eagerstates, his property management company familiar to London leaseholders, is not. The freeholds of the Plymouth sites are owned by Avon Freeholds, which shares the same offices as Gurvits in Edgware, North London. It is owned by his associate Israel Moskovitz.

Local Tory MP Oliver Colvile is also poised to raise issues surrounding Elim Court and Regent Court in the Commons, and will be meeting residents at the sites on February 2.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Gurvits, News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Housing Minister Mark Prisk holds meeting with LKP – but keep pestering MPs!

November 28, 2012 by

After years of banging on a closed door, Leasehold Knowledge Partnership / Carlex held a meeting with Housing Minister Mark Prisk (right) yesterday.

But leasehold activists are urged to keep pressing MPs (and copy us in to your correspondence!) As a result of the meeting, the minister is reviewing the following:

  • How right to manage is being frustrated by truculent freeholders, particularly of retirement developments;
  • How managing agents pool leaseholders’ funds in opaque bank accounts, rather than hold separate accounts for individual blocks as was envisaged in section 152 and 156 of the Commonhold and Leasehold reform Act 2002;
  • How freeholders secure full legal costs in litigation with leaseholders through administrative charges, whereas leaseholders legal costs are capped at £500.

The Westminster meeting was held on the prompting of Sir Peter Bottomley, Conservative MP for Worthing West, who has involved himself in leasehold disputes both in his constituency and beyond it.

He was accompanied by Sebastian O’Kelly and Martin Boyd, of Carlex / LKP, and Stephanie Smith, the barrister who won the “legal torture” case this year involving pensioners at Oakland Court in Worthing. Prisk, a former chartered surveyor, was assisted by civil servants Sally Blandford and Ian Fuell, who both handle leasehold issues in the Department of Communities and Local Government.

The meeting was told that the protections of leasehold law are not working, particularly in the retirement leasehold. O’Kelly outlined the cases of retirement developments which are repeatedly being frustrated in exercising the right to manage. Parliament’s intentions are being thwarted by freeholders who will use trifling legal arguments to stop right to manage. As LVTs set no precedent, their decisions are widely inconsistent and right to manage will be granted in one case and refused in another even though the arguments opposing it are the same.  The delays and repeated appeals that freeholders adopt often mean that original applicants are dead by the time right to manage is achieved. In these circumstances it is hugely difficult to keep the residents united in seeing the action through.

Further meetings with the Ministry of Justice will result from this.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: ,

Pensioner who defied ‘complex’ service charges faces forfeiture of his £800,000 flat at Plantation Wharf

November 9, 2012 by

Plantation Wharf, Battersea, where pensioner Dennis Jackson faces having his home forfeited over a service charge dispute

By Sebastian O’Kelly

A pensioner faces having his £800,000 flat in one of London’s prime riverside developments forfeited by court order for refusing to pay service charges that he could not understand.

Astonishingly, the court action on November 28 is being pursued by the pensioner’s own neighbours in Plantation Wharf, Battersea – who may shortly include John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, and his wife Sally, who are negotiating the purchase of a flat.

Most of the residents have no idea that this drastic action – the absolute last stage in a leasehold dispute – is being carried out in their name.

The legal action was begun by Plantation Wharf Management Limited when it was controlled by the freehold owners at the mixed residential and commercial complex of 13 blocks. But residents took control of the company in October last year and the resident directors have ‘unanimously’ decided to continue the action.

In a further twist – also unknown to the residents – the chairman they elected to head Plantation Wharf Management Limited, Bryan [Howard] Lewis is a disgraced ex-solicitor, who has a criminal conviction for dishonesty. There is no suggestion that Plantation Wharf Management has acted improperly at any stage in the proceedings.

Following the intercession of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, local Battersea MP Jane Ellison has written to Lewis and his fellow directors urging restraint and to settle the issue without making the pensioner homeless.

Sir Peter Bottomley, MP for Worthing West who is intent on ending abuses in leasehold, has today urged Lewis to halt the litigation, with its spiralling costs.

“My direct request to you is that you see how to limit the costs he [the pensioner] may face, that you stay the action to take control of his property for forced sale and that you review whether the additional costs since you took responsibility have been as limited as possible.”

