… it is buying back freeholds from investors
… E&J Estates says it won’t buy more freeholds to leasehold houses
… Oh, and it ‘fully supports’ the government’s consultation over the scandal
UPDATE: It seems the deal only applies to 4-5 sites where E&J Capital Partners are the freeholders AND where ground rents double every ten years only.
Those Countryside Properties plc sites where ground rents double every 15 years appear to be excluded from the deal. So a question mark hangs over The Mount, Mill Hill, in north London, for example.
Also, the deals have not been done with Adriatic Land, which would affect Silver Point, in Edmonton, north London, where the freeholder is Adriatic Land.
LKP has asked Ian Sutcliffe, CEO of Countryside Properties plc, for a statement and explanation.
Ditto Pete Redfern, CEO of Taylor Wimpey, regarding its inadequate ground rent review scheme.
Ditto London Harbour / Adriatic Land for an explanation of its policy.
Joey Gardiner of Building.co.uk gets Countryside CEO to explain the company’s policy
Countryside becomes second major to shell out in housebuilding’s leasehold scandal
Chief executive says buying back freeholds on onerous leaseholds ‘is the right thing to do’ Housebuilder Countryside Properties has become the second major housebuilder to come up with a rescue package for those customers it sold leasehold homes with onerous ground rents.
Countryside Properties plc, which is up to its neck in selling leasehold houses and flats with doubling ground rents, has cracked.
A letter dated August 4 from E&J Estates tells leaseholders that it has sold the freehold to their leasehold house back to the developers.
“It is our understanding that Countryside will be in touch with you very shortly,” it says.
The statement from E&J, part of E&J Capital Partners based in Winchester, says:
“We are writing to your with regard to the recent media coverage of the industry wide practice of selling properties on a leasehold basis and the subsequent concerns that have been raised on leases with 10-year doubling ground rent clauses.
“For ourselves we have resolved not to purchase any further leasehold houses and we fully support the Government’s leasehold reform consultation.”
Katie Kendrick
Brilliant !!,
Yet another step in the right direction. The tide is definitely turning.
However what we want to see is ALL developers to buy back our freeholds and sell them onto the leaseholders at the price originally quoted.
Taylor Wimpey also need to take note of Countryside’s actions today. Taylor Wimpey have achieved nothing so far. They have given little feedback to leaseholders since they announced the assistance scheme several months ago, which was nothing short of a “clever publicity stunt”. The media continues to paint Taylor Wimpey in a good light saying they have set aside this £130 million to sort it. This is absolute garbage. They are negotiating with the freeholds to change leases to RPI (without leaseholders consent to do so) but they will still remain with the freeholder they sold them too.
THIS IS NOT WHAT LEASEHOLDERS WANT!! When are they going to Listen !!
Leaseholders want out of this web of corruption that is leasehold and the only way out is to purchase our freeholds. We want all freeholds to be sold to us at the original price quoted before the greedy developers sold the ground from beneath us (Literally).
I am speaking on behalf of 6500 members of the National Leasehold Campaign (NLC).
Paddy
No lawyer self but I can’t see how TW can negotiate to change the terms of a lease with one party only. For good or bad. It is a signed and sealed deed and contract. What miss I?
Louise O'Riordan
It is good news however it is only because they have been caught with their pants down that they are making these changes. Had they not been exposed they would continue as they are – pulling our pants down.
Please do not be fooled into thinking these companies suddenly got some morals, they are simply trying to minimise damage that they have caused. They have profited st our expense. It’s now time to return the goods to their rightful owners. Handover the freehold minus onerous and restrictive covenants to the leaseholders that are imprisoned in homes they can’t modify or sell and tied into lengthy mortgages and rental agreements.
These small acts to reduce shame are not enough. We need more. Much more to right the wrongs leaseholders have suffered
Ian Murphy
This a brilliant step for them. They have done the right and moral thing and other developers, especially Taylor Wimpey should take note. All Taylor Wimpey have done is a lip service but not actually seen any true evidence that they are really wanting to help the customers.
Taylor Wimpey are trying to convert our ground rents to RPI and not actually sell the leaseholds to the owners of the house for the price that we were all told we could buy them when we asked the Taylor Wimpey sales representative and without any clauses. What they done is make our houses worthless and make us feel like we have made the biggest mistake of our lives.
Action needs to be taken soon so we can all move on with our lives and not dread the ransom our leaseholds have on us.
Baz Jafar
This seems to be a complete u-turn from the tight lipped and defiant response that my neighbours and I recieved from Mr. Sutcliffe, CEO of Countryside Properties, just weeks ago when we queried our doubling ground rents with him and appealed to their better nature to admit they had wronged us.
