Warm congratulations to Ed Davey, the former LibDem MP and Energy Secretary – and patron of LKP – who was knighted today in the New Year honours. In spite of his cabinet commitments, Ed has been a huge help to LKP / Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation and to all leaseholders. It was Ed who […]
Archives for 2015
Second Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation patron knighted: Arise Sir Ed Davey!
December 31, 2015 By
Exit fees and retirement estate agency: You now have 29 days to act
December 31, 2015 By
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 […]
Exit fees: You have less than 30 days to provide your input
December 30, 2015 By
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation has published a number of articles about the Law Commission’s work on “exit”/transfer fees, and which sort of charges should be allowed going forward. The end of the public consultation is January 29. One of the problems faced by the project is that while those working in the retirement sector […]
From Tokyo, a victory against E&M and Peverel at Maltings Court
December 30, 2015 By
A leaseholder of a property at Maltings Court, Stratford-upon-Avon, has settled an action over wrongly demanded ground rent and his court costs … corresponding with E&M and Peverel / FirstPort from Tokyo. In spring 2011, Geoffrey Powell, and a number of other leaseholders at the 21-flat Maltings Court, received ground rent demands dating back to 2005 […]
‘She’s had enough’: Police hold husband after 81-year-old wife is shot dead in communal lounge at De La Mer House
December 29, 2015 By
Ronald King, 86, is still being held by Essex police following the death yesterday morning of his wife Rita, 81, at the private De La Mer care home. Mrs King, a dementia patient, was shot in the head by a pistol in the communal lounge of De La Mer House in front of other patients, […]
A year of disillusion with ARMA-Q …
December 29, 2015 By
… Left to themselves, the leasehold managing agent sector seems incapable of reform A personal view by Michael Hollands (Michael Hollands lives in a retirement development in Nottingham and has long been campaigning to improve conditions in retirement housing and the wider leasehold sector) It all started in mid 2014, with the announcement that […]
Boughton Hall’s £950,000 freehold for sale and it pays out 22% a year …
December 22, 2015 By
(… unless Law Commission’s exit fee report ends this income stream) It is not often that you are made an offer that it would be simply madness to refuse, and it is a great shame for the elderly at Boughton Hall in Chester that it has come so late in their lives. The 80 residents […]
December 21, 2015 By
We save money living at Woodchester Valley Village … but then we do all own it ourselves
December 21, 2015 By
When his retirement village outside Stroud, in Gloucestershire, went bust – with many of the leasehold properties unsold – Peter Wilson and the other residents decided to buy the site off the administrators, raised £2 million and now run the site themselves. The result is Woodchester Valley Village, a mutual ‘not for profit’ retirement village. What the elderly residents […]
Come on, Shelter! Don’t demand more housing without addressing leasehold’s many, many defects …
December 18, 2015 By
For some years, LKP has been pleading with the homeless and housing charity Shelter to do more to support the problems faced by leaseholders. For example, the arbitrary loss of home and destitution faced by lease forfeiture should surely be a concern? Forfeiture means total loss of the asset, offering a cash windfall to landlords, […]
‘Our flat at McCarthy & Stone’s Buckingham Court has fallen in value £60,000 in 14 years’
December 10, 2015 By
(… and what does the Elderly Accommodation Counsel / HousingCare.org actually DO, apart from advertise these properties for sale?) By Ian Robinson If you require an example of how bad the resale value of the properties are in the retirement market you need look no further than the McCarthy and Stone built Buckingham Court. We […]
From movie stars to rock gods: the amazing Village People of Shenley Wood …
December 7, 2015 By
Hats off to the residents of the Shenley Wood Retirement Village for their brilliant 2016 calender. Residents have dressed up as rock gods and pop divas to produce a calendar for the Christmas season. For their 2015 calender the residents, aged 64 to 93, produced cover versions based on calendar, based on famous films. The […]
