Actually, within the last hour ... the first two of these predictions have come trueTomorrow sees the government launch its consultation into ground rents.We already know that they have made a fundamental move away from the principle of a peppercorn ground rent to one of a 'nominal' ground rent. This will allow the sector to continue promoting all the bad practices which the government has done nothing to stop, for example: protection of leaseholder funds; insurance commisions; … [Read More...]
THE REASONS WHY …
Latest news
No help for leaseholders trapped in unsellable homes, says government
The government is not going to do anything to help 100,000 leaseholders trapped in unsellable properties with onerous ground rents.It said today:“A lease is a form of contract – and once a contract has been signed, the Government has few options on how to intervene. This is because it would have implications for private property rights.“But, we take this matter very seriously. A number of developers have already introduced schemes to assist people, but these must go further and … [Read More...]
£10 ground rents applies to flats and house
The DHCLG said today over its watered down ground rent proposals: The proposed limit includes flats and other forms of housing. … [Read More...]
Ground rents to be allowed in retirement housing, says government
Retirement house builders are to be exempt from the government’s elastic proposals to reduce ground rents to £10.This is a triumph for the lobbying efforts of the retirement house builders.“Unlike most parts of the leasehold market, where leaseholders do not gain any tangible benefit from paying ground rent, it is clear that they do in the retirement sector,” said the DHCLG today.“Communal facilities are an important part of specialist housing such as retirement homes and ground … [Read More...]
Sir Vince Cable condemns another government consultation over leasehold
Sir Vince Cable, LibDem leader and a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold has condemned the government inaction over the leasehold scandal.It was another example of a government failing to tackle problems because it was “consumed by Brexit”.“The Conservatives have developed a very bad habit of kicking cans down the road,” Sir Vince told the Independent.“And here we are again – another consultation instead of legislation, a government consumed by Brexit that talks … [Read More...]
Fundamentally flawed reform x 3!
This week we should have been able to announce three very positive proposals for supporting leaseholders. This followed on from the excellent work by Secretary of State Sajid Javid and his radical commitment that the government had finally agreed to a "crackdown on unfair leasehold practices".Unfortunately, Sajid Javid was promoted to Home Secretary and replaced by James Brokenshire.In a script that nobody would have believed, even in the world of "Yes Minister", Brokenshire is putting … [Read More...]
Bellway and Peabody cave in over Grenfell cladding costs at New Festival Quarter
Bellway “as a responsible developer” is meeting the bill ... So what about the not-so-responsible Lendlease and Ballymore? In yet another triumph of leaseholder activism, Bellway and the Peabody Trust have caved in over the Grenfell cladding costs at New Festival Quarter.The east London site in the constituency of Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse and patron of LKP.Martin Boyd, LKP chair, has liaised with the leaseholders working through the options when confronted … [Read More...]
Notting Hill Genesis housing association pulls shared ownership leasehold advert after complaints
Advertising Standards Authority says it is "likely" to have breached codes In another example of leaseholders fighting back, the Notting Hill Genesis housing association has pulled an advertisement for shared equity leasehold flats.Underneath the photograph of a radiantly smiling millennial woman were the words: “We wanted a new home that would with us, so that’s when we looked into Shared Ownership and realised that by using this scheme we could actually afford to buy a two bedroom … [Read More...]
