March 9, 2025

Our ground rents are fair, says McCarthy and Stone (even though they go up to £600 and are for no service whatsoever)

DCLG Consultation Paper On Leasehold And Ground Rents – Statement – McCarthy & Stone See our response to the DCLG consultation paper on Leasehold and Ground Rents It is a fair bet that McCarthy and Stone will be making a strong submission to the DCLG into the leasehold houses and ground rent scandals firmly urging […]

4% of McCarthy and Stone earnings come from ground rents

The announcement yesterday by Sajid Javid, Communities Secretary, that he is to ban the sale of leasehold houses and reduce ground rents on new properties to “as low as” zero resulted from months of work by the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. It will have a marked effect on McCarthy and Stone, according to an article in […]

Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation is ‘slanted’ over retirement resale prices. The picture is more positive, says McCarthy and Stone

Statement from McCarthy & Stone The majority of properties managed by McCarthy & Stone have increased in value when resold (based on data relating to managed properties resold in 2016 to-date) and historical data suggests around a third of all our properties outperform their local market.  In addition, our newer properties are better-placed to retain […]

The Times: ‘Exit fees and poor resale values: the uncomfortable truth about retirement homes’

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 […]

Abysmal retirement housing values revealed on the Land Registry

Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation examines official re-sale prices for McCarthy and Stone, Churchill Retirement Living, Audley Retirement, Retirement Villages, Retirement Security, Anchor and Pegasus A dismal picture of retirement housing values on re-sales is revealed by Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation from figures in the Land Registry. For years we have been saying that […]

McCarthy and Stone stops hyping ‘virtual freeholds’

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. […]

Housing and Care 21: We’ve made a mess at Ashfield, so manage the site yourselves

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 […]

Law Commission outlines ‘event’ fee report, but still wants to hear from leaseholders

About 100 of those who have contributed to the Law Commission report into retirement housing “event” fees were invited to an evening get-together at Westminster last Thursday. There was wine and canapés and gossip, after attendees had digested the evening’s theme “Building Fairness: Growing a housing market older people can trust”. Esther Rantzen was the […]

Realities of leasehold spelled out during the Housing Bill

– Commons urged to back amendment to abolish leasehold by 2020 in favour of commonhold – Tchenguiz, Peverel and Cirrus get another Commons naming – McCarthy and Stone told to explain collapsed second-hand values of retirement flats – Leasehold Knowledge Partnership praised, and thanked for reasonably accurate figures for leasehold sector Labour MP and LKP […]

Family hit with £9,341 contingency fee charge on Anchor’s Cherry Trees flat …

… that’s on top of a £26,950 fall in value after 11 years of ownership A family whose parents owned a one bedroom flat at Anchor’s 59-unit Cherry Trees site in Redcar, Cleveland, have been hit with a double whammy common in retirement leasehold. First, the flat for over-55s was bought for £79,950 in 2004 […]

Exit fees and retirement estate agency: You now have 29 days to act

In the second of our articles on the Law Commissions work on exit/transfer fees, we turn to their survey of some of retirement company web sites. Again the picture is very mixed in terms of how clear each company is in providing information about the fees that leaseholders face. As well as “exit” fees the […]

Leasehold ‘a lucrative way to stop people from buying their own home outright’ – Daily Mail

Questions must now be asked of housebuilders playing the leasehold game by building leasehold houses wherever possible in preference to freehold. Some of the country’s biggest housebuilders – such as Persimmon and Bellway – are involved in the racket. Politicians supposedly concerned with issues of leasehold should be questioning this matter. Indeed, Persimmon should be […]