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
Thanks for highlighting this fact LKP. I can easily show what my response was here if you like! It may be a bit long though! Blank it was not! And as you say we all put a lot of thought and time into completing these consultations!
I hate to say that I am not surprised, as trust in politicians is at zero (except those who support LKP).
Them asking if you had tried to increase the number of submissions by encouraging people to do this to get the numbers up, is not at all beyond the scope of what THEY are capable of.
If there is a blip in the system I believe then it suits them and it’s unfair that leaseholders views will not be heard even though we spent time completing government consultations.
Surely a check can be made to see if it was the Blip.
With similar problems at the Communities Select Committee website it does seem they have been poorly set up. I agree the doors are opened and shut as it suits them, very poor situation and requires urgent attention.
How can any leaseholder trust what the Government or MHCLG says now? People trying to get on with living their lives have set aside time to complete these endless consultations and for what? To have them dismissed? This is a massive failure of trust. The MHCLG must come clean and release a statement as a matter of urgency.
How can I now commit hours and hours filling this in without the risk of it being rejected?
Absolutely disgraceful, embarrassing system. This needs to be addressed now and the deadline extended.
I can not begin to tell you how disappointed I am. This is a disaster for leaseholders.
Trying to motivate leaseholders to complete consultation after consultation is hard work. It’s emotionally draining. These consultations are not easy to complete and many leaseholders really struggle to understand them.
We have to remember that not all leaseholders are young first time buyers that is portrayed in the media that are technically minded. A large proportion of leaseholders are elderly and remain very vulnerable. Most of them are totally unaware of any leasehold reform proposals and struggle to access online resources & social media. For some reason the government decided to conduct this consultation using Survey Monkey. I have to question if indeed the monkey did analyse the survey too !!
The NLC and LKP spend a lot of time encouraging and supporting leaseholders to complete each consultation to the best of their ability. I can assure you no one would leave them blank.
LKP and NLC appear to be the only organisations pro-actively promoting these consultations. I know the 3 of us leading the NLC hold down full time jobs as well as working full time on this campaign. We try our best to reach out to as many leaseholders as possible to encourage them to complete each consultation. Many of us use Facebook and Twitter to reach fellow leaseholders.
It infuriates me that the governments funded LEASE are doing nothing to advertise these important consultations. We have the biggest opportunity in decades to influence change for the better for leaseholders, yet LEASE continue to not take any proactive role in encouraging leaseholders to complete them. They appear happy for NLC and LKP to do all their work for them !!
We are currently encouraging leaseholder’s to complete the Law Commissions consultation on enfranchisement which is over 100 questions long, written in legal jargon and completely off putting to your average person. This blow couldn’t of come at a worse time for leaseholders. We have been working really hard trying to get people to focus on the enfranchisement consultation as the previous government consultation on peppercorn ground rents had been boxed away (or so we thought). How wrong we were.
There is immense confusion amongst leaseholders as people don’t know what consultation they have and haven’t completed. They don’t know what responses have and haven’t been received. And their faith the consultation process is fading.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government launched this consultation (Implementing reforms to the leasehold system) on 15th October 2018 and closed on the 26th November 2018. Yesterday many received the shocking email that stated thanks but no thanks your submission was blank so therefore will not be considered. How on earth can you disregard leaseholders opinion’s in this way. Surely, a more appropriate response would of been to offer the leaseholder a chance to resubmit. So far over 100 leaseholders have received the dreaded email.
It’s totally unacceptable. The credibility of the whole consultation process is now questionable. Even if they did re open the consultation, people will have to start from scratch and waste more time and effort repeating all the good work they had already put into it.
It would be nice if James Brokenshire publically apologise to leaseholders for the appalling way this consultation has been carried out. Once again for the 4th time I would like to invite James Brokenshire to meet with the three of us who run the National Leasehold Campaign. I really do think it’s the least he can do. We appreciate his time is valuable, but the amount of wasted time leaseholders have taken to complete the consultation.
I apologise for my rant, but we deserve better.
We are not going away !!!! Leaseholders voices will be heard one way or another.
Absolutely spot on Katie Kendrick, very well said.
Katie, Excellent Rant please continue.
I first became an Activist in 2007 as a newly retired leaseholder and working in Building Control. I purchased the lease on a Flat in 2006. I had previously purchased a Leasehold House in 1983 and purchased the Freehold for 10 times the Ground Rent of £35.00 a year.
