But ... Landmark Investments claims it has saved leaseholders over £1m by telling them they do not need to engage their own legal advisers in dealing with freehold purchases It tells MP that its practices have made enfranchisement ‘cheaper’, ‘quicker’ and ‘easier’. LKP are ‘pathological liars’ over leasehold abuses, says Landmark’s Mark Hawthornthwaite It is ‘Machiavellian’ in exploiting leaseholders to further its campaign, and has a ‘vendetta’ against Landmark Investments It has a ‘track … [Read More...]
THE REASONS WHY …
Latest news
£146,257 – the highest major works bill ever?
Leaseholders at Tustin Estate run by Southwark Council have had an estimated major works bill at a staggering £146,257.22p for a two bedroom flat.This may well be the highest bills ever to have been sent out in the social sector. If anyone has seen a larger bill per flat for a social sector major works project please let us know. An average family would need to not eat, drink or spend a single penny for more than 6 years to be able to pay this bill of £146,257. … [Read More...]
Beware ground rent addicts bearing gifts with their good conduct pledge
Pugnacious advocate for reform, leasehold valuer and LKP trustee, LOUIE BURNS explains why the good behaviour 'pledge' by freeholders worked up with government is full of perils ...Leasehold valuerBeware of freeholders bearing gifts – The truth about the Government’s freeholder pledgeFreeholders launch clandestine plot to outflank leasehold reform and make millions of homes unsellableOn 28 March, the Government announced a voluntary industry pledge which, it naively believes, will … [Read More...]
Social landlords should not be abusing their unbalanced powers against leaseholders
Sebastian O'Kelly's article in Inside Housing:Social landlords must be stopped from abusing their power over leaseholdersInside Housing, news, analysis, and comment about the social housing sector in the UK. … [Read More...]
Communities Select Committee reject the “pledge”
Following on from the announcement of a sector "Pledge for leaseholders" by Secretary of State James Brokenshire on 28th March 2019 the Chair of the Communities Select Committee, Clive Betts MP, has been quick to respond.Chair Betts welcomed the government's work but strongly cautioned against the pledge in a letter sent to the Secretary of State: “It is disappointing that the Government has not yet taken a more vigorous approach to tackling the serious failures in the leasehold system. … [Read More...]
Brokenshire letter to MPs explaining his reforms … and accepting Law Commission endorsement of event fees
DCLG stakeholders hear of 'calamitous' Law Commission report on exit fees - Better Retirement HousingThe DCLG leasehold stakeholders' group was told yesterday that the Law Commission report into exit and other fees published earlier this month was 'calamitous'. The study had come about following the Office of Fair Trading investigations into the retirement housing sector. One concerned the systematic cheating of pensioners over the Peverel / Cirrus collusive tendering ...ARCO conference … [Read More...]
Why is reforming leasehold harder than space travel, asks Sunday Telegraph
A fine article by Lauren Davidson.The answer to the question is, of course, that an awful lot of vested interests spend out grandly to keep the whole nonsense going.The key question for policymakers is: are we creating homes (and subsidising them as taxpayers through Help To Buy) or creating investment assets for freehold speculators often based offshore?If the latter is the aim, we have been 1/ remarkably successful; and 2/ completely mad. Why is the leasehold crisis … [Read More...]
Commonhold is common sense: response to Charles Russell Speechlys propagandising for leasehold in CityAM
CityAM, the freesheet London morning newspaper, today published LKP’s response to an article earlier in the week by solicitors at Charles Russell Speechlys.The solicitors, who come in pairs (which may be an indication of the content), were gigging through the usual nonsense about commonhold tenure: "be careful what you wish for"; "babies and bathwater"; "cows no longer yielding milk etc ..."Some of these are made up, but you get the picture, and you can read the full piece here:James … [Read More...]