There seems to be a lot of unanswered questions that he now needs to answer: Countryside Properties have never admitted to my neighbours and I that there was a problem with the doubling ground rents, or that they have done something untoward by selling us leases with such onerous terms.
(We were sold apartments+parking spaces with separate, 10 year doubling ground rents. A 1 bedroom flat will attract a ground rent of £6,400 per annum in <50 years, and £2,200 extra per annum on a parking space if one is held).
Countryside now needs to clarify if this embarrassing u turn is now their company policy across the board, and whether they now admit that selling properties with doubling ground rents was unacceptable and unethical.
Countryside Properties need to communicate IMMEDIATELY and CLEARLY to ALL affected leaseholders (whether house owners or flat owners) with AN APOLOGY for the distress and financial uncertainty they have created, information on HOW they are planning to resolve the ground rent situation at ALL affected sites, and if the plan is to repurchase freeholds from investors for all sites, HOW LONG this will take and what the propose to replace the terms with.
In my humble opinion, for the distress, upset and financial uncertainty they have caused, Countryside should REMOVE any doubling clauses on our leases and set them to a peppercorn rate for the duration of ALL affected leases. This would be the only sensible option.
Kim
Baz I agree that Countryside should and must remove the onerous GR clauses in your and your fellow leaseholders leases and set it at peppercorn. Countryside did no less then shaft their customers by introducing these clauses. well, they have been find out and are furiously back-pedalling.I am quite sure that they will have very little alternative but to rectify the wrong done to you et al. You state that this is a “Complete U-Turn ‘ compared to the CEO’s previous stance regarding this issue, this is possibly due to the fact that he has finally realised that leaseholders have had enough of being treated like cash cows and are getting ready to fight! We are many they are few. PEOPLE POWER.
Temi Alanamu
This is a great FIRST STEP. Now the freeholds need to sold to homeowners at a fair price with all the restrictive covenants and fees removed. No more conditional freeholds.
Persimmon homes should take note as they are conspicuously silent on the topic and have refused to answer any enquires or even acknowledge that there is a problem.
Joe
Javid has said ground rents are feudal and he will make them zero which is far better than what Taylor Wimpey and Countryside are supposedly offering. The devil is in the detail which as always with leasehold is sadly lacking.
I have not seen anything that says the freehold will be sold to tenants at the original price minus restrictive covenants or that ground rents will be zero or that service charges will be reasonable. Ground rent plus RPI is potentially a massive problem if inflation picks up. The list of problems goes on and on.
Leasehold reform
There is a simple way to solve these problems, Since we all agree with Mr Javid, that leasehold is feudal, we need to abolish it. No ground rents, no RPI, no peppercorn and no bullshit. And leaseholders get to appoint qualified managing agents, rather than have the freeholders long lost cousin., getting us all into mysterious contracts, while ‘Managing’ the building. Who knows we may even see an improvement in housing standards.
There is no need for the freeholder to ‘grant’ permission for extensions and the like. In a democracy, the local council can do that. There is no role for the freeholder except for milking the poor cows. (Sorry I meant the poor leaseholders)
RIchard
I agree, the legislation should be in ASAP, because if developers offer us to purchase the freehold is one thing, but we are already paying in during leasehold and the longer we wait the more profits the fatcats are making. Also we need to know where we stand and this cannot be forever, some of us would wish to sell their property and are stuck in limbo, which is not only immoral , but I think criminal.
For developers to be sorry? I don’t give a s……it about it!
RIchard
Ah, forgot to mention, if we are offered to buy the freehold, it should be at a price MINUS all the money we paid in during the leasehold period!
Jo Darbyshire
At last Countryside are taking steps in the right direction. All developers need to do this – buy back the freeholds and sell them to us at the same price we could have bought them for at point of sale less ground rent paid to date. They also need to ensure that any onerous permission fees and restrictive covenants are removed so that we are truly freehold home owners. This is the only acceptable way forwards out of the mess that is of their own making.
Katie Kendrick
Totally Agree.
Leaseholders are not going to accept this for any longer. Enough Is Enough.
Chris
Wow this is more like it, unlike Taylor Wimpey’ s effort which has been nothing more that a paper thin PR stunt to try and deflect the flak from the recent business practices.
Over to you Taylor Wimpey. Surely it’s time for a real solution for your customers?
E Cullen
I agree with Temi that ‘This is a great FIRST STEP. Now the freeholds need to sold to homeowners at a fair price with all the restrictive covenants and fees removed. No more conditional freeholds.’