Baroness Gardner of Parkes, a strong campaigner for leaseholders, referred to “this absolutely tragic case” at last night’s meeting of the Federation of Private Residents Associations in London. She also met and commiserated with the individual concerned.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Plantation Wharf Tagged With: , ,

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:

‘Legal torture’ pensioners settle for £68,500 … but two of the original leasehold applicants have since died

August 24, 2012 by

The landlords’ lawyers repeatedly delayed the LVT case of the leasehold pensioners at Oakland Court, which was criticised as “legal torture” in the Commons by Sir Peter Bottomley

Leasehold residents at the Oakland Court retirement development in Worthing today accepted a £68,500 settlement of their dispute with their landlord over the notional rent of the house warden’s flat.

Sadly, two of the original applicants have died and three have moved to full-time nursing care since the application to the LVT was made in April 2011.

The £68,500 amount equates to one-half of the £137,000 referred to in the decision of the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal in May, which was the total payment for the warden’s flat dating back to the Eighties.

The payment has been made by the landlords, the Oakland Pension Fund, whose lawyers’ stratagems to delay the case were described as “legal torture” by local MP Sir Peter Bottomley in the House of Commons.

The landlord employed as solicitors Laceys, of Bournemouth, who descibe themselves as “honorary solicitors” of ARMA, and barrister Justin Bates.

The £68,500 amounts to almost 12 years’ notional rent in respect of the warden’s flat for which leaseholders were confident of obtaining judgement had they had to go to court to enforce the LVT’s decision.

The residents’ association says the settlement of £68,500 is best viewed as representing more than full repayment of all sums erroneously charged to present leaseholders and has 100 per cent  support among them.

One of the alternatives to settling would have been to go the county court for the full £137,000, much of which would have been paid by former residents who have been dead for many years.

Full details of this case and the political fallout from it can be found on this site by searching ‘Oakland Court’

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

Sort out LVTs and keep on exposing leasehold ‘legal torture’, Sir Peter Bottomley tells the Commons

July 17, 2012 by

Sir Peter Bottomley wants ministerial statement on LVTs by September

Sir Peter Bottomley, Conservative MP for Worthing West, praised those who have been exposing leasehold abuses in a statement to the Commons this afternoon.

He also called on the government to examine the process of Leasehold Valuation Tribunals and asked for a written ministerial statement on their workings to be provided in September.

He cited the case of his constituent, John Fenwick, who won the LVT action over £137,000 notional rent paid on the house manager’s flat at Oakland Court dating back to the Eighties. This issue may now be coming to a resolution.

‘Legal torture’ of pensioners

“I described what was happening to people who, in the majority, are frail and elderly people in their 80s and 90s—those who are still alive since the case began—as, in effect, legal torture, to which they were subjected as they tried to get into the leasehold valuation tribunal proceedings.”

Fenwick and the Oakland Court leaseholders were represented by the Bar Pro Bono unit.

“[But] they were confronted by demands from solicitors and a barrister [for the landlord] to the tribunal ‘to decline jurisdiction and…to dismiss the whole of the application as being frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of process, having no prospect of success.’

“If it takes two or three goes to get in front of a tribunal and the application costs, say, £350, there is a major problem that needs dealing with.

“My issue is about the inequality of arms that leads to oppressive behaviour by managing agents or freeholders. If leaseholders are faced with a freeholder or managing agent who has associated companies in which they do not declare their interest, we end up with the situations disclosed in leasehold valuation tribunal judgments, whereby each leaseholder may be asked to pay insurance costs of £6,000 or £7,000 when the appropriate cost is about £2,000.

“There are scandals that need exposing. We need publicity and better adoption of rules and guidance and, if necessary, the law—although I suspect that the registration of managing agents would do far more —so that many vulnerable and elderly people do not suffer.”

Sir Peter was praised by Barry Sheerman, Labour MP for Huddersfield, for raising the issue. Sheerman has been active on behalf of beleagured leaseholders in his constituency.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: News Tagged With:

Stop this ‘legal torture’ of pensioners, says MP

June 4, 2012 by

Sir Peter Bottomley denounces LVT stratagems in post on LKP

Sir Peter Bottomley attacks “relentless money-grabbing opponent”

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.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Leasehold Valuation Tribunal, News, Oakland Court 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: , , , , , , , , , , ,