Ground rent scandal
Kate Osamor MP asks parliamentary questions for Long Harbour on ground rents, says Daily Telegraph
Labour frontbencher Kate Osamor asking a series of parliamentary questions on behalf of ground rent speculators lifts the lid on lobbying for the sector. Miss Osamor, the shadow international development secretary, submitted six questions drafted by lobbyists Pagefield acting for the £1.6 billion Long Harbour fund, the Daily Telegraph has claimed. LKP has contacted Labour’s […]
MPs turn out in force to welcome leaseholder demonstrators at Westminster
MPs turned out in force this morning to meet leasehold demonstrators organised by the National Leasehold Campaign, most of who arrived by coach from the North West. Sir Peter Bottomley and Jim Fitzpatrick, patrons of LKP and co-chairs of the APPG on leasehold reform, were on hand, as was Justin Madders, the deputy chair who […]
APPG July 11: Robust debate over retirement ground rents and event fees
By Sebastian OKelly, LKP trustee The controversial issues of ground rents and exit fees in retirement housing were discussed at this week’s meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold and commonhold reform. These were the main event in a meeting which also had an insider’s examination of leasehold insurance commissions, and why developers […]
APPG July 11: Taylor Wimpey deserves no praise for its cheating RPI ground rent relief scheme, says leasehold house customer
… What I want what was promised: my freehold for £5,000 Freehold owners are desperate to nobble the ground rent capitalisation rate before reforms By Joanne Darbyshire Speech at APPG on July 11 2018 Jo was also on BBC R4 You and Yours yesterday, which can be heard here at 35 mins in: Treatments for […]
Ground rents are so valid … to pay out £300m bonuses to Persimmon cronies
Yet another example of cronyism at work as 130 Persimmon staff share out a £300 million bonus thanks to spreading leasehold houses around the country. The company’s hilariously mis-named “long-term incentive plan” – short-term fill-yer-boots, would be more accurate – has already seen CEO Jeffrey Fairburn being awarded a £112 million bonus. The company’s regional […]
Retirement housebuilders and speculators plead to be allowed ground rents in the Evening Standard
As government – and the Law Commission – reel from a barrage of special pleading by housebuilders over the government’s proposals to set ground rents as low as zero, their lobbying efforts were considered in London’s Evening Standard yesterday. It featured contributions from the soon-to-be-let-go CEO of McCarthy and Stone Clive Fenton and Spencer McCarthy, […]
McCarthy and Stone and Churchill: are you blackmailing government over the ground rent ban and is your business model broken? Asks BBC R4 MoneyBox
Brilliant interview with outgoing McCarthy and Stone CEO Clive Fenton ‘Problem’ that retirement housebuilders have not been spoonfed profits, like others through Help To Buy Anyway, aren’t retirement housebuilders insignificant given the numbers of pensioners who are downsizing today, asks BBC? Radio 4’s MoneyBox quizzed retirement housebuilders McCarthy and Stone and Churchill Retirement Living on […]
Taylor Wimpey’s snake oil ground rent review scheme makes toxic leases even worse: in my case, £25m worse!
Changing doubling ground rents to RPI allows a quick sale or enfranchisement but loads the freehold with revenues My 250-year lease with doubling ground rents add up to £1.9 million, but RPI ones add up to £25 million! Communities Select Committee needs to haul in the housebuilders By Joanne Darbyshire I bought my home from […]
Leaseholders urge Clive Betts MP to quiz housebuilders over ground rent review schemes
Leaseholders trapped in unsellable homes owing to rip-off ground rents have deluged Clive Betts MP (above) to call in housebuilders to explain their haphazard ground rent review schemes. Mr Betts chairs the Communities Select Committee but declines to intervene in the leasehold scandal whereby 100,000 homeowners are trapped in unsellable properties, according to Nationwide. Mr […]
98% of rip-off lease sales broke consumer protection rules, says Conveyancing Association
The Conveyancing Association claims that 98% of sales of properties with onerous or doubling ground rents broke consumer protection rules. Only 2% of purchasers received information prior to viewing a property, according to a survey carried out with the help of the National Leasehold Campaign and the Home Owners’ Alliance. The Conveyancing Association has reported […]
The games they play
Martin Paine sells on Blythe Court, where ground rents reach £8,000 a year
Martin Paine and his wife Anne Kirmond have spent years as landlord causing distress to the leaseholds at Blythe Court and many other sites. LKP first broke the story of the Panie’s ground rent exploits in January 2016 despite warning letters from solicitors Taylor Emmet LLP. https://www.leaseholdknowledge.com/martin-paine Since this story, we have covered the activities […]
Martin Paine resigns from IRPM after leaseholder complaint
Following a complaint to the Institute of Residential Property Management (IRPM) Martin Paine has chosen to resign his position as a member rather than face investigation. On several occasions in the last 18 months this site has reported on the exploits of Martin Paine, his FCA regulated wife, Ann Kirmond (Ref no MAK01110), and their […]
‘If I fail to offend anyone, I will do it next time,’ Bottomley tells appalled LEASE annual conference
Leasehold sector insiders were aghast at the address given by Sir Peter Bottomley on Wednesday at the Leasehold Advisory Service “annual conference”. The event was packed with surveyors, valuers, lawyers and property managing agents paying £350 a head to attend what has until now been the most important trade show of the sector. Earlier housing […]
Martin Paine ‘is a crook who is turning sleaze in leases into an art form’, MPs told
Sir Peter Bottomley (Conservative, Worthing West) named the leasehold-gameplayer Martin Paine as a “crook” in the Commons yesterday. “We should not have to rely on the chance action of a campaigning charity such as LKP [the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership] or the Campaign Against Retirement Leasehold Exploitation—or a passing Member of Parliament, to get things put […]
Guardian reports the Blythe Court ground rent scandal
The Guardian newspaper has today reported the Blythe Court ground rent scandal that has left leaseholders with bills of up to £8,000 a year. In 95 years the ground rents can reach £8 million a year for a one-bedroom flat bought for £58,000, says the article, written by Guardian staff reporter Rupert Jones. It quotes […]
ARMA MELTDOWN
Leaseholders are apathetic, apart from the Dad’s Army figures running RTMs and RMCs, says the sector
… But shouldn’t the paid professionals be more than Air Warden Hodges? There can be few industries where it would be felt appropriate to hold a private meeting to consider customer apathy. There can be fewer still that would seek to blame the consumer for that apathy. Yet this is exactly what we face today. […]
RICS fines Warwick Estates £20,000 over lift shaft fatality – after ARMA ‘blocked its regulator from hearing the case’
– Warwick Estates retaliates by resigning from RICS – It is unacceptable that ARMA ignores this issue – Case underlines need for statutory regulation By Sebastian O’Kelly, LKP trustee Property management company Warwick Estates was fined £20,000 last month in a disciplinary hearing of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) – on top of […]
Grenfell cladding crisis prompts the question: what are freeholders actually for?
