What a difference a year makes. In 2012 LEASE, the Leasehold Advisory Service, held its “annual conference” in a Mayfair hotel charging £310 a head and the event was a blatant trade show for the vested interests in the leasehold sector. Leaseholders themselves – apart from an emotional gatecrasher, read here – were entirely absent. Yesterday, the […]
Leasehold Advisory Service annual conference 2013 … where, this time, leaseholders are invited
May 24, 2013 By
Peverel response to £70,000 fire safety overhaul at Homepine House
May 20, 2013 By
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation received the following email from a reader (name withheld), and Peverel’s explanation. It appears the site requires re-wiring: My mother has recently bought retirement flat in Homepine House, Folkestone. The managing agents, Peverel, have just sent out a Notice to All Residents setting out their intention to install fire alarms […]
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation campaigner seeks house manager’s job description
May 18, 2013 By
A “well known” Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation campaigner is seeking a house manager’s job description, presumably a Peverel one. Could anyone provide us with one? Absolute discretion guaranteed. sok@leaseholdknowledge.com
Tchenguiz / Peverel meltdown left my bungalow behind a ransom strip
May 17, 2013 By
It was not only thousands of retirement leasehold owners who were tossed in the swell after the Tchenguiz were arrested in March 2011 and Peverel went into administration: a small-scale builder was as well. Des Clark, a self-employed builder in Rochester, Kent, thought building a couple of freehold retirement bungalows on a site with access […]
Help! Is a second satellite dish one dish too many?
May 16, 2013 By
Can anyone assist this Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation reader? We are aware that satellite dishes can be a fraught subject – possibly even an income stream for the freeholder – but don’t have details. All assistance would be gratefully received. “I live in a block of 34 leasehold retirement apartments. By our own request […]
Is Peverel quietly up for sale again?
May 15, 2013 By
It’s a question worth asking, as its current owners venture capitalists Electra and Chamonix will get shot of it at the propitious moment. In February 2012 they bought Peverel, which had been part of the Tchenguiz empire from 2007 until it went into administration in March 2011. The deal involved a £62 million transaction supported […]
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation / LKP visitors hit 29,000 in April
May 14, 2013 By
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation / LKP websites hit fractionally under 29,000 visitors last month – the highest readership ever recorded by the sites. April 16 also saw the Leasehold Knowledge Partnerhip being named in the House of Commons by Sir Peter Bottomley. He also named and praised Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation’s Sebastian O’Kelly […]
The ‘rent’ for house manager’s flat scam
May 13, 2013 By
If you have a resident house manager, the rent on his/her flat is typically the largest single item in the service charge. It is also the item on which the landlord is likely to make the most profit since, very often, the rent he charges is well in excess of the local market rents for […]
Should Peverel customers pay up using Premium Credit?
May 3, 2013 By
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation readers have been in touch saying that if they wish to pay their Peverel service charges monthly by direct debit they must now enter a loan agreement with Premium Credit. Details are sketchy and Peverel says the payment system has been in place for more than 10 years and there […]
Prisk to Bottomley: what’s the evidence that the Leasehold Advisory Service is not ‘balanced’? Well, how about this for starters …
April 23, 2013 By
Housing Minister Mark Prisk has rounded on Sir Peter Bottomley to demand why he believes that the Leasehold Advisory Service in not ‘balanced’. Sir Peter, the Tory MP for Worthing West, made his comments in the Commons on April 16: “To have clever lawyers, some of whom will appear at LEASE—the Government-approved agency for giving […]
After scandalous delays of 14 months, Regent Court has its RTM appealed against today
April 17, 2013 By
Fourteen months of winning right to manage, Regent Court leasehold residents were at the Land Tribunal today fighting off their freeholder’s appeal. In – yet another – example of how the leasehold system lets down those who pay for it, the Plymouth pensioners have had their inaccurately described “right to manage” frustrated through the legal […]
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation activists praised in Commons: clean up ‘muck’ of leasehold and stop ‘ripping off leaseholders left, right and centre’
April 17, 2013 By
Sir Peter Bottomley (left) yesterday made his strongest Commons intervention yet on the scandals in leasehold. He named and praised the two keys figures in the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, named and criticised Tchenguiz and urged a full debate on leasehold under the cover of parliamentary privilege. He attacked the role of LEASE, the Leasehold Advisory […]
