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 housing shadow John Healey for a statement.Long Harbour is run by William Wadorf Astor, half brother of Samantha … [Read More...]
THE REASONS WHY …
Latest news
New trustees and changes at LKP
The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership announces changes today that will secure the organisation and prepare it for an enhanced role in the reform of leasehold.Sebastian O’Kelly has stood down as an LKP trustee and becomes the chief executive, tasked with taking on intern staff and freelancers assisted by the Open Data Institute, where we are based.The objective is to provide comprehensive editorial coverage of this sector, and data analytics, that will drive policy change.The website … [Read More...]
Sunday Times and MoneyWeek reference £600,000 forfeiture case
The Charles McCadden £600,000 forfeiture case is being referenced in the Sunday Times and MoneyWeek by two influential commentators, Helen Davies and Merryn Somerset Webb.Both have written on the subject of leasehold in the past. Cautionary tales of leaseholder regret - MoneyWeek If you buy house or flat, make sure you buy one that really belongs to you. The dangers of not doing so - of buying a long leasehold instead of a freehold in England or Wales - are becoming clearer … [Read More...]
Commonhold is back! House builder offers flats without leasehold tenancies
Five flats might not amount to a revolution, but it might be an indication of where market sentiment is heading.If so, Stewart Moxon, founder of Hopton Build, is going to be well ahead of the curve.He is selling five two-bedroom apartments at Liversedge, near Huddersfield, as commonhold units rather than leasehold.And the reason he is doing so is because of his own unsatisfactory experiences as an investor in leasehold properties: so he is one of the 94% of dissatisfied leasehold … [Read More...]
Neighbour forfeits leaseholder’s £600,000 London maisonette for putting in a new bathroom
Time for government to end forfeiture windfalls to landlordsThis story has since been taken up by The Times journalist Andrew Ellson and reported on MailOnline, The Sun and The Mirror:Leaseholder's £600k flat seized over 'redecoration'A leaseholder has had a £600,000 flat confiscated by his freeholder after "redecorating" it in what campaigners say is the most extreme case of forfeiture they have seen. Charles McCadden's case has prompted calls for reform of a law that ultimately … [Read More...]
Is your leasehold home – from Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon etc – a life sentence? Ask the estate agents who can’t sell them
The National Association of Estate Agents says 94% of leasehold home buyers regret their decision - and 65% used the developers’ stooge solicitors in buying these flawed products.Many have been sold leasehold houses by plc house builders for whom leasehold tenure “can be a highly successful cash cow”.The leaseholders echo the sentiments of Justin Madders MP that they were mis-sold their properties and that leasehold properties with onerous ground rents are the “PPI of the property … [Read More...]
Don’t buy leasehold, says Merryn Somerset Webb of Money Week, but …
This is robust advice from the financial journalist Merryn Somerset Webb and it’s not wrong, but ...Some people have to live in flats, which are (quite unnecessarily) sold as leasehold in England and Wales: the poor, the single, those seeking to live in the centre of cities.Commonhold is a perfectly sensible alternative.In the meantime, let’s reform leasehold by stripping out all the income streams: the ground rents; the insurance commission scams; the related company services; the … [Read More...]
Kit Malthouse to meet Persimmon over doubling ground rent at Picket Twenty site
The housing minister Kit Malthouse has a Persimmon ground rent scam at the Picket Twenty site in his own North West Hampshire constituency.It brings home the misery of many urban leaseholders right on his doorstep in the leafy shires.The Andover Advertiser newspaper reports leaseholder, Kevin Brown, who purchased his lease in 2014 and, since a break up with his long-term partner, has been trying to sell the property on.The father-of-one said: “During the period it was on the market I … [Read More...]
Ground rent scandal
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 […]
Gleeson won’t sell leasehold houses, but freehold ones come with ‘fleasehold’ covenants, says Justin Madders
Gleeson, the housebuilder that publicly disapproved of rip-off leasehold houses, was identified in the Commons on Tuesday for introducing a raft of “fleasehold” covenants into its freehold ones. Justin Madders, Labour MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston, who is deputy chair of the APPG on leasehold reform, spoke out about how “rancid the whole business” […]
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
20,000 leaseholders trapped in blocks with Grenfell cladding, says Telegraph
The Grenfell cladding disaster for private flat owners got another airing last Saturday, this time in the Daily Telegraph. It claims that 143 private blocks have failed the governments fire safety tests involving 20,000 leaseholders. “The Government has said that the building’s owners have a “moral responsibility” to ensure that the bill does not fall […]
Times journalist defeats MB Freeholds and RMG over insurance dispute
And he wants to know about more leasehold abuses: mark.atherton@thetimes.co.uk Mark Atherton, the investments editor of The Times, described in the newspaper last week how he defeated MB Freeholds Limited and RMG (the Residential Management Group) over an insurance dispute. The case came before the Upper Tribunal last November and concerned whether the leaseholders or […]
Is the Bank of England pandering to freeholders over punitive lease valuations?
The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership is concerned that the Bank of England is pandering to the commercial interests in the multi-billion pound leasehold sector by supporting lease valuation models weighted in the landlord’s favour. In a study of valuations for equity release mortgages, the Bank of England has naively accepted the leasehold sector’s punitive so-called “deferment […]
Barclays refuses mortgages over lease terms at Taylor Wimpey’s prime Chobham Manor
Barclays Bank is refusing to issue loans to purchasers at Taylor Wimpey’s Chobham Manor development in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, where homes fetch up to £1m. The Financial Times reports today that a subsidiary company, jointly owned by Taylor Wimpey and L&Q housing association, holds the head lease to the […]
How scam values on equity release loans affect leaseholders. And YOU need to stop it …
With their legally enforceable income streams – and extreme vulnerability in legal disputes – leasehold properties are the basis of a multi-billion pound speculative business. Now the flawed, freeholder-friendly model of valuing leasehold deferment rates are sneaking into the dubious equity release loan market. Here an ex-Bank of England economist explains to LKP readers his […]
Keep raising leasehold with Advertising Standards Authority
This is quite an interesting ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority (for which, thanks to Michael Holland): In 2014, the Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint about an ad for a property which stated “Tenure: Leasehold”. The complainant challenged whether the ad was misleading because it did not make clear the length of the remaining […]
Slough council takes Nova House leaseholders to tribunal over Grenfell cladding costs
We are only billing leaseholders for the fire marshals not Grenfell cladding removal, says Slough Council is understood to have bought the freehold to the stricken site for £1 – officially, a ‘nominal fee’ – off freehold investor Robert Steinhouse Liverpool debt collectors JB Leitch to take the tribunal action Leaseholders at Nova House which […]
£3m Grenfell cladding bills fall on residents at Lendlease’s Cypress Place and Vallea Court
The property tribunal last week dumped the cost of removing Grenfell cladding on the residents at Cypress Place and Vallea Court in Manchester’s Green Quarter, which were built by Australian builder Lendlease. And Vallea Court pays for the “waking watch” fire marshals. In addition, the tribunal declined to issue a section 20c order, which means […]
Taylor Wimpey has paid out only £11.2m of the supposed £130m to sort the doubling ground rent scam
… And £30 million to remove Grenfell cladding from the sites it built Taylor Wimpey has paid out only £11.2 million of the £130 million it set aside to address the doubling ground rent scam it inflicted on its customers between 2007 and 2011. During that period, the plc housebuilder dreamed up highly aggressive ground […]
