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You are here: Home / News / Forfeiture / LKP wins press awards for two years running

LKP wins press awards for two years running

April 18, 2014 By admin

Sebastian O'Kelly receives the LSL Property Press Award for Scoop of the Year 2014 from TV presenter Julia Somerville

Sebastian O’Kelly receives the LSL Property Press Award for Scoop of the Year 2014 from TV presenter Julia Somerville

March 17 2014: Sebastian O’Kelly, Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation chairman and director of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, last night won a press award for his campaigning journalism over leasehold for the second year running.

O’Kelly won the “Scoop of the Year” category for his report into the scandalous forfeiture of the £800,000 flat belonging to Dennis Jackson, at Plantation Wharf in Battersea.PressAwardsdouble

Thanks to the efforts of O’Kelly, Martin Boyd, LKP co-director, and Sir Peter Bottomley, the forfeiture was overturned. The dispute, which began over £9,000 in unpaid service charges, has cost Jackson more than £100,000.

The report can be read here

In winning the award, O’Kelly defeated competition from the Sunday Times, Inside Housing and Estates Gazette.

The award was presented at a ceremony in central London hosted by Julia Somerville, the TV news presenter. She said:

“Please acknowledge the work of Sebastian O’Kelly, from The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership and of course the former property editor of the Mail on Sunday for over 12 years, this year’s Gold Award winner for his scoop on Plantation Wharf.

“The case of leasehold pensioner Dennis Jackson, who would have lost his £800,000 flat in Battersea had not Sebastian himself taken up the case, persuading politicians and the CEO of Prudential to intervene. For his trouble, he was thrown out of Wandsworth County Court by the judge hearing the case. Gutsy stuff!”

Coincidentally, the award category was sponsored by the Property Ombudsman, which will shortly be one of the ombudsman services to which all leasehold managing agents will have to belong.

O’Kelly said:

“Saving Dennis Jackson from total ruin was an LKP team effort and thanks must go to Peter Bottomley, who did not hesitate to wade in to do the necessary even though Jackson was not a constituent.

“The case demonstrates the injustices of the leasehold system in stark clarity.

“It is extraordinary, and a major issue, that the decision on lifting Jackson’s forfeiture – his entire life assets – was held in a closed court from which the public (myself and Martin Boyd) were ejected.

“Yet the deputy district judge did this without a second’s hesitation. In what other area of law would such a decision with such consequences have been possible, except leasehold?

“The rest was equally unedifying: the pleased-with-themselves lawyers who racked up outrageous fees; the remorseful freeholders insisting on meeting LKP to say that they did not know how to stop what they had started and did not want to take away a pensioner’s £800,000 home; the residents of Plantation Wharf, who at a certain point could have stopped this litigation but sat on their hands.

“Jackson’s fellow leasehold litigant Rosemary Irving, and former chair of the residents’ association at Plantation Wharf, died a week before the final LVT case was heard. 

“The awfulness of this case needs to be read in entirety, and the OFT should note the wrongs that can happen in leasehold.

“Jackson is now completing the sale of his flat and, although £100,000 poorer, he can carry on with the rest of his life.

“He doesn’t need to give Plantation Wharf a second’s thought, and it certainly doesn’t deserve it.”

LKP wins Best Online Editorial 2013

Sebastian O'Kelly and Andrew Neal, the veteran newspaper editor and broadcaster who presented LKP with the LSL Property Award for Best Online Editorial 2013

Sebastian O’Kelly and Andrew Neal, the veteran newspaper editor and broadcaster, who presented the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership with the LSL Property Award for Best Online Editorial 2013

March 2013: The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership winning Best Online Editorial at the LSL Property Press Awards in March was a massive public recognition of its campaigning achievements.

LKP won the award in the face of competition from the Financial Times Online and Estates Gazette.

It was a team award, with due credit to Martin Boyd, head of LKP strategy and Charter Quay leaseholder, who provides invaluable advice on handling leasehold disputes.

The award was presented to Sebastian O’Kelly, of LKP, by veteran broadcaster and journalist Andrew Neil, who edited the Sunday Times for 11 years.

In handing it over, Neil said the judges were impressed by the website’s trenchant views, thorough investigations and total avoidance of PR puffery.

Related posts:

Fury at ‘life-shattering’ forfeiture case held in a secret court Sunday Times reports the forfeiture scandal of Dennis Jackson at Plantation Wharf LKP wins Best Online Editorial at LSL Property Press Awards 2013 Sebastian O’Kelly wins second press award for leasehold reform Plantation Wharf pensioner wins 28-day reprieve on forfeiture

Filed Under: Forfeiture, News Tagged With: Dennis Jackson, forfeiture, Plantation Wharf, Sebastian O’Kelly

