The following is a letter to Housing Secretary Michael Gove recording the experience of being a Leaseholder Resident in a Social Housing Complex. The housing association landlord is a member of the G15 group, which represents the larger ones. Dear Michael Gove, I note you are taking a keen interest in the performance of Social […]
Letter to Michael Gove: Housing association retirement living … is much improved if there is badgering by a determined resident
November 25, 2022 By
Kyle Court in Scotland: FirstPort just won’t spend our money
July 29, 2016 By
This is the sort of dilemma leasehold owners in retirement sites in England and Wales can only dream about. Residents at Kyle Court in Ayr, a McCarthy and Stone site built in 1992 and managed (inevitably) by FirstPort, want to spend around £8,000 in the contingency fund on painting balconies and the outside walls. But […]
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 […]
Plenty of opportunities … to load the bill
April 22, 2012 By
The law requires all charges levied by a landlord for services provided to be “reasonable” and “reasonably incurred” and to have been arrived at after a prescribed consultation process. Unfortunately, it is still easy for unscrupulous landlords and managing agents to exploit what is still an inadequately regulated sector, particularly where older residents are concerned. […]
