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  • February 22, 2019
You are here: Home / News / 10,500 leaseholders demand select committee hauls in housebuilders over rip-off ground rents

10,500 leaseholders demand select committee hauls in housebuilders over rip-off ground rents

June 15, 2018 By Katie Kendrick

… And ‘leaseholder voices’ video launched, in initiatives from the National Leasehold Campaign

The National Leasehold Campaign’s (NLC) Petition to ‘Abolish Leasehold & Introduce Regulation For Residential Managing Agents’ has reached 10,500 signatures. It calls for the government to announce a Select Committee Inquiry into the leasehold scandal.

https://www.change.org/p/theresa-may-mp-abolish-leasehold-strict-regulation-for-residential-managing-agents-be-introduced

This comes at a crucial time when leaseholders futures are being decided within government.

The leasehold scandal is a sorry tale of corporate greed at the expense of millions of people aspiring to be home owners. New build homes, fuelled by the Government’s help to buy scheme, were sold as leasehold, many with onerous doubling ground rents and stinging permission fees to make alterations to the properties.

Katie Kendrick, founder of the NLC said:

“Millions of people have been mis-sold their homes, many using Help to Buy. We hear daily of the effects that the stress, worry and misery of being trapped in this nightmare is having on people. It’s a David versus Goliath battle with people power up against the might of resources and deep pockets of the developers and freeholders. The Government needs to get those responsible in front of a Select Committee and give them the Philip Green treatment.”

The leasehold scandal will also hit the taxpayer as Help to Buy loans are repaid on properties that are now worth substantially less than they were when the homes were purchased. Cath Williams, co-founder of the NLC, adds “Surely the Government needs to understand how and why these onerous leases and ridiculous permission fees were implemented. Who knew what and when? What links exist between the developers and the investment companies that bought the freeholds from them soon after the houses were bought? How many onerous leases are there across the country?”

The Government has committed to leasehold reform and a ban on the sale of new leasehold houses. Katie explains “While we welcome the Government’s announcements on the ban of new homes going forward they need to understand that they need to help those of us already caught up in this nightmare. They are creating a two-tier system for those of us with existing leaseholds.”

Jo Darbyshire, co-founder of the NLC, owns a Taylor Wimpey home with ground rent that doubles every 10 years and has recently been offered the option to convert the doubling ground rent to a ground rent that increases in line with RPI.

Jo said:

“Taylor Wimpey have been very clever in publicising that they are solving the problem with onerous ground rents, but my ground rent stops doubling after 50 years, whereas the RPI increases apply for the whole term of my 250 year lease. Over the term of my lease the total ground rent payable under doubling is c. £2m. If RPI remains at the same rate as today the total ground rent payable over the term of my lease increases to £25.7m. And if RPI was 5% for the term of the lease, a jaw dropping £930m. This is not a fix; we are just kicking the ground rent bomb down the road. If I accept the offer, which could make buying my freehold cheaper, I also have to sign a settlement agreement that could prevent me from giving evidence to a Select Committee. That’s one of the reasons that we need one now.”

Katie Kendrick, founder of the NLC says:

“Leaseholders feel they have nothing more they can loose but have everything to gain from getting their voices heard. This is the best opportunity in decades to influence real change. The Leasehold Scandal has touched so many people in so many ways it’s a tangled web.”

The NLC have made a video to highlight some examples of how the leasehold scandal has impacted on people’s lives.

Katie states:

“We wanted to illustrate how the Leasehold Scandal affects the entire age continuum, houses and flats, doubling leases and RPI Leases. We have tried to capture the emotional impact this is having on peoples lives. It is a living nightmare for so many people. The impact on peoples mental health and well-being is immense”

The NLC would encourage people to help share this video along with the petition so we can reach a wider audience.

Related posts:

APPG tells MPs: Ban ground rents. Introduce commonhold. Summons housebuilders to select committee. End rip-off ‘fleasehold’ permission fees on managed estates Dominic Raab: freeze doubling ground rents and get housebuilders to offer proper redress, says National Leasehold Campaign Labour deputy Tom Watson joins APPG on leasehold reform – but select committee STILL won’t call in the housebuilders Pathetic efforts by plc housebuilders to address ground rent scandal exposed on TV Sky told ground rent scams were ‘a bit more cash’ for beleaguered housebuilders

Filed Under: Latest News, National Leasehold Campaign, News Tagged With: Katie Kendrick, National Leasehold Campaign, NLC, Petition