Everything important

Abacus Land 4 Limited Adriatic Land AgeUK Alexander Bastin Alex Ellison Alok Sharma Amanda Gourlay Anchor Andrew Selous MP Anthony Essien APPG ARCO ARHM ARMA ARMA-Q Baroness Gardner Barratt BBC R4 You and Yours Bellway Benjamin Mire Beth Rudolf Blythe Court Bob Bessell Bob Smytherman Bovis Homes Brandon Lewis British Property Federation Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation Campaign for Housing in Later Life Canary Riverside CARL Cath Williams CentreForum Chainbow Charter Quay Cherry Jones Churchill Retirement Living Circle Residential Management Limited Cirrus Citiscape Clive Betts MP CMA Commonhold Competition and Markets Authority Conveyancing Association Countryside Properties plc Countrywide Countrywide Estate Management Court of Appeal Cypress Place Daily Mail David Glass DCLG Deep Sagar Dennis Jackson Dudley Joiner E&J Capital Partners Ed Davey Elim Court Eric Pickles Estates and Management Esther Rantzen exit fees Federation of Private Residents Associations Financial Times FirstPort Flood Re forfeiture FPRA Galliard Gary Murphy Gavin Barwell George Osborne Glyn Jackson Grant Shapps Grenfell cladding ground rent ground rents Ground Rents Income Fund plc Help To Buy Heysmoor Heights Homeground Management Limited HomeOwners Alliance House of Lords IRPM Israel Moskovitz James Brokenshire MP James Driscoll James Tuttiett James Wyatt Janet Entwistle Janice Northover JB Leitch Jeffrey Fairburn Jim Fitzpatrick Jim Fitzpatrick MP Joanne Darbyshire John Christodoulou John Fenwick Joseph Gurvits Justin Bates Justin Madders MP Justin Tomlinson Katie Kendrick Keith Hill Laceys Lakeside Law Commision Law Commission LEASE Leasehold Advisory Service leasehold houses Leasehold Solutions Lendlease London Assembly Long Harbour Lord Best Louie Burns Mainstay Margaret Anne Kirmond Mari Knowles Mark Prisk Martin Boyd Martin Paine McCarthy and Stone Mercia Investment Properties Limited Mere Court Michelle Banks Mulberry Mews Mundy National Leasehold Campaign New Capital Quay NHBC Nigel Bannister Nigel Glen Nigel Wilkins Oakland Court OFT Parthenia Patrick Collinson Paula Higgins Persimmon Pete Redfern Peverel Philip Rainey QC Phillip Rainey QC Plantation Wharf Private Eye Professor Nicholas Hopkins Prostitutes Redrow Regent Court Rendall and Rittner Retirement Retirement Security Limited RICS right to manage Right To Manage Federation Rob Plumb Roger Southam RTM RTMF Sajid Javid Sally Keeble Sebastian O’Kelly SFO Shula Rich Simon van Houten Siobhan McGrath Sir Ed Davey Sir Peter Bottomley Sonia McColl OBE Southwark Steve Morgan Sunday Times Susan Wood Tanfield Chambers Taylor Wimpey Tchenguiz Tchenguiz Family Trust Team The Daily Telegraph The Guardian The Sunday Times The Times Triplerose Trust Property Management Vallea Court Vincent Tchenguiz West India Quay Will Astor William Waldorf Astor Y and Y Management Yianis Group You and Yours

Contact LKP

Need help?

LKPhelp2The leasehold game is weighted against ordinary home-owning leaseholders, who aren’t professional players. LKP was set up to redress the balance, to help you win your disputes or at least avoid disasters.

If you have a leasehold problem, you can email sok@leaseholdknowledge or take a chance on calling 07808 328 230.

Or fill out this form, which ensures that you provide the essential information.

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Professional services

The following advertisements are from firms that seek business from leaseholders. Click on the logos for company profiles.

Law

Right to manage

Lease extension / enfranchisement


capitalleasehold6-9ins

Landscaping

limetree

LKP Managing Agents

Big managing agents are big because they have got business from developers or large-scale freehold owing companies. Doubtless they are very obliging.

Not a single one is big through consumer choice.

Managing agents accredited to LKP want business from leaseholders. Many are former leaseholders.

All have signed undertakings of good practice and have provided extensive references … from leaseholders.

They can also hand-hold leaseholders through right to manage at minimal cost.

Contact Sebastian O’Kelly at LKP for further details: sok@leaseholdknowledge.com, 07808 328 230

Please click on logos for link and details

Comments

  1. chas says

    April 23, 2014 at 4:26 pm

    Well written Sebastian, congratulations for year two, If you wish to make it a hat-trick visit us at ABC and I can show you just how shoddy and complicit Peverel/Cirrus/Glyn Jackson had been.

    The 20 year period (as flagged up by Peverel Technicians) made the Warden Call System obsolete, (even when it worked very well) but of course not replacing the Warden Call System means CIRRUS would not be able to Price Fix and up-date a system, again creating monies for the Peverel Group.

    We were supposed to have been consulted regarding the up-date but no written consultation was ever seen?

    Peverel even had the Insurance Company pay for the up-date?

    I have to date only received part of what was asked for, we have been able to put together a catalogue of Peverel/Cirrus/Jackson failings that can be shown which are contractually incorrect. I believe that the collusion had occurred at ABC?

    Peverel Management Services decided not to include us as part of the Price Fixing even when Peverel Group admitted that they believed that all contracts after late 2006, had been Priced Fixed?

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