Is the ground rent ban responsible? Sebastian O’Kelly I guess when you stand down as boss of a publicly quoted retirement housing company that has seen profits fall from £110 million to £65-£80 the headline-writing punsters are not going to miss a trick. So, Clive Fenton, 60, McCarthy and Stone’s CEO, is being “pensioned off” […]
The anti-ground rent trade body ARCO has been snubbed and left uninvited by retirement housing insiders at a City law firm conference next Wednesday to discuss whether a Retirement Housing Act is needed. The Association of Retirement Community Operators, whose members build and manage their retirement housing and care sites for the long term, has […]
… And ‘leaseholder voices’ video launched, in initiatives from the National Leasehold Campaign The National Leasehold Campaign’s (NLC) Petition to ‘Abolish Leasehold & Introduce Regulation For Residential Managing Agents’ has reached 10,500 signatures. It calls for the government to announce a Select Committee Inquiry into the leasehold scandal. https://www.change.org/p/theresa-may-mp-abolish-leasehold-strict-regulation-for-residential-managing-agents-be-introduced This comes at a crucial time […]
Sir Ed Davey, chair of the APPG on leasehold reform and co-patron of LKP, today criticises the Consumers’ Association Which? for publishing a report (on Thursday) into the ground rent scandal that bears a striking resemblance to work already done by LKP. Sir Ed, LibDem MP for Kingston and Surbiton, also urges the generously funded […]
On Monday the Law Commission held its first stakeholder meeting on commonhold – which it is tasked to review, along with lease extension and enfranchisement as part of the government’s initiative to reform the leasehold sector. Held in the Ministry of Justice, it was a miniature conference of around 70 invitees including the three MP […]
Changing doubling ground rents to RPI allows a quick sale or enfranchisement but loads the freehold with revenues My 250-year lease with doubling ground rents add up to £1.9 million, but RPI ones add up to £25 million! Communities Select Committee needs to haul in the housebuilders By Joanne Darbyshire I bought my home from […]
The following has been received by Sonia McColl OBE Dear LKP and all the wonderful people who have helped me, Your amazing gestures of kindness have raised £14,682 pounds and I can not adequately say how grateful I am to you all. However, I hope you will all know how much it helps when a […]
Leaseholders trapped in unsellable homes owing to rip-off ground rents have deluged Clive Betts MP (above) to call in housebuilders to explain their haphazard ground rent review schemes. Mr Betts chairs the Communities Select Committee but declines to intervene in the leasehold scandal whereby 100,000 homeowners are trapped in unsellable properties, according to Nationwide. Mr […]
The Conveyancing Association claims that 98% of sales of properties with onerous or doubling ground rents broke consumer protection rules. Only 2% of purchasers received information prior to viewing a property, according to a survey carried out with the help of the National Leasehold Campaign and the Home Owners’ Alliance. The Conveyancing Association has reported […]
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (145263): Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department’s press release, Government announces it will fully fund unsafe cladding removal in social housing, published on 16 May […]
The Advertising Standards Authority has again rejected leaseholders’ complaints that leasehold properties should not be marketed as “homeownership”. The complaint was raised separately by veteran leasehold activists Susan Wood and Michael Hollands. Both received replies from “a complaints executive” at the ASA on May 17. Both complaints concerned adverts by McCarthy and Stone, and both […]