Grenfell cladding
Grenfell cladding leaseholders form campaign group
A campaign group of leaseholders in private blocks with Grenfell cladding is being formed. It is calling itself the UK Cladding Action Group: UKCAG and can be contacted here: ukcladdingactiongroup@gmail.com LKP welcomes the initiative and will do all that it can to assist. The Guardian reports: “Only 10 of the 173 private buildings discovered with […]
Lendlease caves in over £5m Grenfell cladding bills at Vallea Court and Cypress Place
In yet another retreat by plc house builders, the Aussie giant Lendlease is stumping up to pay to remove the Grenfell cladding at Vallea Court and Cypress Place, in Manchester’s Green Quarter. Before government ministers start talking rubbish about “freeholders doing the decent thing” – or worse, describing these speculators in residential freehold income streams […]
Theresa May also thinks that ‘building owners’ – freeholders – will pay for Grenfell cladding
<span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”></span>&amp;amp;amp;lt;span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;gt; After Sajid Javid, James Brokenshire and Kit Malthouse … now the prime minister this afternoon insists that “building owners” will pay for Grenfell cladding removal. The Tchenguiz group at Northpoint in Bromley has already […]
Furious attack on government Grenfell cladding inaction in Commons
The government was under attack in the Commons today over its inactivity over Grenfell cladding in private blocks of flats. John Healey, Labour shadow housing secretary, made a powerful attack on Housing minister Kit Malthouse, asking “if the government cannot deal with this, what is it in office for?” Mr Malthouse said, “as a result […]
Grenfell cladding leaseholders despair of government doing anything ..
“For residents in private sector buildings identified as having this accelerant-type cladding we were often hopeful and encouraged by Government assurances from James Brokenshire and Kit Malthouse, that the cost will be met, not by leaseholders, but by the freeholder or developers. In a statement regarding this issue, Brokenshire threatened that if they did not […]
Tchenguiz group dismisses government ‘hollow threat’ to make freeholders pay for Grenfell cladding removal
But hints that it would have liked to help, if only the ‘existential threat’ of leasehold reforms were dropped … The Tchenguiz organisation has said that the government should stop demanding that freeholders pay to remove Grenfell cladding from 272 private apartment blocks. It is a “hollow threat and it knows it”, says William Kenneth […]
Fury in Manchester as Lendlease wins £160m contract to refurb city hall, while dumping Grenfell cladding costs on leaseholders
Anger has erupted in Manchester after Australian building group Lendlease was awarded a £330 million contract to refurbish the city hall – while declining to help remove Grenfell cladding from its private sites in the city. Lendlease refuses to contribute to remove cladding at two sites in Green Quarter, Vallea Court and Cypress Place which […]
Pull the other one, Vincent! Leasehold reform hasn’t stuffed Fairhold. It was downgraded in 2015 …
In today’s Financial Times interview, Vincent Tchenguiz says the sale of his Fairhold Securitisation Limited has collapsed because of buyers’ concerns over government reforms to leasehold. Vincent Tchenguiz pushes back on UK leasehold reform Property tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz is lobbying against proposed changes to the leasehold system that his company says threaten “unintended detrimental […]
Santa visits Citiscape and New Providence Wharf
Twelve months ago the leaseholders in Citiscape Croydon were in a very dark place. They were being taken to the Tribunal by FirstPort to prove that they should be liable for cladding costs, which were estimated at over £2 million – over £20,000 per flat. The leaseholders had been given poor advice by LEASE on […]
MHCLG ‘fundamentally flawed’ in expecting freeholders to pay for Grenfell cladding removal, LKP tells the FT
The FT today reports that government hopes that speculators in residential freeholds – especially anonymous ones hidden offshore – are unlikely to pay up to remove Grenfell cladding. The article coincided with reports of Places for People, freeholder of Leeds Saxton, issuing a non-repayable loan to leaseholders and pursuing a claim against warranty provider NHBC. […]
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 […]
Commons leasehold debate. December 20 2016
The Commons debate on leasehold reform took place after the intervention of LKP patrons Jim Fitzpatrick and Sir Peter Bottomley. The debate can be seen here: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/fc53bd87-8abf-4986-b7ce-6a7a488b8cfc The debate can be read here: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-12-20/debates/4F15110B-F6D5-4FA1-9154-536BD848130E/LeaseholdAndCommonholdReform The catalyst was the scandal of Taylor Wimpey selling homes between 2007-2011 with doubling ground rents and then selling the freeholds […]
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 […]
Long term custodians …
Right to manage woes at Elim and Regent Courts retirement sites
Oliver Colvile MP raised the issues of right to manage and insurance claims at two retirement sites in Plymouth: Elim Court and Regent Court, whose freeholds were acquired by London freeholders at auction. The issues have been reported on many occasions on LKP /Campaign against Retirement Leasehold Exploitation: Elim Court and right to manage and […]
