August 21, 2025

Private Eye covers the Peverel price-fixing scandal

Today’s issue of the satirical magazine Private Eye carries a report on the Peverel / Cirrus price fixing scandal, which is the subject of an Office of Fair Trading investigation. Peverel is co-operating with the inquiry and has been granted “leniency” from court action as a result. The OFT says Peverel turned itself in in […]

Hold on! Pensioners have been stranded by broken lifts in Peverel blocks FIVE times in the past TWO years!

UPDATE It is claimed on the Peverel website that the lifts at Ferndown Grange were finally fixed over the weekend of October 5-6. By Michael Epstein It emerges that pensioners living in Peverel retirement leasehold blocks have been trapped by broken lifts on four other occasions over the past two years, according to local press […]

Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation interview with BBC raises Peverel price-fixing scandal and AgeUK logos

BBC Radio Bristol reported yesterday on pensioners stuck for five weeks inside Peverel-managed Ferndown Grange owing to a broken lift. The interview also reported wider issues concerning leasehold retirement by interviewing Sebastian O’Kelly, Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation chairman. Last Friday’s decision by AgeUK to remove its logos from the Peverel Retirement website was reported, […]

Pensioners stuck in flats for five weeks at Ferndown Grange … while spare-part for lift is made in Italy!

BBC Radio Bristol  reported this morning on the case of residents at Ferndown Grange (above) in Bristol being “imprisoned” in their block owing to a damaged lift. A report has also appeared on its website here The lift has been broken for five weeks with no end in sight as new spare-part is going to […]

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 […]