The government has launched a call for evidence in the retirement housing community, with responses in by a deadline of 18 September.
Please respond here: oph@levellingup.gov.uk And please copy your responses in the All-Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold and commonhold reform, perhaps including your own MP: appg@leaseholdknowledge.com
The task force, headed by Professor Julienne Meyer, who began her career in nursing, will last for 12 months and consider:
the appropriate level of older people’s housing
the enablers and barriers to growth of supply and
options to increase the range and choice of specialised housing available to older people
https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/older-peoples-housing-taskforce
The provision of private retirement housing in England and Wales has been entangled in the failings of the leasehold system.
There have been two Office of Fair Trading investigations. One into exit fees squirreled into leases with no services of any kind attached – now discredited, and discontinued by retirement housebuilders – and a second into a collusive tendering racket run by Peverel / FirstPort, the largest property management company in the country, to cheat retirement sites into buying new door entry systems from its own subsidiary Cirrus.
There have also been numerous court cases, some involving right to manage applications, and the utterly dismal resale values of retirement properties on the Land Registry has been reported in the media on many occasions:
Families suffer as values of retirement homes plummet
Tens of thousands of families have seen their inheritances decimated after elderly relatives paid inflated prices for new retirement homes that have collapsed in value, an investigation by The Times has found. Prices of retirement flats in developments built by some of Britain’s biggest housebuilder
Neither LKP nor the APPG were invited to take part in the task force, although there are chief executives of retirement community housebuilders, housing associations, assorted lobbyists, some local councillors and academics, and the Home Builders Federation, which prominently called for a retention of ground rents.
Apart from AgeUK, which once had an effective retirement housing team, there is no consumer group represented of any kind, let alone any actual residents.
The remit of the Task Force is explained:
“Currently there are 12.4 million people in Great Britain aged over 65 (18% of the population). By 2041, this is projected to rise to 20.4 million (26% of the population). But many older people live in homes that do not support them to live a safe, healthy and independent later life. We want to address that and ensure that all older people have access to appropriate and attractive housing solutions – now and in the future.
“The Older People’s Housing Taskforce has been set up to further understand the market in England for older people’s housing today and make recommendations for shaping it in the future – particularly for those of lower and middle incomes. This includes broadening provision and choice for older people, including supporting them to continue living in their current home if they wish to do so. The taskforce will also examine the issues faced by older people when seeking to move into more appropriate or specialist housing, and how these can be addressed.”
The first two issues the Task Force seeks to understand are: What are the most important issues the taskforce should seek to address? (maximum 250 words) Do you have specific recommendations for the taskforce to consider? (maximum 250 words)
Related posts:
Housing minister urges transparency over retirement exit fees
Oldies should sell up and boost retirement housing, says Demos (in report paid for by developers)
Churchill Retirement donates £150,000 to Conservatives. To retain ground rents, by any chance?
APPG July 11: Retirement fees whether ground rents or event fees need to be for defined services not open-ended profits, says AgeUK
Anti-ground rent trade body ARCO snubbed at retirement housing conference … (along with us, less surprisingly)
Libel lawyers for Richard Davidoff, of ABC Estates, fail to get Google to hand over online reviewers’ identities
I have replied to the above request and submitted my contribution and copied in others.
I get the impression that this inquiry places significant importance in consulting with anyone apart from those adversely affected by the archaic feudal Freehold – Leasehold racket. Why are Leaseholders and those that voluntarily fight on our behalf excluded from such an important investigation, and left as an after thought in the consultation process.
Those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo in those industry’s do it to maintain their profits that is it nothing more. I believe that Freeholders view Leaseholders as a financial asset or commodity that can be bought, sold, traded and exploited at their whim, we are nothing more than a commodity and a highly lucrative income stream, in a largely unregulated industry that is not effectively Policed.
I believe that many Freeholders and their Managing Agents have of late adopted the policy of “Protecting The Customer From Reality” by throwing up a smoke screen of disinformation about the obvious benefits of Commonhold over Leasehold.
Leasehold requires reform. Freezing and/or ca[ping ground rents would help. Commonhold is not the answer for retirement developments. Unless ‘commonholders’ are capable and willing to run the development , a managing company will need to be employed, exchanging a current unsatisfactory situation for a potentially worse one.