Taxpayers will have to intervene over cladding, by issuing loans, to prevent hundreds of leaseholders losing their homes. But the crisis shows the pointlessness of current leasehold landlordism. What do they actually do, apart from having all the power over ordinary people’s homes and raising revenue for themselves? The Grenfell cladding crisis demonstrates to an […]
Fractures in ARMA’s efforts to regulate the leasehold property management sector
Last year we reported on weaknesses in the Ombudsman redress system and ARMA regulation. In the case of ARMA the changes introduced after their regulator, former Labour minister MP Sally Keeble, resigned. https://www.leaseholdknowledge.com/armas-self-regulation-disarray-member-sues-organisation-sally-keeble-resigns After the resignation, ARMA has decided to turn itself into a secondary regulator. Rather than allow leaseholders to initiate a complaint directly, […]
Telegraph reports rip-off leasehold sales packs
The Daily Telegraph has reported the issue of rip-off sale packs when leasehold properties are sold on. Personal finance reporter Sam Brodbeck writes: “The packs are required by housebuyers’ conveyancers, and because they can only be produced by freeholders, the seller is forced to pay whatever price is demanded – or risk the sale falling […]
DCLG shakes up leasehold team … but what about Southam, LEASE and the Mundy case, asks Bottomley
Oh … and there is YET ANOTHER review, this time on ombudsmen services The DCLG has shuffled the civil service leasehold team: perhaps ahead of making some important changes to the sector. Perhaps to steel themselves for the fallout if little or nothing is done. In any case, the current incumbent ¬– who demonstrated very […]
Companies like ARMA member SDL Bigwood are ripping off homeowners in private estates, Parliament is told
SDL Bigwood tried to dump its debts on ‘services that residents did not see being implemented’, claims MP Kelly Tolhurst Hyde Housing Association raised ‘service’ charges from £85 to £128 a month London and Quadrant Housing ‘tried to charge for street lamps and street cleaning provided by Medway Council’ Housing minister wants to ‘make it […]
The Property Ombudsman fines agent for selling house as ‘virtually freehold’. (Don’t worry ARMA members: it was only £200)
Annual Report: freehold vs. leasehold Whose responsibility is it anyway? This case summary looks at a tenure dispute – find out more about the complaint and the Ombudsman’s ruling after the agent claimed long leaseholds amounted to ‘the same thing’ as freehold. The buyer in this case explained that they told the agent that they […]
More farce than Blackadder’s court martial: ARMA claims its regulator ‘retired’
Self-regulation has failed at both ARMA and RICS ARMA has responded to Sally Keeble’s statement that she resigned owing to interference in her regulator’s role by declaring that the post was ‘retired’ instead. Further, ARMA says that the decision arose because ARMA only receives around eight complaints a year. It is astonishing that ARMA is […]
ARMA regulator Sally Keeble outlines five areas where statutory regulation is needed in leasehold
The former ARMA regulator Sally Keeble, who resigned her post last month claiming unacceptable interference in her independent role, outlines for LKP five areas where statutory regulation in leasehold is required. The full reasons for her resignation are given here In her article below, it is clear that Mrs Keeble – a Labour MP for […]
LEASE: Beyond repair?
LKP’s essential leasehold guide in The Sunday Times … feel free to add
By Sebastian O’Kelly It was good to be able to use a small Q&A article in yesterday’s Sunday Times to offer a mini guide for leaseholders. This is the sort of thing the Leasehold Advisory Service should be putting out, if it were not in thrall to the commercialisers in the sector. Indeed, it was […]
Is LEASE an institutionally corrupted organisation?
