UPDATE January 2 2019: MHCLG officials inform LKP today that the email to leaseholders saying that they had submitted blank response information to the leasehold reform consultation was sent out “in error”.
They are being contacted again today. Officials informed LKP:
“We want to reassure you and the APPG that we want to hear views from all those who sought to respond to the consultation – this is extremely important to Ministers and the Department to help us get the detail of the policies right.
“Therefore, we are contacting those individuals from whom we have received a blank return so they can submit their views. We will give them a further 3 weeks and ask for responses by 25 January 2019.
“I also want to let you know that we have already received hundreds of fully or partially completed responses from individuals which are being considered as part of our analysis of responses. We want to make sure everyone who wanted to provide a response is heard, and their views will be included in the analysis.”
Leaseholders’ concerns gone missing from Government consultation
“Therefore I think the whole validity of the consultation is questionable and it should be re-opened for all, not just the ones they received that were blank.” An MHCLG spokesman said: “We are determined to reform the leasehold sector for the better to support more homeowners, which is why we recently ran a technical consultation seeking views on the detail of our proposals.
Government consultation responses are missing
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government has confirmed some responses to the leasehold reform consultation have gone missing. The government department had launched a consultation last year, which ran from October 15 to November 26, seeking feedback on how to implement the government’s reforms to the leasehold system in England.
Responses by leaseholders to the leasehold reform consultation of the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government have turned out to be blank and won’t be considered.
The National Leasehold Campaign says: “We are receiving messages from many concerned leaseholders that they have received an email from the Ministry for Housing saying their response to the consultation will not be counted as their responses to the consultation were empty.
“Many of these leaseholders have assured us they did complete the consultation questions and didn’t just complete their names and addresses as today’s email states.
“This is very concerning.”
It is not known how many responses have gone missing.
Katie Kendrick, co-founder of the NLC, said: “Myself and Jo Darbyshire met the Ministry for Housing leasehold team before Christmas and they mentioned that approximately 1,000 responses had been received without a response in the content areas. They only gave people’s names and addresses.
“They asked us if we had tried to increase the number of submissions by encouraging people to do this to get up the numbers up. To which we responded that this was not the case.
“It appears there may if been a blip in the system and it’s unfair that leaseholders views will not be heard.”
Leaseholders have spend hours of unpaid time completing government consultation after consultation – while monetisers in the sector are remunerated for their submissions by employers.
Now it appears that a sizeable quantity, and possibly a very large number indeed, have simply been lost by the ministry’s automated response system.
Similar problems were reported with the Communities Select Committee website response system, and leaseholders instead sent in emails.
It is absolutely scandalous that leaseholders’ responses are not considered, while the doors to civil servants and ministers appear to be wide open to paid lobbyists in the sector (who repeatedly decline to meet with consumers).
This needs sorting out urgently.
Those who provided only names an addresses need to be contacted to complete their consultation immediately, or the consultation period needs to be extended.
Related posts:
Responses to the government consultation
MPs tell government consultation: End leasehold houses. Scrap new ground rents. Ignore pleas for self-regulation. Ban Help To Buy on rip-off leaseholds
Law Commission consultation on enfranchisement
Law Commission sets out how it hopes to create a better deal for leaseholders – and look at alternatives
Countdown to take part in Sajid Javid’s consultation
Leasehold house owners thank Brokenshire after Persimmon sells freehold to leasehold house for less than £3,750
How can it be a consultation with leaseholders when only 15,000 out of 4m are completing them?
Stitch up, brewery and piss-up are words floating around here at the moment.
Because not everyone is wise to the scandal as of yet. The numbers will only continue to rise as people’s ground rents and service charges begin to soar and begin to loose their homes due to related financial difficulties.
It really is worrying. I understand human errors occur, but with something so sensitive as this, it’s alarming. Is this how much government officials are bothered about this subject that they aren’t careful in what they are doing?
