The Association of Retirement Housing Managers launched its new ARHM code of practice this week, which has at last obtained approval from the secretary of state. This means breaches of the code can be referenced in litigation, which can be very useful in a property tribunal dispute. The code has been worked on for some […]
ARMA regulator to rule on whether to admit FirstPort Retirement ‘within days’
June 10, 2016 By
After more than three months of deliberation, the Rt Hon Keith Hill, regulator of the Association of Residential Managing Agents, is poised to make a decision on whether Peverel / FirstPort Retirement is a fit and proper candidate to join the association. Alex Ellison, and others, made a series of complaints concerning Peverel / FirstPort […]
McCarthy and Stone stops hyping ‘virtual freeholds’
May 16, 2016 By
McCarthy and Stone has changed its publicity after claiming that by selling 999 year leases it was offering buyers homes that were “virtual freeholds”. Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation took the issue up with chief executive Clive Fenton and the over-hyped expression has been dropped from McCarthy and Stone publicity. Its website has been amended. […]
After 30 years, can’t FirstPort contracts go out to tender? And, what’s happened to the chairman of LEASE?
April 29, 2016 By
At the Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation / LKP roundtable at Westminster yesterday there were a couple of interesting questions from attendees. One gentleman asked: “I own a portfolio of [50] retirement properties. Most are in sites that were built by McCarthy and Stone and are managed by FirstPort formerly Peverel formerly etc … “In […]
Woodchester Valley Village: How we turned a disaster into the first mutually owned retirement village
April 29, 2016 By
MPs were told yesterday of how residents took control of a bankrupt retirement village, raised £2 million and turned it into the first mutually owned retirement site in the country. Professor Peter Wilson told the Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation / LKP roundtable, hosted by the charity’s MP patrons Jim Fitzpatrick and Sir Peter Bottomley, […]
No more think tank ‘research’ into retirement housing paid for by housebuilders, please
April 29, 2016 By
The Westminster roundtable heard yesterday that think tank ‘research’ paid for by housebuilders or their trade bodies routinely avoided all reference to problems in the retirement housing sector. The event was organised by Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation / LKP, and hosted by the charity’s MP patrons Jim Fitzpatrick and Sir Peter Bottomley, and was […]
Bob Bessell hands £7 million of retirement freeholds to the residents
April 29, 2016 By
… and the housebuilder wants an end to ‘feudal’ ground rents, too! Bob Bessell, founder of housebuilder Retirement Security, yesterday pledged to leave his freehold portfolio – worth £7 million – in a trust controlled by the pensioner residents at his sites. The undertaking was made at a Westminster roundtable organised by Campaign against retirement […]
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation Westminster roundtable on retirement housing
April 18, 2016 By
On April 28 there will be a Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation roundtable on retirement housing at Westminster. The purpose is inform MPs of the issues in retirement housing, and to suggest how it could be further improved. There have already been shifts in position by retirement housebuilders: 999 year leases are becoming more widespread, […]
Tatton Court latest Cheshire site seeking to dump Tchenguiz / FirstPort
April 8, 2016 By
Tatton Court is the latest Cheshire retirement site wanting to be rid of the FirstPort / Tchenguiz management which dominates private retirement housing. “We feel that you are being deliberately awkward in blocking our claim,” the RTM directors write to Estates and Management, the Tchenguiz company that manages his freehold portfolio. “We also feel that […]
BBC Radio 4 on housing association leasehold … and a German asks: is it safe to buy a flat in London?
March 31, 2016 By
Housing association leasehold featured on the BBC Radio 4 consumer show You and Yours today … and LKP managed to make a case for commonhold as an alternative. Click here to listen at 18.20 minutes in The programme concerned Pam Pearson, a leaseholder whose flat was left cold and damp after a cavity wall outfit […]
20 MPs sign up to All-Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold and commonhold
March 29, 2016 By
Just before Easter it was decided to form an All-Party Parliamentary Group on residential leasehold and commonhold. It is proposed that the chairmen will be jointly Sir Peter Bottomley and Jim Fitzpatrick, both patrons of LKP, and LKP will provide the secretariat. So far 20 MPs and Lords have signed up to join the group, […]
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation tells Parliament: ‘feeling in retirement leasehold is that the bad guys always win’
March 25, 2016 By
Last Wednesday saw a session of Lord Best’s All Party Parliamentary Group on retirement housing and care. Sebastian O’Kelly, trustee of Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation / LKP, made the following points about private leasehold retirement housing to the APPG: In part, the elderly are not downsizing to retirement housing because they think they will […]
