Crispin Blunt MP Archives - Leasehold Knowledge Partnership

Views of Tory MP Crispin Blunt: Government should ‘nullify’ ground rents. End ‘feudal’ leasehold. Bring in commonhold. And stop developers’ and solicitors’ ‘unconscionable’ cheating of the naïve

November 23, 2017 By admin

A fulsome denunciation of the present rip-off leasehold system has been made in the starkest Corbynista terms … by Tory MP Crispin Blunt, who represents leafy Reigate, in non-leasehold Surrey. He says: “Present-day “onerous ground rents” are, more likely than not, the resultant of unconscionable conduct carried out by one sector of society who have […]

Sebastian O’Kelly
Martin Boyd
sok@leaseholdknowledge.com
martin.boyd@leaseholdknowledge.com

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Bottomley tells Taylor Wimpey to explain ‘sharp practice’ ground rents – and asks for names of directors who approved them

Sir Peter Bottomley (right) has demanded that Taylor Wimpey explain its “unfair ground rent” provisions to the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold reform. Yesterday he told fellow MPs at the APPG meeting chaired by Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse: “The ground rent increase may have been legal. It is clearly undesirable. […]

Guardian sticks with new-build ground rent scandal, while LKP advises Persimmon home buyers to walk away

By Sebastian O’Kelly (This article is bylined in order to declare an interest as the author is a shareholder in Persimmon and Barratt) If Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Bellway and other developers playing the angles of leasehold thought the row over cheating ground rents would go away, they must be disabused by now. Today The Guardian […]

Communities Select Committee lifts the lid on the residential freehold racket

By Sebastian O’Kelly On Monday, MPs of the Communities Select Committee at last flushed out the developers and ground rent speculators who profit from turning ordinary families’ homes into long term investment assets. A murky sector that habitually hides behinds the courts, lawyers, lobbyists and trade bodies finally had to justify its practices and, indeed, […]

Guardian reports the Taylor Wimpey £130m offer to settle ground rent scandal

The Guardian earlier this afternoon reported the £130 million offer by Taylor Wimpey to draw a line under the ground rent scandal. The article reports the housebuilder telling its AGM that ground rent that double every 10 years were legal but “not consistent with our high standards of customer service and we are sorry for […]

Developer recommended solicitors could face £500m bill, says Daily Mail

The same small number of legal firms recommended by developers when selling properties with onerous ground rent terms could face legal bills of up to £500m, says the Daily Mail. Many buyers were lured by discounts on purchase prices and on legal fees for using the recommended solicitors. Louie Burns, of Leasehold Solutions, was quoted […]

Private Eye identifies yet another murky offshore landlord, Vuillard Holdings Limited, with Grenfell cladding

“Snakes and cladders” is Private Eye’s headline revealing Vuillard Holdings Limited as the latest landlord with Grenfell cladding on site. Owned by shy proprietors David and Patrick Kennedy, it owns the freehold of Victoria Wharf, two sites Limehouse in East London, where leaseholders have so far “been forced” to pay £165,000 for fire wardens. LKP […]

Government thinking freeholders are paternalistic long-term custodians of a building is where it has gone wrong over Grenfell cladding

Sorry, they are just speculators in it for the enforceable income By Martin Boyd Translating freeholder or landlord as “building owner” is a bad idea that has led government to make a mess of its efforts to resolve the issue of Grenfell cladding on private sites. LKP explained to both Dame Judith Hackitt and the […]