Norah,
We live in an apartment block that was specifically built for the over 60’s no where in my Lease does it mention retirement. I believe the use of the phrase “retirement development” is an invention of others, in reality a myth.
Provided Leaseholders carry out due diligence and select a Managing Agent of their choice the chances of future disappointment diminish greatly but can never be ruled out completely
Having an inherited of imposed Managing Agent is a hit or miss situation. We formed a RTM and reduced the service charge by 39.43% despite record inflation and soaring electrical costs, the cost to achieve that was less than £ 50.00 per leaseholder. That’s what I call value for money.
This RTM works with the MA of our choice we can do as little as we like or as much as we like the choice is ours, I wonder does you MA listen to you and act in your best interest? Our service charge has fallen for two consecutive Years without compromise of standards, and we anticipate similar next Year. How many others out there have achieved similar?
Going RTM is easy and by no means involves rocket science
Commonhold would be a perfectly reasonable tenure for a retirement site: it simply means that the professional management that would necessarily have to be employed would be responsible to a board of the residents, or their nominees, to manage in their interests.
There is no serious expectation that people in their mid-eighties and higher deal with day-to-day management or compliance. Numerous jurisdictions will have this arrangement.
At present, the historic freeholds of McCarthy and Stone are owned by entities belonging to one particular financier, who also imposes the management company of his choice (overwhelmingly FirstPort).
This arrangement has been controversial. Why do you suppose that is?
Dear Mr O’Kelly,
I think it was very useful that you pointed out the use of “or their nominees” in the running of a residential apartment block. It clearly means the “nominee” would take the responsibility from the Leaseholder whilst carrying the Leaseholders wishes, the “nominee” could be a sibling, daughter, son or grand daughter or grand son or others appointed “nominee”
The appointment by a Leaseholder of a “nominee” at meetings can only reduce the stress or anxiety of attending meetings, and possibly facilitate the smooth running of said.
Stephen Burns. I fear you`re right in your assessment, reflected in the failures by successive governments to make real efforts to properly understand the consequences of the problems largely created by themselves – and when eventually identified by external interested parties, then consult with their book of nodding dogs. You see, hearing rational arguments facts and possiblke solutions from those in the know, don`t always suit the hidden agenda`s.
Notably, the residential Park Homes market ( new homes from £200k to 450K with escalating ground rents ) is yet again excluded from this consultation, just as it was with Housing Ombudsman scheme – even though it accomodates c 200,000 mostly retirees with many under the intimidating controls of rogue and criminal regimes ( the more prolific, donors to the Tory Party ) The evidence of tokenism in response, is evidenced by the PH sector`s own APPG, where of around 45 people, only one invitee lives in Park Home and none on site run by any of the bullying con-artists.
I`ve been confronting the many problems for now 15 years – but I`ve yet to decide whether to allocate responsibility to naivity, corruption, idleness, gross incompetence or the increasing need to commit key decision makers to faraway homes for the terminally bewildered. In drawing this conclusion, I recently discovered the word; `Echolalia`, seemingly a psychiatric term used to describe what some people with mental disorders or autism tend to do, which is to automatically repeat what they hear other people say and promptly forget it by the next morning..
Thank God for LKP and its sponsors.
Tony Turner
parkhomespolicyforum.co.uk
Tony Turner,
I completely agree with your assessment. It is as if various Government former Ministers have “selective hearing disorder” and only hear what they are told by others, my question is who are the others and who do they represent?
The Park Homes “scandal” quite frankly disgusts me and appears to be completely out of control when compared to the the current Leasehold / Freehold industry racket, which almost defies most peoples comprehension, apart from the “Players” in charge who are fully aware of how to work the system and rake in the cash. Please refer to the article on this site about the Lady who had her motor home stolen and set fire too resulting in her being made home less.
I will listen intently to the Kings speech on the 7th November 2023.
Stephen, Thanks for your response – Also to LKP and Sebastian in particular for their support for the thousands of hapless Park Home owners who`ve usually downsized and unwittingly fallen into the hands of those whose trading activities and obvious connections to organised crime are quietly swept under the table.. For readers who might be interested in exploring some of the abuses in a similarly exploited housing market, go to: https://www.parkhomespolicyforum.co.uk/