“Institutional corruption is manifest when there is a systemic and strategic influence which is legal, or even currently ethical, that undermines the institution’s effectiveness by diverting it from its purpose or weakening its ability to achieve its purpose, including, to the extent relevant to its purpose, weakening either the public’s trust in that institution or […]
Martin Boyd should be the chair of LEASE
By Sebastian O’Kelly, LKP trustee There is only one outstanding candidate to be chair of LEASE and that is Martin Boyd. He is the only person involved in leasehold activism with the knowledge and abilities that will hold credibility with the sector. He is respected on this subject by ministers, MPs and civil servants. As […]
LEASE chair Roger Southam resigns
The taxpayer-funded Leasehold Advisory Service, LEASE, has announced this evening that its non-executive chair, Roger Southam, has resigned with immediate effect. No explanation for the resignation is given, but it follows calls from the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership that he resign, questions in the Commons from MPs such as Justin Madders and LKP patron Sir Peter […]
National Leasehold Campaign tells Roger Southam to resign from LEASE
UPDATE: Has Roger Southam resigned from Savills? His LinkedIn profile suggest his employment there discontinued at the end of last month. He is now associated with the Eighty Nine Consultancy, which has no website and may be self-employment. The National Leasehold Campaign Facebook group today urged Roger Southam to resign as chairman of the […]
News archive
Younger managing agents seek answers over leasehold reform (without the usual agendas of the trade bodies)
Yesterday saw an excellent small conference for leasehold property managers in Southampton. Most of the audience were considerably younger than normal events. It was not organised by one of the trade bodies, it wasn’t in a ritzy London location and it probably did not cost much. It was just an occasion for those employed in […]
Pemberton Greenish worker tells Cadogan Estate bigwig: you’re a c***t!
Well, here’s a thing: today we were listening to the urbane Damian Greenish, veteran landlord and tenant solicitor, chair the conference of the Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners. A very good job he did too, politely introducing the Law Commissioner Professor Nick Hopkins, barrister Mark Loveday and other luminaries of the landlord and tenant world. […]
Leaseholders thank JFM for turning around RTM site with £45,000 service charge arrears, reducing them to £800 in four months
Leaseholders at Wilmington Close, a 143 flat RTM site with six commercial units in Watford, have given fulsome praise to their managing agent, JFM. It is a young start-up by James Farrar and Joe Mallon, based in Harrow, which has grown exponentially since it began. Like all LKP accredited managing agents – including the biggest […]
Sean Mulryan’s Ballymore won’t be doing the ‘decent thing’ over Grenfell cladding costs at New Providence Wharf
Dublin-based developer Ballymore has bluntly told an MP that leaseholders will have to pay to remove Grenfell ACM cladding panels at New Providence Wharf in Poplar, east London. It joins Aussie developer Lendlease, which is refusing to pay out – or explain why not – at Cypress Place and Vallea Court in Manchester. A figure […]
Law Commission: no problem employing barrister Justin Bates to reform right to manage, while he sets about stuffing another one …
The Law Commission has rejected a concern raised by LKP that barrister Justin Bates is employed to reform right to manage legislation while engaged by an offshore landlord to try to prevent yet another one. Mr Bates was a controversial choice by the Law Commission in the view of some leaseholders as he has established […]
Law Commissioner wants to meet YOU: November 3
The Law Commissioner Professor Nick Hopkins is to address leaseholders on reforms to leasehold in Manchester on Saturday November 3, with an event in London to be announced shortly. Professor Hopkins will be discussing the Law Commission’s consultation paper setting out proposals that aim to make buying your freehold or extending your lease simpler, easier, […]
Man killed by penthouse glass opposite Parliament
Condolences to the family of Mick Ferris, killed this week when a pane of glass fell from a penthouse at The Corniche on Albert Embankment opposite the Tate and Houses of Parliament. The Corniche is a luxury Berkeley Group scheme where prices range from £2,700,000 – £6,250,000. It was designed by Foster and Partners. We […]
Private Eye identifies yet another murky offshore landlord, Vuillard Holdings Limited, with Grenfell cladding
“Snakes and cladders” is Private Eye’s headline revealing Vuillard Holdings Limited as the latest landlord with Grenfell cladding on site. Owned by shy proprietors David and Patrick Kennedy, it owns the freehold of Victoria Wharf, two sites Limehouse in East London, where leaseholders have so far “been forced” to pay £165,000 for fire wardens. LKP […]
Retirement sector thought it would prompt leasehold reform, but leasehold houses and double ground rents were even worse …
Report of the annual conference of the Association of Retirement Housing Managers in Stratford, on October 2, is on www.BetterRetirementHousing.com ARHM: This time the impetus to reform leasehold is serious … – Better Retirement Housing If there is one thing that those seeking reform of the retirement housing sector and those employed in it can […]