ARMA tells Y and Y Management to mind its manners and control its temper
ARMA’s regulatory panel announced on Friday June 27 that it had admonished Y and Y Management following a complaint over “intemperate and unprofessional language” to a leaseholder who visited its north London offices. A letter of admonishment has been sent to the company, headed by Joseph Gurvits, whose business partner is freeholder Israel Moskovitz. Both have […]
MPs call for all-party group on leasehold, and to stop right to manage being thwarted
The Westminster meeting on Tuesday March 11 on right to manage organized by Leasehold Knowledge Partnership / Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation saw an all-party group on leasehold becoming more likely. The move would certainly be backed by Sir Peter Bottomley, Conservative Swindon MPs Justin Tomlinson and Robert Buckland, as well as Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour […]
Devon pensioners humiliate Y and Y Management and Avon Freeholds at tribunal
… and Y and Y Management ‘broke the ARHM code’ (except it is actually a member of ARMA) London-based freeholder Israel Moskovitz and his business partner Joseph Gurvits, of Y and Y Management, must rue the day they snapped up at auction the freeholds of retirement sites in Devon. After a two-year legal marathon – […]
Israel Moskovitz ‘unappealing conduct’ reported in The Oldie
The monthly Oldie magazine has reported the failure of freeholder Israel Moskovitz to frustrate the right to manage application of the residents at Regent Court retirement site in Plymouth. Regent Court won right to manage in February 2012, but has been locked in legal wrangling for another 20 months after Moskovitz repeatedly attempted to appeal […]
Freeholder’s barrister Justin Bates named in Parliament yesterday. And Benjamin Mire. And Tchenguiz. And Yianis. And Israel Moskovitz …
… Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick and Sir Peter Bottomley put the boot in to leasehold profiteers! Two senior MPs from opposite political parties yesterday delivered hard-hitting speeches in Parliament that highlighted the scandals in leasehold. And in a sign of the rising political temperature concerning these issues, neither hesitated to name names. Jim Fitzpatrick, the […]
Israel Moskovitz fails – again – to appeal against the Regent Court right to manage
An attempt by freeholder Israel Moskovitz to appeal against the granting of right to manage to Regent Court has been turned down by the Court of Appeal. Israel Moskovitz, who owns Avon Freeholds, applied for leave to appeal to the superior court after his appeal to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) failed in August. Regent […]
‘Don’t make the pensioners of Regent Court take you to court AGAIN, Mr Moskovitz,’ urges Bottomley
The pensioners of Regent Court, in Plymouth, face the prospect of another encounter in court with their freeholder Israel Moskovitz after being presented with a £140,000 bill to pay for a new roof. The roof was damaged by storms in April 2012, but insurers AXA claim the condition of the roof would have voided the […]
Tory MP backs pensioners in leasehold right to manage dispute
Tory 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 […]
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
Sir 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 […]
LEASE: Beyond repair?
London mayor Sadiq Khan launches leasehold advice portal and slams LEASE as ‘unfit for purpose’
London mayor Sadiq Khan has launched a new leasehold advice portal, and has condemned the taxpayer-funded Leasehold Advisory Service as “unfit for purpose”. He also backed “wholesale reform of leasehold, including a long-term shift toward alternative tenures such as commonhold”. Today’s statement from the mayor’s office reads: “Government funds the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) – […]
New LEASE chair declines to endorse peppercorn ground rents on BBC
And there will be no leaseholders on the board of LEASE The new chair of the controversial quango the Leasehold Advisory Service declined an invitation to endorse no-monetary value ground rents on BBC R4’s You and Yours today. Instead, Wanda Goldwag said only that contracts should be “fair”. Former Communities Secretary Sajid Javid undertook to […]
New interim chair for troubled quango LEASE
Wanda Goldwag, a former marketing executive for British Airways, has been appointed interim chair of the controversial Leasehold Advisory Service. Ms Goldwag, who ran BA’s Air Miles, is chair of the Office for Legal Complaints, which controls the legal ombudsman service for England and Wales. Four trustees of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership have been declined […]
Leasehold Advisory Service has ‘been under review’ for 10 years. Here are the findings …
The Leasehold Advisory Service, the government funded Leasehold Advisory Service, has been under review by the government for much of the last ten years. This seems to suggest that something is wrong, yet the government’s long-standing support for the Leasehold Advisory Service continues. LKP has, after many requests, obtained the two most recent reviews of […]
Can the Leasehold Advisory Service monopoly survive devastating questioning by Select Committee?