Everything important

Abacus Land 4 Limited Adriatic Land AgeUK Alexander Bastin Alex Ellison Alok Sharma Amanda Gourlay Anchor Andrew Selous MP Anthony Essien APPG ARCO ARHM ARMA ARMA-Q Baroness Gardner Barratt BBC R4 You and Yours Bellway Benjamin Mire Beth Rudolf Blythe Court Bob Bessell Bob Smytherman Bovis Homes Brandon Lewis British Property Federation Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation Campaign for Housing in Later Life Canary Riverside CARL Cath Williams CentreForum Chainbow Charter Quay Cherry Jones Churchill Retirement Living Circle Residential Management Limited Cirrus Citiscape Clive Betts MP CMA Commonhold Competition and Markets Authority Conveyancing Association Countryside Properties plc Countrywide Countrywide Estate Management Court of Appeal Cypress Place Daily Mail David Glass DCLG Deep Sagar Dennis Jackson Dudley Joiner E&J Capital Partners Ed Davey Elim Court Eric Pickles Estates and Management Esther Rantzen exit fees Federation of Private Residents Associations Financial Times FirstPort Flood Re forfeiture FPRA Galliard Gary Murphy Gavin Barwell George Osborne Glyn Jackson Grant Shapps Grenfell cladding ground rent ground rents Ground Rents Income Fund plc Help To Buy Heysmoor Heights Homeground Management Limited HomeOwners Alliance House of Lords IRPM Israel Moskovitz James Brokenshire MP James Driscoll James Tuttiett James Wyatt Janet Entwistle Janice Northover JB Leitch Jeffrey Fairburn Jim Fitzpatrick Jim Fitzpatrick MP Joanne Darbyshire John Christodoulou John Fenwick Joseph Gurvits Justin Bates Justin Madders MP Justin Tomlinson Katie Kendrick Keith Hill Laceys Lakeside Law Commision Law Commission LEASE Leasehold Advisory Service leasehold houses Leasehold Solutions Lendlease London Assembly Long Harbour Lord Best Louie Burns Mainstay Margaret Anne Kirmond Mari Knowles Mark Prisk Martin Boyd Martin Paine McCarthy and Stone Mercia Investment Properties Limited Mere Court Michelle Banks Mulberry Mews Mundy National Leasehold Campaign New Capital Quay NHBC Nigel Bannister Nigel Glen Nigel Wilkins Oakland Court OFT Parthenia Patrick Collinson Paula Higgins Persimmon Pete Redfern Peverel Philip Rainey QC Phillip Rainey QC Plantation Wharf Private Eye Professor Nicholas Hopkins Prostitutes Redrow Regent Court Rendall and Rittner Retirement Retirement Security Limited RICS right to manage Right To Manage Federation Rob Plumb Roger Southam RTM RTMF Sajid Javid Sally Keeble Sebastian O’Kelly SFO Shula Rich Simon van Houten Siobhan McGrath Sir Ed Davey Sir Peter Bottomley Sonia McColl OBE Southwark Steve Morgan Sunday Times Susan Wood Tanfield Chambers Taylor Wimpey Tchenguiz Tchenguiz Family Trust Team The Daily Telegraph The Guardian The Sunday Times The Times Triplerose Trust Property Management Vallea Court Vincent Tchenguiz West India Quay Will Astor William Waldorf Astor Y and Y Management Yianis Group You and Yours

Contact LKP

Need help?

LKPhelp2The leasehold game is weighted against ordinary home-owning leaseholders, who aren’t professional players. LKP was set up to redress the balance, to help you win your disputes or at least avoid disasters.

If you have a leasehold problem, you can email sok@leaseholdknowledge or take a chance on calling 07808 328 230.

Or fill out this form, which ensures that you provide the essential information.

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Comments

  1. sussex says

    June 15, 2018 at 12:45 pm

    Good work!

    Let’s hope MPs will respond. My own will not. She writes that she does not see how she can help by writing to anyone on my behalf on this occasion.

    That’s odd: I thought she was there to represent her constituents’ interests in Parliament.

  2. linda says

    June 15, 2018 at 1:18 pm

    This is a great responce, wow 10500 !!! lets hope the goverment now take notice and act !!!!
    This leasehold scandal had got to be one of the biggest rip offs this country has ever seen !!! it must be investigated thoroughly and these develepers have to answer for thier actions – this is and has destroyed many families lives . Well done everyone

  3. Chris Pearce says

    June 15, 2018 at 2:39 pm

    Once you dig into the detail of what the developers have done you can see how bad this scandal is. They have obviously been in cahoots with eachother to make sure the competition amongst themselves is the same and that it looks like ‘normal’ behaviour and practice to sell new build homes as leasehold. The financial and emotional cost to families across the nation is huge and we need a full inquiry to fully understand what they’ve done.

  4. Gary says

    June 15, 2018 at 3:40 pm

    Try reading the ground rent investors marketing material. Guaranteed 6% 7% or 8% income stream, revenue from service charge profit share in things like maintenance permissions etc, compliant leaseholders, long term capital growth, instant profit income from lease variations, built in forfeitures especially with unaffordable doubling ground rents, a supportive legal, political and tax infrastructure……

    I can’t see this gravy train changing isn’t the whole point of current day government to enable more of the same whatsoever warm words they occasionally offer…

    After all we are now all in the safe hands of the Law Commission….

  5. Nikki says

    June 20, 2018 at 11:31 am

    Well done Katie Kendrick and NLC and a great response.

    Time for more MPs to get involved and support fairness for millions of leaseholders

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