Does the UK have the greediest, most venal and least competent housebuilders in the world? The Labour deputy leader Tom Watson joined the APPG on leasehold and commonhold reform yesterday, while the Communities Select Committee still has not called in the housebuilders. Mr Watson, the MP for West Bromwich East, joined on the prompting of […]
Labour MP Helen Hayes ‘disappointed’ by Sajid Javid’s response on leasehold scandal
Time for DCLG Select Committee to call in developers to demand details of the scale of the leasehold rip-offs Labour MP Helen Hayes is “disappointed” by Communities Secretary Sajid Javid’s response to the leasehold crisis. Ms Hayes, who is MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, was responding to Mr Javid’s presentation on Wednesday to the […]
Pensioner paid £38,000 for Taylor Wimpey freehold to ground rent speculators E&J Capital Partners
(… and he paid another £4,000 in fees) A 79-year-old pensioner in Clitheroe paid £38,000 to buy the freehold to his Taylor Wimpey leasehold house to ground rent speculators E&J Capital Partners. He also paid out another £4,000 in legal and other fees: his own, and E&J’s. Now he has been told by Taylor Wimpey […]
Daily Mail attacks housebuilder bosses helping themselves to “mate’s-rates homes”
Building tycoons using discounts to snap up family homes Bosses of British building firms are buying up homes from own developments They are taking advantage of company perks including staff discount schemes Many of the homes were earmarked for young families and first-time buyers It comes as Britain is currently facing a ‘chronic shortage’ of […]
The Sun attacks ‘fatcat’ housebuilders with inflated fortunes thanks to Help To Buy
Fatcat boss involved in leasehold scandal lives in one of his company’s newbuild homes A FATCAT boss involved in the leasehold scandal lives in one of his company’s newbuild homes. But he has avoided the rip-off ground rent fees that have ruined the lives of other homebuyers. Ted Ayres, chief executive of property giant Bellway, […]
Taylor Wimpey: Secretive £130m ‘compo’ is PR fluff and not good enough
We want the freehold to our homes, not variations to leases Adriatic Land’s charges are ‘frankly obscene’ The onward sale of freeholds is more serious than doubling ground rent Taylor Wimpey should admit how many flats and houses with doubling ground rent Joanne Derbyshire, the owner of a Taylor Wimpey leasehold house in Bolton, has […]
Leaked Taylor Wimpey document showing doubling ground sales TODAY is “an oversight”
A leaked Taylor Wimpey document says that it is still selling flats with doubling ground rents but it is “an oversight” and “incorrect”, according to CEO Pete Redfern. Translation: This is an unaccountable blunder contradicting everything Taylor Wimpey has told MPs and press about its ground rent policy. The document, dated December 2016, clearly states […]
Taylor Wimpey ‘stretches credulity’ by refusing to list properties sold with doubling ground rents
Taylor Wimpey refused today to provide information about the properties it sold with doubling ground rents at its sites built between 2007 and 2011. Pete Redfern informed LKP trustees Martin Boyd and Sebastian O’Kelly this morning: “… we do not think it is appropriate to disclose specific information around sites or post codes linked to […]
Dear Pete Redfern (again) … Opaque leases, dubious ‘independent’ legal advice, no contact from Taylor Wimpey during its ‘review’, normal industry practice to stuff clients with leasehold houses (especially in North West)
Devastating letter to Taylor Wimpey CEO from a member of the National Leasehold Campaign Facebook group: Dear Mr Redfern, I read with some interest the announcement and presentation of Taylor Wimpey’s Full Year Results for 2016, published last Tuesday, 28th February. There are a few issues I feel compelled to raise: 1. You state in […]
Taylor Wimpey rejects responsibility to resale buyers facing doubling ground rents
Taylor Wimpey has rejected any responsibility to purchasers of resold Taylor Wimpey properties that have doubling ground rents. Such buyers can deal with the investment company directly to buy the freehold title, and take up any issues with their conveyancing solicitors. Pete Redfern has responded to a homebuyer who bought a Taylor Wimpey property from […]
Dear Gavin Barwell … our Taylor Wimpey leasehold house means my pension will be eroded
Housing minister Gavin Barwell also received a powerful letter from a leasehold house owner today. Mr Barwell has indicated his disapproval of leasehold houses at the annual conference of the Leasehold Advisory Service. He said: “The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership estimated that around 9,000 houses are being built and sold as leasehold. Many of those seem […]
Dear Pete Redfern … Taylor Wimpey cheated us: what are you doing about it?
Taylor Wimpey CEO Pete Redfern was deluged with emails this morning from desperate owners of leasehold houses. The initiative was organised by the Facebook group National Leasehold Campaign of leasehold house owners. The correspondence was copied in to Sajid Javid, Secretary of State at the DCLG, and housing minister Gavin Barwell. Many emails were also […]
Taylor Wimpey more greedy than the ground rent ‘Mr Smallweeds’ (and so are other plc housebuilders)
Survey on onerous ground rent data. Please fill this in if you have a leasehold house with exploitative ground rent terms Groundrentsforsale.com probably does not regard itself as dilatory in furthering the interests of freehold investors who feast off ground rents. Sounding like Dickens’ unappetising Mr Smallweed – “Shake me up, Judy!” – in Bleak […]
‘New-build ground rent scandal could spark legal battles,’ says Guardian
Lawyers have contacted the Guardian newspaper to say that buyers of new-build houses and flats with crippling ground rent clauses could take legal action. The full article can be read here Graham Balchin, of solicitors Carter Lemon Camerons says: “It is a requirement of most lenders [see the CML Handbook section 5.14.9] that the lender […]
Taylor Wimpey CEO says doubling ground rent scandal under ‘review’. But Bottomley asks: ‘Have innocent homebuyers been shafted?’
This afternoon Pete Redfern the CEO of Taylor Wimpey has responded to the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold reform saying that the issue of homeowners with doubling ground rents is under “review”. Mr Redfern’s full letter is below. He points out that the doubling ground rent leases, which LKP is aware apply to leasehold […]
Pete Redfern: Stop pontificating about the housing crisis and sort out the ground rent scandal of Taylor Wimpey’s own making
This morning Pete Redfern, Taylor Wimpey CEO, was on the Today programme (BBC Radio 4) discussing the housing crisis. This afternoon MPs are demanding he explain a housing crisis of Taylor Wimpey’s own making: building leasehold houses and flats where ground rents double every ten years. This has left first-time buyers with homes that they […]