Peverel were our Landlord and Managing Agent, and the Area Manager was very poor in communication and getting works undertaken. I contacted the Reginal Manager who was similar and promised to check items but never did. Check out the earlier Websites such as TTAS and Peverel Action I also contributed to CARLex now Better Retirement Housing. and LKP although I did not always see eye to eye with SOK. If I can help by providing further information then just ask.
Hi Chas,
Thankyou so much for your continued support and offer of help. I really do appreciate it. I know you have been fighting for many years. Without people like you, LKP, Carlex etc we wouldn’t be where we are today.
Together we will succeed
.
Absolutely right. These consultations take a huge amount of effort and time when govt has heard the abuse stories for years. Not to mention how difficult it is to understand these consultations that seem to pigeon hole problems. Leaseholders simply want justice and their homes. Please stop tinkering and wasting time.
Ditto. Please continue your rants! Without the likes of you, the NLC, LKP and others campaigning for us all we wouldn’t be on the brink of a major change. Thank you.
I agree Katie.
The consultations are not in lay persons language and therefore time consuming to work through. The government are responsible for their consultation request and should set in place assurances that all respondents info is safely stored once sent.
I hav received confirmation E-mail that mine was received but nothing else.
Ian g
Well said. We are all taking time to do our part and some are taking all their time going above and beyond to get fairness for all of us. I hope those in power realise how much this affects people’s lives and how constraining, frustrating and upsetting it all is. If there were a fair system here maybe there would be less impact on other areas that cost the government s fortune such as welfare and health!!!
Disgraceful and embarrassing performance by the MHCLG if they have lost this data, as appears to be the case. Many people have put a lot of work into filling in these consultations, trying to interpret complex questions when they are not expert at leasehold law, and they deserve much better from MHCLG. Mr Brokenshire needs to stand up and take responsibility for this.
I have been completing survey after survey and consultation after consultation.
These take up a lot of my time and energy and the only reason I even know they exist is down to the National Leasehold Campaign on Facebook who in turn let me know that the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership existed.
Prior to this, my only port of call for help was LEASE and yet they have not once made contact with me to let me know of these consultations despite them having a file for me and my contact details due to the numerous times i have been in touch with them over the years due to issues with my freeholder.
I find this disgraceful because LEASE are the only place lawyers, citizens advice etc signpost lesaeholders to for advice and yet they have not let a single leaseholder know that these consultations are even taking place.
After spending so long completing this one, it is very upsetting to read of all the issues with them not even being counted due to some technical error.
We leaseholders must be given the opportunity to submit this survey again and it really should be carried out using a more professional system than Survey Monkey which has proven it cannot be trusted.
I haven’t received an email after completing the consultation. If a user doesn’t complete required fields or there were a data handler problem, Survey Monkey should flag it up on submission. Not months down the line. Disgraceful. I hope they have a database of those users and are actively asking them to have their say.
I definitely completed the survey and still received this email. Gutted. I spent my precious family time to fill in the survey. MHCLG needs to reopen the survey and own up to this worrying mistake
The way the government responds will make it clear if they actually intend to fix the mess they have created with leasehold and fleecehold. We will continue to fight, and to fill in yet more consultations until something changes. Katie and her colleagues have already responded more eloquently than me and I could not agree more with their points.
To imply that NLC tried to boost responses that were not genuine is appalling.
This survey collected individuals data and had a legal responsibility to ensure it is held and processed correctly. This clearly hasn’t happened.
Clair,
You think the way the government responds will make it clear if they actually intend to fix the mess they have created with leasehold and Fleecehold.
I believe this is an excellent point to discuss as it will show us Leaseholders weather they have the balls to get further involved.
Yes we will continue to fight, and to fill in yet more consultations until something changes.
Katie and colleagues have already responded eloquently and I could not agree more with their points.
Implying that NLC tried to boost responses that were not genuine is appalling.
The survey was supposed to collected the individual data, having a legal and moral responsibility to ensure it is held and processed correctly, which has been another failed government intervention, which clearly didn’t happened, but why.
It’s completely incompetent that all these responses have been void, particularly because it has probably been a technical hitch.
I feeel that the consultations requesting input from leaseholders have not been advertised or propmoted enough either.
Millions of leaseholders do not even know that there are ongoing consultations that will give them a chance to express their opinions on such an outdated housing tenure,
The government have a duty to their citizens to promote the consultations.
The campaign to address and challenge the whole sorry saga will not be going away, it will just grow.