I am really pleased that the feudal system of leasehold is being challenged with regard to new build houses.
I am hopeful that, in time, the whole leasehold tenure can be reformed to prevent the current wholesale extortion wreaked by freeholders and managing agents on many, many leaseholders who wrongly believed that by ‘buying’ their home that they owned it and would be allowed to live peacefully in it rather than being tenants whose tenure can be precarious and stressful in the hands of greedy and unscrupulous freeholders.
Adrian English
Now for Taylor Wimpey to grow a pair and do the same! Help to buy scheme got me on the housing ladder but should of known there would be a catch!!
Lesley
Well done E&J for making this first step….. and we await the other developers to follow suit.
A next urgent step must be to address unreasonable restrictive covenants and extortionate admin fees for same – along with the bullying tactics employed to imtimidate leaseholders into submission.
Louise Glover
Another rung up the ladder! That’s what we want, to be able to buy the freehold without any convenants at the cost it would have been at point of sale. I could have bought then but I was lied to by TW and their so called recommended solicitor that it couldn’t be bought until two years.
My daughter can then have her ‘Happy Ever After’ home that she has worked and saved so hard for knowing that she owns 100% of the house and the land it stands on.
Come on Taylor Wimpey so the right thing and get us our freeholds back!!!
Dan Hamer
This is superb news. If Taylor Wimpey have anything at all about them they should do precisely the same. It certainly sets a precedent for the industry as a whole and shows that E&J estates are willing to sell the leases back.
Over to you Peter Redfearn – now you can show all the leaseholders how much you care by doing the same and selling the leases back to us at the original price!
Mrs Smith
This is a good step in the right direction for leaseholders but more needs to be done. I would like to see other developers take this step and let leasholders have there freeholds. Not just the leasholders with the doubling groundrent but also the leaseholders with rpi groundrents need to be included in this. There are far too many other ways for the freeholders to make money out of people dishonestly with leasehold.
Ash
Taylor Wimpey MUST follow suit.
Taylor Wimpey also sold our freeholds to E an J, if countryside can buy them back, so can TAYLOR WIMPEY
We do not want Our leases to be converted to RPI, WE WANT TO OWN OUR LEASE!!!!!!!!!
TAYLOR WIMPEY MUST DO THE SAME AS COUNTRYSIDE!!!!!
Wendy
Great move in the right direction, now for more to follow suit, all new houses should be sold as freehold in the first instance, and all caught up in the leasehold scandal deserveso the chance to purchase a covenant free freehold to their property at a realistic price.
Helen Green
Great news! I’m pleased E & J estates are doing the right thing! Let’s hope this sets a precedent!
Feudalism has had its day, it doesn’t work in modern times because people won’t put up with it! Why shouldn’t we own our properties outright? Why should third parties have a vested interest in our homes? There is no doubt that the Leasehold campaign, will change the course of history in home ownership. Furthermore, when the bill is passed in parliament- they should call it Kendrick’s law!
Kim
And The LKP chaps Sebastian and Martin should receive a Knighthood!!!!
Helen Green
Yes I totally agree! Quite right!
katie kendrick
TOTALLY AGREE !!!
and we will put them forward for one.
Kim
Excellent! I am sure that we will all lobby for LKP and the fantastic Katie Kendrick to be deservedly honoured for the fantastic fight they have fought on behalf of leaseholders. It is very easy to whinge and do nothing constructive regarding ‘issues of the day’. The aforementioned have stepped up to the plate and are affecting change. Huge respect to them.
Craig Martin
Great news- maybe this is a sign that a house builder actually has some sort of morality & ethics?!
I wish the same would happen for the Springhead Parkway (Gravesend in Kent) leasehold properties… Leaseholds are outdated, and daylight robbery. Properties (inc flats & Coach Houses) should always be sold as freehold- and if there is a substantial reason why they cannot be freehold, then sold as ‘Common hold’. Nothing else is acceptable.
Llyr Mercer
A tiny step in the correct general direction however this smacks of paying lip service given what HASN’T been included.
What needs to happen is for leasehold to cease in its entirety and for freehold to revert to current owners of the building (be that owner occupant or private landlord). Sadly I can’t see this happening as the sums of money involved and the amount of it offshore will preclude this. The fact that so many of these are tied in to a government Help To Buy scheme also adds to the unfairness of it all. I continue to despair at my and other poor mugs’ situations
Doubling in January
Great news, this really sets a precedent. I implore TW to follow suit, or if not for the government to force them to. We are due to double in September and a change to RPI is not what we want. We want our freehold at a fair price.