News archive

Will government dump Dame Judith Hackitt’s £60,000 a year building safety managers job creation scheme?

Leaseholders helped over building safety crisis is now a ‘bizarre lucky dip’, say MPs

Israel Moskovitz fails to get £30 each from leaseholders for his ground rent demands (as barrister Rebecca Cattermole, acting pro bono, sees off Justin Bates in the Upper Tribunal)

Housing association L&Q abandons rip-off doubling ground rents after CMA prodding

John Christodoulou fails to dump £355,000 gym debt onto the Canary Riverside leaseholders. Insurance commissions to be disclosed. And judge criticises his ‘extremely unattractive’ approach to tribunal

Ted Baillieu: Your misconceived Twitter thread over the ‘polluter pays’ amendment should be removed

After cladding leaseholders issue damning report into housing associations’ response, housing minister Lord Greenhalgh lashes out at ‘sanctity of social housing providers that have built rubbish’

Are you overpaying for your lease extension?

The Building Safety Bill: what do the government’s amendments mean for leaseholders?

Hallmark Property Group seeks to put 44 flats worth £15m on top of a block with ACM cladding, waking watch, a B2 rating after EWS1 … and 75 utterly stressed out leaseholders

Sucking a lemon, the Leasehold Advisory Service notes the ground rent Act – which it did absolutely nothing to assist

Not waiting for Gove: Kelly Tolhurst MP urges freeholder Israel Moskovitz to halt court action against leaseholders over £2m cladding and building safety costs

Gove calls on complacent FCA to stop the leasehold insurance rip-offs, and urges the CMA to get stuck in as well

Morello Quarter leaseholders stall ruinous cost of waking watch, but how useful is court decision for others?

As new ground rents ban gets Queen’s assent, LKP urges leaseholders to echo calls to action in its submission to government consultation on the next reforms …

The Building Safety Bill: what’s next and what can leaseholders do?

Open letter to Taylor Wimpey: If you cared about sorting out your ground rent mess, you can pay back the money your own ex-customers have wasted over this scandal

Russian tanks on the move …. but already flat owners face 500% energy bill increases with no price cap protection – all because blocks are commercial buildings. For the freeholders’ convenience, of course

Taylor Wimpey to pay fire safety works on sites built over past 20 years. (But what’s the catch, as with their tricksy doubling ground plan?)

Making the polluter pay

Property tribunal tightens up how it appoints section 24 court-appointed managers after the Richard Davidoff debacle

Gove backs cladding leaseholders in urging investor Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) to make UK housebuilders pay for build defects

Settlers Court: for the first time the Supreme Court considers right to manage. The result? Leaseholders get a battering over communal area management

Time for leaseholders in mixed-use sites to take control

In Gove we trust, but developers can pay cash

Reverse ferret: Taylor Wimpey NOW agrees to sort out re-sale buyers of its rip-off ground rent leasehold properties

CMA forces Taylor Wimpey to sort out rip-off ten-year doubling ground rents

Richard Davidoff of ABC Estates expelled from IRPM

Two ex-employees of ABC Estates fail to stop Richard Davidoff defamation action over critical Google reviews with fake names (and ‘face £36,000 costs so far’)

Vicky Pollard property tribunal: yes, but … no, but … Yes, you have been ripped off over insurance. But no, we can’t do anything about it

Well, can Sir Keith Lindblom do anything about Richard Davidoff’s continuing role as an officer of the property tribunal?

Data tells us sprinklers work, waking watch doesn’t, and freehold punters aren’t picking up the tab, Martin Boyd tells ODI

Shadow housing brief passes from Mike Amesbury to Matthew Pennycook