Housing and Care 21 handed over the management to residents at Ashfield, a retirement site in Telford in Shropshire, after admitting that it had been badly run. For the past three months, the complex of 26 semi and detached bungalows with a community centre and flat above has been self-managed by the residents through a […]
LKP / Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation suggestions prompt amendments to Housing Bill
March 17, 2016 By
The House of Lords today discussed LKP suggested amendments to the Housing Bill to increase fairness for leaseholders. Proposed by Lord Young of Cookham – better known as the former Conservative MP Sir George Young – the first of his two amendments aimed to “level the playing field—which is currently tilted in favour of freeholders—for […]
Spot the difference: questions to LEASE, questions to Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation / LKP
March 17, 2016 By
The Leasehold Advisory Service has produced its top 20 list of most frequently asked questions. They seem to be more anodyne and uncontroversial than the sort that we routinely receive, so we have decided to do our own list below. Unlike LEASE, we have no interest in trying to square a circle and demonstrate that […]
Average non-retirement service charges are £1,863, but rise to £2,777 for new builds
March 9, 2016 By
The average annual property service charge in Britain is £1,863The service charges for new builds are 96 per cent higher than older properties and average £2,777 Ground rents are on average £371 a year for new build and £327 for pre-2016 properties. A third (33 per cent) of management companies have increased service charges in […]
The Homestead next on FirstPort’s list to flog the house manager’s flat
March 5, 2016 By
Residents at The Homestead, a complex of 31 flats in Lytham St Anne’s, is the latest retirement site where FirstPort is angling for the sale of the house manager’s flat. The site was built in 1986, but almost certainly a lease was issued on the house manager’s flat in 2009, when Tchenguiz was stripping value […]
Regulator to rule on whether scandal-hit Peverel / FirstPort Retirement is fit to be a member of ARMA
March 3, 2016 By
FirstPort Retirement, formerly Peverel, should not be admitted to ARMA because it has an unaccounted-for portfolio of house managers’ flats and has a track record of misleading residents when trying to sell them. These were the arguments put on Monday to Keith Hill, a former New Labour housing minister, who is the regulator of ARMA […]
The grass is greedier … with the Flagship Housing Association
February 21, 2016 By
The Flagship Housing Association is accused of racking up maintenance fees for grass cutting by 150 per cent at Danforth Close, Framlingham, in Suffolk. Diana Cook, 69, says she and other residents at the 12-flat block will be paying £150 each a year – up from £40 at present. Maintaining the grounds will risen from […]
Avoid this poisoned chalice from Tchenguiz
February 18, 2016 By
A tactic to undermine residents’ right to manage ambitions by Estates and Management – which manages the various freehold vehicles of the Tchenguiz Family Trust, based in the British Virgin Islands – is to offer to dump FirstPort and replace it with another management company. And here they are: CPBigwood, Inspired Property Management, Warwick Estates […]
If you want to reform leasehold, this is how you could do it
February 12, 2016 By
The paper below by Philip Rainey QC was presented to the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership’s all-party round-table meeting at Westminster on January 29 2015. It is a superb analysis of the defects of leasehold law, along with suggestions to reform them. Mr Rainey makes clear that these views are not necessarily wholly, or even in part, […]
No thanks! We don’t want to inherit Brook Court flat with all its service charges
February 10, 2016 By
A family does not want to inherit a retirement flat because it is now worthless and would come with service charge liabilities. The flat at Brook Court in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, is advertised for sale at £97,500 here The flat is owned by an elderly woman, who has dementia and has been in care for more […]
LEASE: We need to make a million quid a year by 2020
February 4, 2016 By
The Leasehold Advisory Service conference 2016 The annual conference of the Leasehold Advisory Service saved until the last moment its most dramatic bombshell: by the year 2020 LEASE needs to be self-financing. The Department of Communities and Local Government, on which LEASE is dependent, is facing 30 per cent cuts in budget. This inevitably means […]
AgeUK: sort yourselves out!
February 4, 2016 By
It is very sad to see it reported today that AgeUK has been pushing expensive energy tariffs to the elderly in exchange for £6 million a year from energy giant E.ON. The Sun reported this in an investigation this morning Age UK recommended a special rate from E.ON which saw pensioners typically pay £1,049 for […]
