OFT website outlining the agreement is here http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2012/77-12 August 2012: The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has secured undertakings from Fairhold Homes Ltd and associated companies (Fairhold) owned by the Tchenguiz Family Trust to change how they charge and enforce transfer fee terms in their 53,000 retirement home leases. The OFT has been investigating exit fees, […]
Rebellion at Blagdon Retirement Village over 12.5% exit fees
July 4, 2013 By
Residents at Blagdon Retirement Village, an upmarket retirement complex near Taunton in Somerset, are mobilising to fight 12.5 per cent exit fees involving all Retirement Village sites. Blagdon is a complex of 85 cottages, bungalows and flats “clustered around Blagdon Lodge where communal facilities can be found”. With 20 “interest and social groups”, the Lodge […]
More sites rebel against Anchor Retirement allowing sub-letting … in defiance of leases that ban it
April 4, 2013 By
UPDATES APRIL 5, 17.51: In a statement justifying its policy, Anchor Retirement refers to the Office of Fair Trading report which stated that “terms in long leases preventing sub-letting have potential for unfairness” and that “permission [to sub-let] should not be unreasonably withheld”. See below APRIL 5 It emerges that another Anchor Retirement site is in ferment over this […]
End transfer fees, or let LVTs rule on whether they are reasonable, says OFT
February 1, 2013 By
Parliament should end the levying of transfer fees – that is, exit fees and sub-letting fees – or allow the Leasehold Valuation Tribunals to rule on their reasonableness, This is one of the key findings in the Office of Fair Trading’s prolonged investigation – published today – into a lucrative and unjustifiable earner that is […]
Exit fees court battle fails … but it cost Fairhold thousands and Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation now has its legal argument why it believes the contract terms are fair
January 5, 2013 By
Susan Wood failed in her court struggle earlier this week to be reimbursed the £1,150 in exit fees paid when her late father’s flat was sold in 2010. Wood argued that as the fee was for a service that was not carried out – ostensibly to vet the capability of the flat’s purchaser for “independent […]
Court case over Fairhold £1,150 exit fees
December 30, 2012 By
A courtroom battle over £1,150 paid in exit fees takes place on January 2, which may prove good news for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust & Buglife which will be getting the money if the action is successful. Susan Wood is demanding back the 1 per cent exit fee paid to Fairhold, a freehold owning company […]
Exit fees: what to do after the OFT/Tchenguiz deal
October 1, 2012 By
OFT website outlining the agreement is here http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2012/77-12 After a three-year investigation, the Office of Fair Trading finally expressed its view earlier this month that exit fees on sale were “likely” to be unfair … but that they still need to be paid. The announcement came in the form of a deal with the Tchenguiz […]
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation activist told OFT exit fee deal with Tchenguiz also includes Proxima
September 14, 2012 By
OFT website outlining the agreement is here http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2012/77-12 Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation’s concerns that the Office of Fair Trading’s deal with the Tchenguiz Family Trust over exit and sub-letting fees would be restricted to Fairhold, as indicated on the OFT’s press release of September 6 (see below) appear to be unfounded. Campaign against retirement leasehold […]
OFT does deal with Tchenguiz to cut sub-letting fees to £85 at retirement developments – but exit fees on sale still stand
September 6, 2012 By
OFT website outlining the agreement is here http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2012/77-12 The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has secured undertakings from Fairhold Homes Ltd and associated companies (Fairhold) owned by the Tchenguiz Family Trust to change how they charge and enforce transfer fee terms in their 53,000 retirement home leases. The OFT has been investigating exit fees, which are […]
OFT announcement on exit fees not as “substantive” as we all hoped … oh, and the timing has “slipped”
September 5, 2012 By
OFT website outlining the agreement is here http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2012/77-12 When the Office of Fair Trading finally says something about the issue of exit fees, it won’t be concerning the whole leasehold sector but only one single company. This information has been given to a Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation / LKP activist in an email from one […]
Shapps grilled on TV, leasehold report and OFT statement on exit fees
August 9, 2012 By
Today both Housing Minister Grant Shapps and Siobhan McGrath, the senior barrister who presides over the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal system, face the cameras as part of the Channel Four Dispatches documentary into leasehold. The programme will be shown on August 20. A second Dispatches programme on retirement leasehold is also nearing completition, although it has […]
Pay back my £1,150 exit fee, or we are off to court
August 3, 2012 By
Veteran Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation supporter Susan Wood is considering legal action against the retirement development landlord Fairhold on the thorny issue of exit fees and wants back £1,150. The case concerns her deceased father’s flat at Kings Court, in Sheffield, where Wood and her two siblings were charged two per cent exit fees […]
