Could do better …
Latest news
Park home demonstrators demand end to 10% sales fees – as litany of crooked practice reported to MPs
Around 80 park home owners converged on 10 Downing Street yesterday to deliver a blunt message demanding reform of their scandal-hit corner of the retirement housing market. The residents, mainly in their 70s, are furious at the skulduggerous behaviour of certain park home owners – and, truth be told, have little good to say about […]
Letter to Michael Gove: Housing association retirement living … is much improved if there is badgering by a determined resident
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 […]
French resi service group Emeria clears out FirstPort management in take-over
Will much change with the take-over from the usual service – service, that is, to the freeholders who employ FirstPort? And what – sacrebleau – is going on with the leaseholders at St David’s Square, on the Isle of Dogs, who are litigating in January? FirstPort, the biggest residential property manager in the UK, has […]
Retirement housebuilder Platinum Skies breached shared ownership rules with onerous ‘staircasing’ charges in the lease
And ground rents are £500pa on Bournemouth flats selling for £151,600 The Times today reports that retirement developer Platinum Skies, which has close links with prominent Tory politicians, inserted admin fees of tens of thousands of pounds in the supposedly affordable shared ownership leases. Platinum Skies, chaired by former Tory treasurer and hedge funder Lord […]
Dudley Joiner’s Team Property Management that also managed RTM retirement sites goes bust owing £635,958
Dudley Joiner’s Team Property Management went bust owing £635,958.61, according to the liquidator’s report (below). His company the Right To Manage Federation Limited, which is not a federation but a private facilitator of right to manage applications, is still trading. Dudley Joiner informed told LKP in 2015 that being disqualified as a company director for […]
Pensioner loses £130,000 to escape Roseland Parc Retirement Village. But it is worth it, she says …
A leaseholder in Roseland Parc Retirement Village, Cornwall, is facing a £130,000 loss on a £350,000 flat in order to move out, but says it is worth it. Eileen Osborne, 72, moved into the property more than 10 years ago, but has now purchased another home locally and has moved out. She is trying to […]
Pensioners face £150,000 fire safety bill at Cestrian Court, but McCarthy and Stone isn’t reponsible (nor is FirstPort)
Pensioners at Cestrian Court in Chester-le-Street, Co Durham, are looking at bills for £150,000 to put right historic build defects even though the site was only built by McCarthy and Stone in 2008. The building appears to have fire compartmentation defects in the loft. These were also cited as defects at Gibson Court, in Hinchley […]
The Times says families ‘lost £3 billion’ on resales of leasehold retirement flats, while developers and freehold speculators made millions
The Times today suggests that families have lost £3 billion on the resale of leasehold retirement flats between 2001 and 2015 in a series of articles that add up to a devastating investigation of the sector. Some 80 per cent of the properties sold had fallen in value, with an average loss of £38,846, the […]
Churchill Retirement donates £150,000 to Conservatives. To retain ground rents, by any chance?
Churchill Retirement, which belongs to the McCarthy family who founded McCarthy and Stone, yesterday gave £150,000 to the Conservative party. Churchill Retirement has led the rear-guard action to exempt retirement housing from the government’s three-times repeated promise to reduce new ground rents to zero. McCarthy and Stone, on the other hand, more or less conceded […]
News archive
Guardian reports dismal retirement flat re-sale prices, as seller ponders £28,000 offer
‘My flat was £161,950 in 2007 – now I’m offered just £28,000’ When Tony Cross’s father was the first buyer at a McCarthy & Stone retirement development in Folkestone, Kent, he thought he was getting a bargain. The sales rep offered him an “early bird” discount, knocking £3,000 off the cost of a one-bed flat, […]
Your Housing Group shared equity retirement flat that sold for £38,000 on ITV
A family who bought a shared equity retirement flat and lost £50,000 on its re-sale will feature on ITV tonight. Housing Crisis: What Next For The Elderly? Tonight Housing Crisis: What next for the Elderly? Tonight Most experts agree we are in the midst of a housing crisis but much of the focus has been […]
Elderly Accommodation Counsel says ‘recent retirement flat resales have increased in value’
Evidence based on sales since 2010 Evidence includes unverifiable discounts – ‘incentives’ – from the retirement developers LKP refused to be associated with the report and urged non-publication In spite of abundant evidence on the Land Registry of catastrophic falls in value of retirement properties, today (August 20 2019) the Elderly Accommodation Counsel reports that […]
Family save £25,000 over McCarthy and Stone shared equity lease, thanks to Better Retirement Housing
A family selling a McCarthy and Stone retirement flat with a rip-off lease condition have been saved £25,000 after the case was taken up by Better Retirement Housing. Rita May Bailey, who is now deceased, bought the one-bedroom flat at Bridewell Court, in Widnes, Cheshire in February 2008, which has a registered price of £167,450. […]
Government will cave in to retirement house builders over ground rents, says Times
What does this say about setting new in wider market to zero? The government is poised to exclude retirement house builders from the much delayed ban on ground rents. Headed by leading retirement builder McCarthy and Stone and Churchill Retirement (which is privately owned by the McCarthy family), have been lobbying hard for an exclusion. […]
£15,000 for Pegasus Court leasehold retirement flat in Rochdale – which once sold for £85,000
Another disastrous retirement leasehold resale price, where neighbours have paid £165,000 A leasehold retirement flat at Pegasus Court, in Rochdale – built by Pegasus Retirement – is up for auction with a headline price of £15,000 later this month. The property has been sold twice before: for £59,750 when new in 1997, and for £84,950 […]
MP Huw Merriman tells prime minister retirement ground rents should be zero
Tory MP Huw Merriman called for zero ground rents for retirement housing at prime minister’s questions today. He talked of pensioners trapped in McCathy & Stone properties, which have fast depreciating values. He named Vincent Tchenguiz, whose Tchenguiz Family Trust in the British Virgin Islands ultimately owns the old McCarthy and Stone freehold book, and […]
Your Housing Group shared equity retirement flat sells for £39,000, after three years on the market
A Your Housing Group shared 75% equity retirement flat has sold for only £39,129.26, after three years on the market. The property is at Your Housing Group’s Heyeswood Retirement Village, in Haydock, Merseyside. The property was bought by the mother of Cath White in August 2015 for £92,213 but has now sold – after three years […]
Family outraged by £50,000 exit fee at Retirement Villages’ Mayford Grange
But a cash loss from purchase of only £5,000 is not THAT bad, in UK retirement housing … By Sebastian O’Kelly Yet again retirement housing is in the news: this time Retirement Villages charging £50,000 in exit fees to a family who sold a two-bedroom flat at Mayford Grange, in Woking in Surrey. The Sunday […]
Move beyond feudal leases, says Association of Retirement Community Operators
A very good article by Michael Voges, who heads the Association of Retirement Community Operators – that is, Audley, Extra Care Charitable Trust, Retirement Security Limited, Anchor etc). Mr Voges writes: “The quality of services and staffing has by far the largest impact on whether customers will recommend a scheme to a friend, so services […]
Downsizing pensioners assailed by ‘fleecehold’ charges, reports Daily Mail
Fleecehold charges have been reported in the Daily Mail: Retired engineer Walter Wright and his wife Peggy thought they had found the perfect place to downsize,. The three-bedroom detached home was only a couple of years old and would need less upkeep than their bungalow, which had a very large garden. When they purchased the £269,000 […]