Leasehold in its entirety is already complex and many questions asked in these consultations seem to be aimed at trained professionals. So for an error like this to happen is not only disheartening but frustrating. The amount of time people take to try and understand the questions and respond to as many as they possibly can is just a indication as to how bad this leasehold scandal is and how much a need for a major reform is needed, if not a complete ban of leasehold.
I hope the government will wise up to what scandal is currently in place and have the balls to act and present a reform suitable to all the millions of leaseholders.
I’m having serious reservations that the MHCLG are being open and honest. Tired to the back teeth of filling in more consultations whilst watching resolve by ministers erode by the minute, all the while my freeholde suts on his hands and grows richer.
I agree. This is how I feel about this debacle. I question how ethical the Ministry is being.
I don’t understand why this fleece scandal has been going on for so long. Stories have been told to those that will listen and how peoples lives are affected on a daily basis and yet we are still made to fill out huge levels of documentation with wording that is enough to confuse anyone which makes this stressful in its self please someone just listen to the voices you have heard and do what is right by hard working home owners. Let’s get this thing sorted NOW . From yet another frustrated home owner
I am an experienced teacher with a degree and yet struggle to comprehend or complete this form, which implies it’s written by legal experts FOR legal experts!! Additionally, I value my spare-time and spending literally hours completing forms which may or may not be considered is wholly unacceptable. It appears to be a deliberate ploy to discourage submission from the irrelevant leaseholder. Typical David vs Goliath ! Might is right ??? NOT! Please sit up and listen but ASK the right questions NOT the wrong ones! Why are ordinary working people suffering through no fault of their own? While the rich get richer ?
WOW. I entirely agree with your comments about how the consultation was written. It was very hard to understand how best to answer the questions
Jeni, When Government does not want to know they use outside bodies that they can blame them if it goes wrong.
It does imply it was written by legal experts. We all value our spare time but Leasehold Reform has been on the cards since 1996 and then again in 2002 each have not worked as not all of the regulations were allowed or made Law.
It could be a deliberate ploy to discourage submission from the irrelevant leaseholder. Typical David vs Goliath, we should be reloading our Sling Shots.
First they say only names, no data, then they asked us if we had tried to increase the number of submissions, finally they admit emails sent in error. What a shambles!
I’m appalled and disheartened by the apparent incompetence of the government’s Leasehold Reform Team.
I submitted my response to this latest consultation, wondering if the Survey Monkey link might be some sort of scam. It hardly seemed “official”.
Now I find that many responses have disappeared down some sort of computing black hole. It leaves me wondering whether my submission made it through the system, as I received no acknowledgement – even one to tell me it was blank.
I think the department concerned needs to send confirmation emails to everyone who submitted a response to the consultation.
It certainly needs to make the Minister award of this incident and recommend that he meet in person with our NLC and LKP representatives.
Bridget this is what can happen when the Government are Lobbied by the Elite to say don’t go down that road of Leasehold Reform. There are to many rich people who have made a good living from not having Leasehold Reform.
Just see what has happened to the BR EXIT to know that they could not arrange a **** up in a brewery.
If this is the case the Mhclg needs to stand up and personally respond to all leaseholders that their survey responses have been seen and read. A written statement should be produced once the survey is complete by the MCHLG and acknowledged and validated with LKP to be actual de-identified responses to the survey. That’s the only way you will restore my confidence and the time spent filling in this intentionally complicated consultation.
I am really worried that our family and friends responses by email have not been acknowledged and we would like to know if our responses to this consultation have been counted towards the final report. All responses to the consultation were made by us on 26/11 before the consultation closed.
Why not just make this rather simple?
1. Stop any new leasehold properties from now on.
2. Freehold and commonhold only.
3. Create simple formula like 10x ground rent to buy back freehold and flats convert to commonhold.
4. That will prevent anymore leasehold and give house and flat owners time to buy their freehold if they choose to.
Over time leasehold will self abolish.
Sorted. It’s not hard is it??
Well said, Chris.
I can’t see any merit in these ‘consultations’, when the solution is self-evident.
