Leasehold properties make up 43 per cent of all new-build registrations with the Land Registry for England and Wales, and 3,000 of those were for leasehold houses. That is one of the findings in the Financial Times’s three-page cover story in its FTMoney section, published this weekend. The article, written by personal finance veteran Lindsay […]
Archives for July 2016
Leasehold is a feudal, wasting asset with opportunities for exploitation, says the Financial Times in a devastating article
July 31, 2016 By
Man the lifeboats! Grace Darling House votes for Freemont
July 30, 2016 By
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation has received a report that Freemont Property Managers have been appointed to take Grace Darling House to right to manage. It will then manage the site, we are informed. The site is at present run by Stonewater housing association. Freemont Property Managers is run by former senior executives of Peverel. […]
ARMA humiliates FirstPort over house manager flat sales
July 30, 2016 By
Humiliating criticism for the trouble property manager, but the path is now clear for it to apply for membership of the trade body The regulator of the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) has admonished on two counts Peverel / FirstPort Retirement, which was applying to join the organisation. But the decision means the controversial […]
No porkies at Sandbanks, but is ending the in-house manager going to save money?
July 30, 2016 By
UPDATED August 1 2016. 20:17 Residents at Sandbanks at Hoylake, in the Wirral, are pondering the issue of whether to continue to have an in-house manager. It is a later McCarthy and Stone retirement site, completed in 2008 and one of the last freeholds to be sold off to Vincent Tchenguiz’s interests, in this case, Fairhold […]
Warner Court sky-high sublet costs when a relative goes into care
July 30, 2016 By
This is a recent inquiry to Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation from Warner Court, in Sandhurst, Berkshire: “My mother-in-law owns a flat and may have to go into a care home. “We were considering renting out the property but have been told by E & M [the Tchenguiz interests based in the British Virgin islands], […]
Unreasonable service charges, undeclared conflict of interests, jobs for the boys: here is where to complain
July 29, 2016 By
The ARHM code is very good – and often completely ignored. Read it. Make your complaint to enquiries@arhm.org. Copy to your MP, to Sir Peter Bottomley peter.bottomley.mp@parliament.uk and to Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation sok@leaseholdknowledge.com. It may make a difference. And it costs nothing. (Please no frivolous complaints or grudges against property management staff) The Association […]
Kyle Court in Scotland: FirstPort just won’t spend our money
July 29, 2016 By
This is the sort of dilemma leasehold owners in retirement sites in England and Wales can only dream about. Residents at Kyle Court in Ayr, a McCarthy and Stone site built in 1992 and managed (inevitably) by FirstPort, want to spend around £8,000 in the contingency fund on painting balconies and the outside walls. But […]
Ex-Labour minister Sally Keeble to keep property managers honest
July 28, 2016 By
– looking forward to working to improve standards for leaseholders & practice in the sector — Sally Keeble (@Sally_Keeble) July 29, 2016 Former New Labour minister Sally Keeble is to be the new ARMA regulator, after former housing minister Rt Hon Keith Hill, also a minister in the Blair governments, quits in November. Sally Keeble […]
Stonewater pensioners ‘turn to Freemont Property Managers for right to manage’
July 23, 2016 By
Pensioners at two Stonewater housing association retirement sites are said to be seeking right to manage using Freemont Property Managers – the company founded by ex-Peverel politburo members. Some held senior positions in the company when Peverel’s subsidiary Cirrus was systematically cheating pensioners in a price fixing racket that was busted by the Office of […]
Stop the leasehold ‘rip-offs’ by joining our APPG, Fitzpatrick tells MPs
July 23, 2016 By
Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour MP for Polar and Limehouse, and a patron of LKP, yesterday urged his colleagues to join the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold. Already 35 MPs and Lords have expressed their support. Mr Fitzpatrick was speaking in the Commons adjournment debate before MPs head off for their summer holidays. He said: “There […]
Law Commission: ‘We want to hear your problems with leasehold law’
July 21, 2016 By
LKP met Professor Nick Hopkins, the Law Commissioner concerned with property law, at Westminster yesterday. The meeting, held by Sir Peter Bottomley and Jim Fitzpatrick – the MP patrons of LKP – and trustees Martin Boyd and Sebastian O’Kelly – concerned issues surrounding leasehold law as part of the 13th law reform consultation which launched […]