Spent a considerable amount of time filling in this survey, and for what? Furcthem to tell me that I never done it or they have lost my data, this is corruption at the highest order
I spent hours on completing this consultation. It’s designed to be unfathomable to anyone outside the legal profession. I did not receive any confirmation back in November that the submission was accepted but now reading this I can’t assume it has. It’s a absolutely disgraceful behaviour that 1000’s of submissions have gone “missing” or turned up “blank”. It’s clearly meant to dismiss the blight of the leaseholder unfairly!
This is a travesty and as can be seen from the comments above leaseholders are angry.
So….where are all the freeholder and developer comments also complaining that their submissions were rejected?
Call me cynical but there does not seem to have been any outcry from those sectors whom I assume would be shouting from the rooftops if they had received similar notifications.
We will NOT be silenced – if anything this will increase our voices so MHCLG please sort this out.
One user has a screen shot of the time and date when submitting the survey, which shows the data was sent to MHCLG. This is strong evidence on its own that the data was sent. What have MHCLG done with it ? There are possible GDPR issues as well with the Ministry losing confidential information.
I cannot thank Katie and her team at NLC enough for their determination in highlighting leasehold injustice, and fighting on in the face of huge adversity, indifference from official bodies, and incompetence. This makes me more determined that leasehold injustice is properly dealt with by the government and legal changes, and I am sure many leasehold reformers agree with me.
As others have said, it is the duty of government and bodies like Lease to inform leaseholders of consultations, and structure questions in a way that relates to ordinary leaseholders so they are not put at a disadvantage compared to expert lawyers.
The government should be contacting every leaseholder via mail/email/text to let them know to fill this in. Numbers will be low anyway for any consultation because people simply don’t know about it.
As others have asked why does LEASE not publicise consultations or their outcomes. Surely it should be a basic part of their job description. LEASE should have a list of every leasehold property in the UK and make contact.
Surveys have shown a majority of leaseholders would not chose leasehold tenure if there was a fair alternative. As for consultations, most leaseholders don’t know about them or any outcomes.
In response to the Update from MHCLG:
“We are contacting those individuals from whom we have received a blank return so they can submit their views”
Whilst I welcome the opportunity for leaseholder’s to be given the opportunity to respond (Again) I have numerous concerns with this:
1. How can MHCLG be sure that other responses haven’t been received at all? The reason for this error has not be identified, therefore there is no assurances given that other submissions haven’t been totally lost..
2. MHCLG go onto say “they have received hundreds of fully or partially completed responses” but there is no clarification as to how many? The previous government consultation in 2017 received 6000 responses, yet this one only received hundreds?? Again there is absolutely no way of knowing if the system fault or whatever caused this error actually resulted in submissions being lost in their entirety, thus having a significant bearing on the overall numbers. It may well be that leaseholders are in fact suffering from consultation fatigue which you can not blame them.
3. The general feeling amongst leaseholders in the NLC is one of anger that this has happened in the first place. Those leaseholders who have been given a second opportunity to submit have been given 3 weeks. Some people simply will not have the time or energy to submit yet another submission. The NLC will continue to promote this consultation and encourage leaseholders to complete it but we are concerned the uptake will not be the same the second time around.
I believe the consultation’s validity remains questionable and therefore feel they should re-open the consultation for a further period for ALL. not just those individuals who they have contacted.
I agree with Katie – no half measures please. Open it up fully again and allow time for all to complete it again.
Agree.
Disgusted in the whole charade!! Hundreds of us spent time filling in our responses and for what!!! Conveniently for you most have had a problem..
Do the right thing- sort it out!!
Change the law and get everyone who owns a leasehold property the outcome they derserve. A fair formulae to but the freehold with out all the hidden clauses!!!!
I must thank the NLC and LKP for bringing the consultations to my attention and helping me complete them. If it wasn’t for these organisations I’d have no idea they were going on – why is the government and LEASE not advertising this more widely so ALL leaseholders have the opportunity to provide their thoughts on this archaic and one sided practice? Why were leaseholders not leafleted or this advertised in local or national press? And now this. With two more consultations to complete by 7th January this is unacceptable. People are spending hours and now we don’t even know whether they’ve been received – let alone understood what’s being asked due to the legal jargon and terminologies used.
I would like to recommend that the first consultation is reopened for ALL and that the other two are extended for all to allow for further advertisement (and ideally simplification….)
Thank you