… Opposition and government now compete to reform leasehold The four-year campaign of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership to reform leasehold has taken a surge forward this week. Today Labour said that it will cap charges that leaseholders pay in ground rents, and set out a plan to end leasehold houses in new developments. Meanwhile, government […]
BBC One Show warnings over retirement housing’s ‘sting in the tail’
November 25, 2016 By
The BBC One Show on prime time telly featured retirement housing earlier this week (November 22). It can be viewed here at 2.09 minutes The presenters warned that retirement housing can come with a “financial sting in the tail that can hit families at the worst possible time”. Sebastian O’Kelly, of Campaign against retirement leasehold […]
Disgraceful leasehold houses reported in The Guardian today
October 29, 2016 By
– Urgent issue for MPs of parliamentary group on leasehold next month – Onerous lease terms in taxpayer-aided Help To Buy scheme – Ground rents doubling every 10 years from plc housebuilder The disgraceful and increasingly widespread scandal of plc housebuilders selling leasehold houses is reported in The Guardian today. It can be read here The […]
The Guardian reports the £8,000 a year ground rents at Blythe Court
October 22, 2016 By
The Guardian newspaper has today reported the Blythe Court ground rent scandal that has left leaseholders with bills of up to £8,000 a year. In 95 years the ground rents can reach £8 million a year for a one-bedroom flat bought for £58,000, says the article, written by Guardian staff reporter Rupert Jones. It quotes […]
Private Eye reports challenge to ‘scandal’ of lease extension values
September 28, 2016 By
Private Eye today published reports of the legal challenge to the “scandal” of lease extension valuations mounted by chartered surveyor James Wyatt. Wyatt, a former head of valuations at John D Wood, is urging the adoption of a more mathematically robust method to value short leases: that is leasehold properties, usually flats, that have less […]
The Times: ‘Exit fees and poor resale values: the uncomfortable truth about retirement homes’
September 10, 2016 By
The Times today (September 10 2016) reports the research by Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation into re-sale values recorded on the Land Registry for retirement properties. The article, headed “Exit fees and poor resale values: the uncomfortable truth about retirement homes”, quotes Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation / LKP patron Sir Peter Bottomley, who earlier […]
Methodist Housing Association flat falls 40% on re-sale, says BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours
August 24, 2016 By
… So about average for our dismal retirement housing market BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme featured retirement housing this afternoon in an item on the Methodist Housing Association. It can be heard here at 08:09. Penelope Garnham’s mother, who died in February 2012 aged 96, paid £125,000 in 2007 for a flat in Rowanberries […]
To stop being pushed around, go for right to manage or buy the freehold, says Mail on Sunday
August 8, 2016 By
The Mail on Sunday personal finance section went over the issue of leaseholders exercising right to manage and buying the freehold yesterday. The article can be read here It referenced the LEASE survey that found that 57 per cent of leaseholders regretted buying their property. This is a figure quite unprecedented in other jurisdictions where […]
Leasehold sales are bedevilled by ‘extortionate’ charges and game-playing, says the Conveyancing Association
August 3, 2016 By
… Conveyancing Association calls for enforcement of reasonable fees, and it wants Land Registry to register ‘lease administrators’ who handle sales … It claims there is ‘an imbalance of bargaining power between the lease administrator and the leaseholder’ … 34 per cent of estate agents say leasehold sales are a ‘nightmare’ … LKP tells the […]
Leasehold is a feudal, wasting asset with opportunities for exploitation, says the Financial Times in a devastating article
July 31, 2016 By
Leasehold properties make up 43 per cent of all new-build registrations with the Land Registry for England and Wales, and 3,000 of those were for leasehold houses. That is one of the findings in the Financial Times’s three-page cover story in its FTMoney section, published this weekend. The article, written by personal finance veteran Lindsay […]
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 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 […]
