Today we have at last got the theft of the mobile home of Sonia McColl OBE into the national media, with a brilliant report by Melanie Abbot on BBC R4 You & Yours. The item can be heard at below at 19.22, and LKP thanks Melanie Abbot for this report, and many others concerning leasehold […]
Park home champion Sonia McColl OBE has her own home stolen!
November 25, 2017 By
UPDATE: November 29 2017: The Sun newspaper has now reported this story: Widow’s horror after thieves steal her entire MOTOR HOME A WIDOW has had her £30,000 motor home stolen, left with just the curtains she was hoping to install in her new home. Sonia McColl, 70, said she had been left feeling vulnerable after […]
Sebastian O’Kelly addresses the retirement property managers. Were you lynched? No, they agreed: leasehold ‘granny flats’ have no future
November 21, 2017 By
Not a single voice was uttered in favour of the leasehold volume retirement flat model at the annual conference of the Association of Retirement Housing Managers. The keynote speaker was Sebastian O’Kelly, joint trustee of LKP and director of BetterRetirementHousing.com, who said: “The era of knocking out “granny flats”, loading the leases with sneaky fees […]
ARHM cannot see a future in traditional ‘granny flat’ volume retirement sales
November 21, 2017 By
Annual conference hears why renting, mutuals or guaranteed buy-back schemes are more attractive than leasehold flat sales Not one attempt was made to defend the volume retirement housing business model as it came under sustained attack at the annual conference of the Association of Retirement Housing Managers last week. The keynote speaker Sebastian O’Kelly, of […]
A second backbench debate on leasehold issues
November 19, 2017 By
An application for a backbench debate on leasehold issues is due to be heard on Tuesday 21st November 2017 http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/backbench-business-committee/ The application asks the committee to consider: The APPG on leasehold and commonhold reform continues to grow and to date has 127 members. Government recently issued both a consultation and a call for evidence on […]
Dudley Joiner and park home landlord Barry Weir named in Commons … and LEASE chair Roger Southam invited to resign
October 18, 2017 By
Controversial leasehold entrepreneur Dudley Joiner was named in the House of Commons today, and Roger Southam, chair of the Leasehold Advisory Service, was invited to retire. The remarks came from Sir Peter Bottomley in the debate on the Regulation of Property Agents. Sir Peter also named Barry Weir, a Sussex-based park home landlord who employed […]
Pensioners tell property manager Dudley Joiner: give back our £27,000 sinking fund
October 16, 2017 By
Leaseholders in Chichester Court, a retirement site in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex have told property manager Dudley Joiner to return their £27,000 sinking fund. Mr Joiner won’t give the money back unless the directors of the Chichester Court Right To Manage Company Limited sign some form of indemnity agreement as he believes the company is illegal. […]
Resale disaster zone: Burlington Court in Bridlington, where one flat has sold for £36,000
September 9, 2017 By
5 flats sold for less than £50,000. 12 flats less than £60,001 The dismal state of retirement flat resales is starkly illustrated by figures from the Land Registry concerning Burlington Court in Bridlington. Five of the flats here have been sold for less than £50,000; seven of the flats have sold for less than £60,000. […]
Elderly Accommodation Counsel says half new-build retirement flats fall in value on resale
September 9, 2017 By
BBC R4 MoneyBox today claims that around half of new build retirement homes sold during a 10-year period were later re-sold at a loss. This has long been a concern of BetterRetirementHousing.com, formerly the Campaign Against Retirement Leasehold Exploitation. In all our criticisms of resale prices we have relied solely on unarguable data from the […]
Ground rents are essential to McCarthy and Stone’s business model
September 8, 2017 By
… but leaseholders are concerned it is selling freeholds to anonymous buyers … McCarthy and Stone complains about ‘right to reply’ to LKP / Better Retirement Housing articles McCarthy and Stone told The Times yesterday that there would be fewer of its form of retirement flats if the government reduces ground rents to a minimal […]
Legal & General snaps up Inspired Retirement Villages
August 7, 2017 By
Luxury Retirement Villages in Warwick & Cheshire | Inspired Villages Inspired Villages in Warwick and Cheshire offers a collection of beautiful apartments with five-star facilities for that luxury retirement lifestyle. In another sign that new blood is eager to enter the retirement housing market, Legal and General has just snapped up Inspired Retirement Villages. It […]
Pensioners hammered with 88% rise in ground rents
August 4, 2017 By
… Often in sites with dismal resale values Thousands of pensioners living in older retirement properties are facing a massive hike in ground rents: 88 per cent is not unusual. The older leases of mass retirement housing builder McCarthy and Stone are kicking in with huge hikes in ground rents. Ground rents at Churchill sites […]
