By Harry Scoffin The property section of The Times has this month been leading on calls to end opaque insurance arrangements for leasehold blocks. In a sign of how leasehold is now dominating the news agenda, the title’s investment editor Mark Atherton has published on the issue of secret commissions over two consecutive Saturdays. Leaseholders […]
Ending ground rents will hurt leaseholders, says Long Harbour …
… which won’t say who owns freeholds it manages A last gasp effort to save ground rents was made by Long Harbour executive director Richard Silva in the recent issue of News on the Block. The scandal of onerous ground rents has been driving the call for reform while “only affecting a small fraction of […]
The i newspaper links leasehold ‘slums of the future’ to Help To Buy and the Tchenguiz Family Trust
By Harry Scoffin Housing journalist Vicky Spratt revealed last week that the controversial permitted development rights (PDR) policy is being supported by taxpayer money. In an investigation for i, Ms Spratt showed how developers have been converting former office blocks into ‘rabbit hutch’ flats using PDR rules. The research has found that the micro-homes, some […]
Victoria Derbyshire Show reports the toll of leasehold miseries on mental health
By Harry Scoffin Leaseholding and poor mental health was the lead story on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme on Friday. Hot on the heels of the government’s announcement of a ban on leasehold houses and new legislation to set ground rent at zero for future flats, the current affairs show explored the problems faced by […]
Leaseholders to sue government over fire safety measures
But housing minister says further funding must come from the building owners. (Hasn’t that been tried before?) By Harry Scoffin The Guardian reports that leaseholders across 12 sites in Manchester are preparing to take the government to court over their policy towards fire safety problems with privately-owned tower blocks. Although government has recently pledged £200m […]
Now it is Shanly Homes dumping its customers into unsellable homes
A ripe candidate for the mis-selling investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority, perhaps? Shanly Homes – owned by patriarch Michael Shanly – is the latest house builder revealed to be dumping its customers in unsellable homes. Today’s article in the Daily Mail features a couple in Berkshire who bought a £300,000 flat with £500pa […]
Taylor Wimpey’s Pete Redfern tells FT ‘we got it wrong on ground rents’
By Harry Scoffin Pete Redfern, the chief executive of Taylor Wimpey, this week told the Financial Times that his company “got it wrong” on leaseholds. The newspaper reports that between 2007 and 2011, Taylor Wimpey sold properties with onerous leasehold terms, including ground rents that doubled every 10 years. The terms had the effect of […]
Have young buyers woken up to the great leasehold hoax? Looks like it …
By Harry Scoffin The BBC yesterday reported that first-time buyers are now actively shunning flats across London and the south-east of England. Flats out of fashion with first-time buyers First-time buyers are bypassing flats and moving straight into houses – leading to a fall in the cost of apartments, official figures suggest. The cost of […]
BBC R4 MoneyBox hears that a CMA mis-selling ruling could see leaseholders suing plc house builders. Hope so!
Sebastian O’Kelly, director of LKP, told the BBC R4 MoneyBox programme this morning that there was at last a chance of bringing the leasehold scandal to the door of the house builders. It the Competition and Markets Authority rules that there was mis-selling then “the goal is open” for compensation class actions by leaseholders who […]
Estate agents say extortionate charges are blighting the lives of 10% of leaseholders
By Harry Scoffin As National Leasehold Campaign launches its own survey on mental health, the extraordinary National Association of Estate Agents has come up with another research snippet claiming 1 in 10 leaseholders face blighted lives owing to predatory over-charging. The article appeared in the Mirror today: 1 in 10 leaseholders say extortionate costs are […]
Board ousted at St Katherine’s Dock after whopping £5.5m major works bill
‘Fiefdom’ leaseholder directors ‘tried to make fellow committee members sign non-disclosure agreements’ By Harry Scoffin Enfranchised leaseholders at the South Quay Estate in Wapping, an exclusive neighbourhood, have ousted their entire board in protest at spiralling service charges. Annual service charges are £4,000, which local MP, Jim Fitzpatrick – patron of LKP and chair of […]
Press reports how freehold doubled in price to £15,900 after being sold to Landmark Investments
The wider media have taken up the story of the Elan Homes leaseholder whose freehold doubled in price to £15,900 four months after being sold to ground rent speculators Landmark Investments Ian Rice’s case was reported by LKP on April 18, but this week it appeared in both the Liverpool Echo and the Mirror. Freehold […]
Peterborough by-election Brexit Party candidate was director of E&J Ground Rents
Mike Greene, the Brexit Party’s candidate who is expected to win the Peterborough byelection tomorrow is a former director of E&J Ground Rents. This means he was a former business partner of Winchester-based James Tuttiett, who has turned E&J Capital Partners into one of the biggest players in the residential freehold game. Mr Greene’s former […]
Government will cave in to retirement house builders over ground rents, says Times
What does this say about setting new ones to zero? The government is poised to exclude retirement house builders from the much delayed ban on ground rents. Headed by leading retirement builder McCarthy and Stone and Churchill Retirement (which is privately owned by the McCarthy family), retirement house builders have been lobbying hard for an […]
Brokenshire announces £200m Grenfell cladding removal fund – hours after APPG meeting of leaseholders
UPDATING … A £200 million fund to remove Grenfell cladding from private blocks was announced this morning by Communities Secretary James Brokenshire on the BBCR4 Today programme. It can be heard at 07.10 here This action has been long predicted by LKP, believing that ministers’ appeals to freeholders and developers to “do the decent thing” […]
Leaseholder and judge Suki Johal wins war over her patio that has cost £250,000
Suki Johal, a deputy district judge, has won a three-year battle over her potted plants, hanging baskets and paving on the patio of her £1.5 million flat in Wimbledon, south west London. The landlord, a leaseholders’ controlled residents management company, argued that Suki Johal, 51, was in breach of lease for the patio and had […]