They serve nothing more than to maintain the status quo, for the wealthy.
Let’s call time on leasehold (and fleecehold) NOW.
This is beyond belief ! Precious time spent completing consultation after consultation all written in legalese (intentionally complicated ?) when I have three immediate family members fighting cancer. No – make that four cases of cancer – this leasehold debacle being the fourth.
No wonder we have no trust or faith in the powers that be……… why is something that is so wrong and downright immoral, legal ? And when we do exactly what is asked of us, how can our responses be ‘lost’ ?
Almost smacks of a conspiracy theory……….
This news is extremely disappointing. Having spent hours on my submission, ( struggling with the legal jargon which is a large part of why people who just wanted to own their own home have ended up owning nothing but time!) it will make me lose the last vestige of respect for the organisers if it is lost. LEASE has not even publicised these opportunities for those who have been scammed by leasehold to reveal the extent of their exploitation. Why is taxpayers’ money being wasted on this morally dubious organisation? NLC and LKP are proactive in helping leaseholders to fight against all of the financial abuses that leasehold inevitably entails. How can any government allow what is basically legalised extortion to continue ruining the housing market and causing untold misery to house buyers unless it is in thrall to the freeholders? The freeholders can afford lobbyists and legal experts to fight for their financial interests and have finessed the leasehold system to maximise their profits and (in England) obfuscate abolition of this deeply unfair practice. Charles Dickens would recognise it for what it is, but sadly leaseholders cannot be helped by his campaigning voice. Will this government do the right thing? The way the scope and method of this this survey has been controlled suggests that the answer is not one any leaseholder or moral person would be happy with.
Yet another “consultation” fiasco. This is a farce, and not something that should be tolerated in a democratic society.
Abandon this consultation, write a straightforward one in Plain English, and then abolish leasehold and replace with commonhold or freehold. If PPI and Endowment policies were mid-sold pieces of paper, then Leasehold is mis-selling bricks and mortar. Stop consulting; take action. Now.
Typical behaviour. Can’t be bothered to change anything when it affects their “friends” corrupt cash flow. Must not upset the rich must we? Lets sweep it under the carpet. Stinks of corruption to me.
This is incredibly disappointing and frustrating. The consultations are designed to be inaccessible – and for people to spend their time completing them only to have the information ‘lost’ is disgraceful. Of course the freeholders won’t be bothered in the slightest- I’m sure their teams of lawyers are well versed and well rewarded for their time as they complete these consultations – unlike the average leaseholder who would simply like not to be extorted while trying to live in their own home!
Questions must be asked as to why they are making such a mess of this? In whose interests are they acting? Where is LEASE in all of this?
MCHLG need to take responsibility and extend the deadline.
The cynic would say these consultations are a pretence that Government wants to listen and reform feudal leasehold law. However many pointless consultations, Government and DCLG’s mindset is to keep the status quo and not give them any publicity..
Remember the Sajid and Gavin Barwell and their indignation at onerous ground rents and rip off service charges. Just hot air and more consultations that most 4m leaseholders don’t know exist.
It’s shocking what’s happened. It takes time, effort as well as in many cases support to fill in all these consultations. They are not easy to complete & getting an email like this will result in people not completing such important consultations in the future.. Plus the perception that the government wants to stop change in this area or silence us is now strongly felt. What has happened to people like me is appalling & to receive such an email further rubs salt into the wound. If the government really is committed to abolishing leasehold & cresting commonhold for flats whilst improving things for those of us stuck with these toxic leases (doubling, fee generating permissions covenants) that has made my home & others unsaleable then they need to listen to everyone & allow those whose responses have not been received other than just their name, address & email an opportunity to resubmit.
This is unbelievable, a lot of people will be very disappointed we have spent hours trying to fill in these consultations most of us struggling to understand the questions, as probably intended & now they have lost some of them, how convenient, another sad day for our country.
I spent a very long time answering questions only to receive the email stating my response was blank. This was not the case and I’ve now had to spend hours today completing the same questions.