– Select Committee deluged with complaints about taxpayer funded organisation – It failed to alert government to scandals over ground rents and proliferation of leasehold houses – Why did it hold seminars advising freeholders how to exploit leaseholders? – ‘Huge credibility problem’ for LEASE among leaseholders, says MP: it is working against them – Why […]
News archive
Ground Rent Addicts Anonymous sign Brokenshire’s pledge (three years after the scandal they created and denied existed)
Embargo 00.01 March 28 2018 The government and panicky leasehold monetisers have cobbled together a sort of “code of practice” or good behaviour pledge – mainly in response to the Communities Select Committee’s thoroughly researched assault on leasehold practices published earlier this month. Forty developers and freeholders have pledged to free the 12,000 leaseholders trapped […]
87,000 properties in England and Wales owned by offshore companies, says Global Witness
By Sebastian O’Kelly The industrial scale plundering of property assets in England and Wales were revealed in figures published by the whistleblowing organisation Global Witness last week. It believes that over 87,000 properties in England and Wales are owned by anonymous companies registered in tax havens. The value of these properties is at least £56 […]
Competition and Markets Authority cannot investigate leasehold mis-selling because of Brexit, Brokenshire told
The Competition and Markets Authority agrees that leaseholders trapped by rip-off ground rents are suffering “significant detriment”, but Brexit means it cannot help. This was the bleak message to Communities Secretary James Brokenshire last November. “Our ability to launch new discretionary work such as this is significantly affected by the near-time preparations that we must […]
Communities Select Committee MPs issue devastating report into the toxic leasehold system
The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership warmly endorses the Communities Select Committee report published today. We have campaigned since January 2012 to see a parliamentary report turn such a clear-eye to this murky and exploitative corner of the housing market. The report is a huge vindication of our efforts. The report amounts to a demolition of the […]
Tory MP Stephen McPartland shames Long Harbour / Adriatic Land into dropping doubling ground rent leases
Tory MP Stephen McPartland has successfully shamed Long Harbour / Adriatic Land into varying 15-year doubling ground rents that trapped young families in unsellable homes. Last month Mr McPartland raised the issue in the Commons of 130 shared-equity leaseholders at Six Hills House in Stevenage being unable to sell their properties. But yesterday the beneficial […]
At last! A public defence of the leasehold system from an articulate freeholder …
Makes a change from hiding behind lobbyists and lawyers and threatening, for example, the Law Commission, with judicial reviews By Sebastian O’Kelly LKP director Here is an interesting article today on the Tortoise long read journalism site from former banker-turned-residential-freehold investor Peter Sugarman, of the JRJ Group. It says his views are his own, but […]
Brokenshire demanding action for 100,000 trapped in toxic leasehold homes five months ago
A very good Daily Mail story today revealing that last November Communities Secretary James Brokenshire was demanding inquiries into 100,000 buyers trapped in new toxic leases. So, no reason not to get on with banning leasehold houses – the easy bit – and reducing new ground rents to zero: which private equity speculators and […]
48 hours to go: LKP advice on responding to the Law Commission consultation on commonhold
Consultation on the Law Commission report on commonhold ends on Sunday at mid-night. Please make sure you make a contribution. Question 94 is pretty open-ended, where leaseholders can say why they think a commonhold structure would be an improvement on current leasehold. The bulk of the Law Commission consultation is concerned with making commonhold work […]
Leasehold first-time buyers trapped in leasehold homes with £800 ground rents, says BBC
The BBC website today features a first-time buyer of a leasehold house in Liverpool who pays £800 a year in ground rent and service charges. The BBC website reports the case of Ashleigh Wilson, 27, who bought her £200,000 home in Knowsley four years ago but now cannot sell it because of the lease terms. […]
