At last, LKP can claim a resounding victory with the end of ground rents on new builds and stopping the nonsense of leasehold houses.
This is a massive change to the sector.
The decision made by Sajid Javid, his team and Gavin Barwell, chief of staff in Number 10, goes against the lobbying of housebuilders, ground rent investment funds, legal firms, trade bodies, social housing providers, David Cameron's brother-in-law Will Astor ... and owes nothing whatsoever to the actions of the government's own Leasehold Advisory Service.
Things are never meant to work this way, but for once they have.
The change proposed is utterly radical and means commonhold is now far more viable.
But our thoughts are with the 100,000 leaseholders currently stuck in blighted and unsellable homes owing to outrageous doubling ground rent terms.
It was their voices, which cohered into the National Leasehold Campaign Facebook group last January, which provided the chorus to this call for change.
This decision helps them only indirectly. The climate over ground rents and leasehold game-playing has now changed.
We also wait to see how tough the Law Commission will prove in resisting the intense lobbying over the lease extension and enfranchisement rackets, which impact the country's five million existing leaseholders.
Today marks the best news in the existence of LKP.
Slough council may take over Nova House from ground speculator Robert Steinhouse, but it is an open question whether it will pay to remove the Grenfell cladding. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid optimistically believed that freehold owners would pay up – in law, the building and land is their’s – but that was never very likely. […]
The Daily Telegraph has reported the issue of rip-off sale packs when leasehold properties are sold on. Personal finance reporter Sam Brodbeck writes: “The packs are required by housebuyers’ conveyancers, and because they can only be produced by freeholders, the seller is forced to pay whatever price is demanded – or risk the sale falling […]
By Michael Epstein Once more the utter failure of leasehold has been exposed by the plight faced by residents at Citiscape, Croydon where it has been found that the same cladding fitted at Grenfell Tower adorns their development. Clearly in all cases where similar cladding is fitted as a matter of some urgency they have […]
Labour shadow secretary for housing John Healey says it is ‘wrong’ that ordinary leaseholders are being dumped with huge bills to remove Grenfell Tower cladding from private blocks of flats. In a letter to Communities Secretary Sajid Javid (below) he writes: “It is surely wrong that residents have to pay for these essential works. Rather […]
What Does the Leasehold Home Ban Mean? | CRL It also intends to ensure that in England, ground rents are set to zero for new long leases in both flats and houses, and make it cheaper and simpler for freeholds to be bought out by their leaseholders. The Government announced these measure after receiving a […]
Dear Dominic Raab, Housing Minister Re: National Leasehold Scandal I am writing to you on behalf of the fast approaching 10,000 members of the Facebook National Leasehold Campaign Group. In your new position as Housing Minister we need your help and support to continue the work of your predecessors on leasehold reform in the UK […]
UPDATE: FirstPort response, 6pm; Guardian report, 6.22pm; MailOnline report 23.40 Tchenguiz / FirstPort goes to court on February 6 to dump the £2 million costs of removing Grenfell Tower cladding at Citiscape, in Croydon, on the leaseholders. If successful, the leaseholders claim that they will have to pay up in full by March, while FirstPort […]
Ground rent speculators don’t get more brazen than the advertising of The Ground Rent Firm, which has just put out this ad through the property industry’s Bible, Estates Gazette. “Sell us your ground rents – £150m to deploy”. Just call Iain if you want to flog off the freehold to your PRS scheme – Carillion […]
The Mundy case challenging freeholders’ carve-up of the lease valuations goes before the Court of Appeal tomorrow. It is being moved by chartered Surveyor James Wyatt, of Parthenia Valuations, who believes existing valuation models, commissioned by the country’s richest freeholders, are weighted in their favour. It has been a five-year struggle for Mr Wyatt, a […]
Personal finance journalist Patrick Collinson, of the Guardian, has again waded into the ground rent scandal highlighting the role of the John Lewis Partnership Pension Trust. It has been hoovering up properties with doubling ground rents, usually through a vehicle called Fairhatch GR Limited. LKP met the trustees of the John Lewis Partnership Pension Trust […]
Current number of members 136 + 8 friends Updates this month: 02/01/18 Hilary Benn MP for Leeds Central joined 02/01/18 Steve McCabe MP for Birminigham, Selly Oak joined 03/01/18 Layla Moran MP for Oxford West joined 03/01/18 Ian Mrears MP for Gateshead joined 08/01/18 Alex Shelbrooke MP for Elmet and Tothwell joined 10/01/18 Mike Amesbury […]
The Prime Minister faced her first set of parliamentary questions in 2018 at PMQ’s today. Question no1 was on leasehold Mike Amesbury I, too, wish members of staff a happy new year. At least 1.4 million households across the UK have been victims of unfair practices in the leasehold market, including my constituent Emily Martin. […]
Today sees yet another change of Housing Minister. Only last June we welcomed Alock Sharma as Minister number 6 its now time for Minister no 7 Welcome, Alok Sharma … another new Conservative housing minister Today sees Dominic Raab arrive from MoJ. https://www.gov.uk/government/people/dominic-raab As MP for Esher and Walton Mr Raab will have seen […]
And BBC North reports ‘corporate looting’ over £110m bonus for Persimmon CEO Jeffrey Fairburn Leasehold houses on Persimmon’s 300-home site at Harrow View West in north London sold for £50,000 more than same-size freehold ones, according to BBC R4 You & Yours yesterday. The freehold properties were sold after the initial sale of exactly the […]
Housebuilders shares have crashed today following Communities Secretary Sajid Javid’s scrapping of ground rents and ending the leasehold houses racket. McCarthy and Stone was hardest hit with a fall of 10.3 per cent. Four per cent of its income comes from ground rents, which are historically high in retirement housing. This is the highest proportion […]
Tackling unfair practices in the leasehold market – GOV.UK Seeks views on prohibiting the sale of new build leasehold houses, limiting ground rents and protecting leaseholders from possession orders.
