Sebastian O’Kelly, Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation chairman and director of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, last night won a press award for his coverage of 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 […]
Archives for March 2014
You and Yours features Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation and OFT inquiry into leasehold management
March 18, 2014 By
The influential BBC Radio 4 programme You and Yours yesterday featured retirement leasehold. This is an area of “most concern” according to Douglas Cooper, of the Office of Fair Trading, which is carrying out an inquiry into leasehold management. The programme can be heard here and the item begins 46 minutes into the programme.
MPs call for all-party group on leasehold
March 14, 2014 By
The Westminster meeting two days ago on right to manage organized by LKP / Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation saw an all-party group on leasehold becoming more likely. The move would certainly be backed by Sir Peter Bottomley, Conservative Swindon MPs Justin Tomlinson and Robert Buckland, as well as Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour MP for Poplar […]
Mark Hoyland quits Peverel Retirement after nine months
March 11, 2014 By
Mark Hoyland, the head of Peverel Retirement, is leaving to pursue another venture, Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation has learned. Hoyland was only in place for nine months (click picture to read biography). A Peverel spokesman said this morning: “I can confirm that Mark Hoyland has decided to leave Peverel Group at the end of […]
Anchor Trust apology: ‘we do not seek to profit from contingency funds’
March 11, 2014 By
Anchor Trust has apologised for misleading a resident with incorrect information regarding the investment of millions of pounds of contingency funds. In an email to Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation, Jonathan Earnshaw, customer relations manager, apologises for erroneously informing an Anchor leaseholder that it had stopped charging a one per cent administration fee in 2013. […]
Tchenguiz leasehold interests raised in Commons
March 5, 2014 By
The Tchenguiz activities in leasehold property were highlighted in the House of Commons yesterday by Sir Peter Bottomley. In a brief aside during debate over the private rented sector, Sir Peter referred to “the Tchenguiz interests featuring in the Office of Fair Trading report on abuses of leaseholders, overvaluations of freeholds and the sale of […]
OFT leasehold management inquiry now INCLUDES housing associations
March 4, 2014 By
The Office of Fair Trading today announced its leasehold management inquiry and will include housing association and council leaseholders. The scope is defined here This was a key point urged by Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation and, largely on its prompting, more than 100 leaseholders wrote to the OFT demanding their inclusion.
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation whistleblowers were THREATENED with prosecution if they went public over OFT’s feeble £500k investigation into Peverel-Cirrus
March 4, 2014 By
The three Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation whistleblowers of the Peverel-Cirrus scam were threatened with prosecution by the Office of Fair Trading if they revealed the investigation. The threat was minuted by the OFT on September 27 2012 even though it had already decided to give Peverel leniency and not take any action. In a […]
Cirrus tee-hee email: Cheating oldies is ‘not an official part of the process (tee hee)’
March 4, 2014 By
Any retirement site on the list should contact Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation to ensure proper compensation is paid for this cheating The secret contempt with which Peverel-Cirrus treated their elderly, vulnerable customers is revealed by the Office of Fair Trading. It has published emails from Cirrus employees in its full 268-report into the price-fixing […]
Places for People defeated by Yorkshire pensioners who stopped paying service charges
March 3, 2014 By
The housing association Places for People has come off worse after taking 12 retirement leaseholders to the property tribunal for refusing to pay services charges. The dispute concerned payments for the house manager’s terraced house at Hall Mews, in Boston Spa, in Yorkshire. Feelings run high on the issue, and around 30 neighbours packed into […]
