… but is the housebuilder going to sting them for £500 deposit?
A young couple in Plymouth have walked away from buying a Persimmon leasehold house believing it to be “a property trap”.
Zoe and James Naylor were set to buy on Persimmon’s Harford Mews, in Ivybridge, and had paid a deposit of £1,500.
According to a report in the Plymouth Herald, the housebuilder will try to keep hold of £500.
Meanwhile, Persimmon CEO Jeff Fairburn is in line for an incredulous £112 million bonus – not so much a fat cat as a morbidly obese one that has eaten the sofa.
The couple were told they would be buying the leasehold, with the option to buy the freehold … but only after two years.
This is, in fact, their statutory right, although Persimmon can – and does – sell the freehold to leasehold houses at any point.
The couple claim that there was no mention of that agreement in their formal contract.
Photographed in the local paper with the banners of the National Leasehold Campaign, the couple were wise to cheating plc housebuilders flogging off the freeholds to murky and anonymous investors who hide their beneficial ownership behind nominee directors.
They had learned that these freehold investors – Adriatic Land, E&J Capital, Fairwim and the rest – then demand tens of thousands more from leaseholders.
The Naylors are now warning others of what they think is a ploy to deliberately “mis-sell” new homes.
Persimmon told The Herald the deal was “clearly explained”.
But the couple claim there was nothing in writing.
Simon Perks, regional managing director for Persimmon Homes South West, is quoted saying:
“The customer paid a £1,000 reservation free and a £500 clean and tidy fee for the Part Exchange property they were trading in.
“The customer is entitled to 50 per cent of the reservation fee and the return in full of their clean and tidy fee.”
LKP urges the Naylors to get in touch with us: it is a matter to be raised in Parliament if Persimmon tries to trouser £500 after a sensible couple pull out of a damaging leasehold purchase where the precise terms of the undertaking by Persimmon regarding the freehold were not made in writing.
Related posts:
‘You weren’t mis-sold your leasehold house and I am keeping my £45m bonus’, is the message of Persimmon CEO to Bluebell Meadow
Guardian sticks with new-build ground rent scandal, while LKP advises Persimmon home buyers to walk away
Leasehold house owners thank Brokenshire after Persimmon sells freehold to leasehold house for less than £3,750
No van man here: Persimmon bans first-time buyer from parking his van at his leasehold house
Buyer pulls out of Persimmon £219,995 leasehold house purchase
Ripped-off leaseholders bring protest to central Manchester
This makes me rather angry, because these buyers would never see the freehold. It’s so easy to by pass the RIght of first refusal – it’s almost laughable.
Getting back their deposit is not enough, they should get compensation, for there is time and effort and emotional investment that goes into buying ones first home,
The government is not dealing with real issues like the horrific housing shortage. Radical and much needed leasehold reform which will improve people’s lives and give leaseholders control of their homes. Instead they waste time discussing if we should relax the ban on fox hunting or go after insurance fraud for whiplash. Why not go after insurance fraud on service charges? And back date it,
Hear hear! We must be relentless and keep up the pressure. I have experienced for the first time the grubby venal antics of unscrupulous managing agents and their compliant questionable surveyors/ lawyers. I have found it absolutely shocking! I am surprised most of them haven’t been banged up.
The positive aspect of my introduction to this murky world of bottom feeders is that has made me determined to do all I can to end the Leasehold racket .
Cont…AND the criminal sharp practices of Managing Agents. The Government must legislate that Managing Agents are regulated. It is shocking that convicted fraudsters ,thieves , con men / women and wannabe Rachmanists are allowed to set up an agency overnight and begin fleecing trusting leaseholders.