December 13, 2024

Archives for September 2013

Gardens not good enough for fire ladders, so £11,000 please!

Here is a letter from a reader, and Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation’s reply. Any views from the Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation “panel of experts? Homepine House in Folkestone had serious issues over safety safety improvements, as can be read here We have been told that the Fire Officer has said that we need […]

Sunday Times reports residents raise £2 million to rescue Crystal Fountain retirement site

The Sunday Times today reports an inspiring story of residents at Crystal Fountain Village in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, saving their homes and taking control of the site. The residents, headed by Peter Wilson and Betty Young, 72, saw off 22 rival bidders. Each resident had to chip in £30,000 to save the site. The story has […]

What happens if the managing agent or freeholder goes bust?

Would Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation readers offer any thoughts to this concerned correspondent wondering about the financial health of managing agent and freeholder? We have put in an offer for a retirement flat for my grandmother.  I wondered if you could provide me with any details of what happens to a property should the […]

AgeUK removes logos from Peverel Retirement website

Yesterday: now you see them …   … today: now you don’t AgeUK today removed its logos from the Peverel Retirement website, after their presence was drawn to its attention by Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation. No explanation has been given why the logos – for AgeUK, Age Cymru and Age Scotland – were placed […]

My mum has seen a retirement leasehold flat and loves it, but what are the pitfalls?

Any words of advice for this reader poised to buy a retirement leasehold flat? (Please do not grandstand or name individual companies: helpful advice only, thanks.)  Last week we went with my mother to view a retirement leasehold site in Cornwall.  We were all very surprised to be so impressed by the quality of the […]

Here is the shortlist of the EAC (Elderly Accommodation Counsel) awards

Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation would very keen to hear views from residents regarding the EAC awards: whether they were merited and comments regarding the selection of the winners. The process involves playing a kind of card game (above, click to read) to select the shortlist, which may well be a fun way of doing […]

Will Edwina Currie be doling out award to one of Peverel’s alleged price-fixing sites at the Elderly Accommodation Counsel awards?

  By Michael Hollands  Only three days to go to the big award ceremony in retirement leasehold hosted by Edwina Currie. (Click on image to read) This is the Elderly Accommodation Counsel award for the Retirement Managers of the year being held at the National Motorcycle Museum. The awards are to be presented by Edwina […]

Peverel showed no ‘leniency’ for elderly leaseholders, so why should OFT? The Oldie reports price-fixing scandal …

  The alleged Peverel / Cirrus price–fixing scandal has been reported at length in this month’s issue of The Oldie (“a Zimmer frame for the mind”). (Click on image) It repeats Sir Peter Bottomley’s view that Peverel has undertaken “unlawful and probably criminal actions” and he dismisses the Office of Fair Trading’s fiction that Peverel […]

OFT’s price-fixing investigation into Peverel costs £458,000

A breakdown of costs of the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) investigation into the Peverel / Cirrus price-fixing scandal has been handed to Sir Peter Bottomley. It shows the cost of the investigation is £458,000, accounting for 10,660 hours of work. The costs were outlined after a meeting with the OFT on August 22 chaired […]

‘Buoyant sales’ in retirement leasehold, reports Peverel

An interesting exchange on the Peverel Retirement blog (click on image or here)  between David Gabriel, who heads Peverel’s estate agency Retirement Homesearch and Michael Hollands, who comments frequently on Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation on retirement leasehold issues. Retirement Homesearch recently had a bit of luck getting a quote into the Daily Mail talking […]

Barrister Justin Bates: Back from hols and raring to go (which may include appealing Regent Court’s right to manage)

So barrister Justin Bates is back from holidays, he Tweets his 204 followers, and is eager to get stuck into five Upper Tribunal cases and two potential Court of Appeal ones as well. Among the latter might be Regent Court, where freeholder Israel Moskovitz is determined to stop the pensioners achieving right to manage and […]

Sisters desperate to sell retirement leasehold face 10% exit fee, estate agent is run by freeholder’s brother and – yes – capital values have tanked

Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation has advised the questioners to ask the freeholder what the 10 per cent exit fee is actually for, and copy the correspondence into their MPs – fortuitously Mark Prisk, the Tory Housing Minister, and former Tory health secretary Andrew Lansley. Some questions concerning the freeholder’s brother running the in-house estate […]