March 29, 2024

If you want to reform leasehold, this is how you could do it

The paper below by Philip Rainey QC was presented to the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership’s all-party round-table meeting at Westminster on January 29 2015. It is a superb analysis of the defects of leasehold law, along with suggestions to reform them. Mr Rainey makes clear that these views are not necessarily wholly, or even in part, […]

Law Commission outlines ‘event’ fee report, but still wants to hear from leaseholders

About 100 of those who have contributed to the Law Commission report into retirement housing “event” fees were invited to an evening get-together at Westminster last Thursday. There was wine and canapés and gossip, after attendees had digested the evening’s theme “Building Fairness: Growing a housing market older people can trust”. Esther Rantzen was the […]

Realities of leasehold spelled out during the Housing Bill

– Commons urged to back amendment to abolish leasehold by 2020 in favour of commonhold – Tchenguiz, Peverel and Cirrus get another Commons naming – McCarthy and Stone told to explain collapsed second-hand values of retirement flats – Leasehold Knowledge Partnership praised, and thanked for reasonably accurate figures for leasehold sector Labour MP and LKP […]

Come on, Shelter! Don’t demand more housing without addressing leasehold’s many, many defects …

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, […]

Packed Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation meeting at Westminster for leasehold reform

Two veteran MPs from rival parties demanded reform to residential leasehold at a packed Westminster meeting yesterday attended by 75 prominent figures in the sector. Sir Peter Bottomley (Conservative, Worthing West) and Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour, Poplar and Limehouse) jointly hosted the session having both urged amendment to the Housing Bill. The meeting was attended by […]

What WE want from the Housing Bill

Now is the time for all leaseholders seeking reform to put pressure on MPs to get leasehold addressed in the Housing Bill. Please write to your MP to demand that these changes form part of the new law. Below is the extensive LKP / Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation submission to the committee stage of […]

Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation becomes a registered charity

The Charity Commission this week approved the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership / Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation as a registered charity. Its registered details and charitable objectives can be read on the commission’s website here “We are satisfied that LEASEHOLD KNOWLEDGE PARTNERSHIP is a charity and it has been entered onto the Register of Charities with […]

Housing minister Brandon Lewis meets Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation

Brandon Lewis, the housing minister, this week met the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership / Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation, accompanied by its patron MPs Sir Peter Bottomley and Jim Fitzpatrick. The meeting covered the following: Lease forfeiture: LKP / Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation says this nuclear weapon of freeholders should be ended as it can […]

Three MPs that are worth voting for if you are a leaseholder

Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation / LKP has no political affiliation, and our three MP patrons – Sir Peter Bottomley, Jim Fitzpatrick and Ed Davey – come from the three main political parties. The below explains what they have done for leaseholders: Sir Peter Bottomley (Conservative) represents Worthing West, which has a high number of […]

Whistleblowers to the Serious Fraud Office ‘wasting their time’

Bad news for LKP / Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation, our MP patrons, and anyone else who cares about the Sisyphean labour of trying to encourage integrity and honesty in our corporate governance. The law firm Pinsent Masons has found that 2,500 whistleblowers approached the Serious Fraud Office, but that only resulted in a dozen […]

Too expensive to give figures on leasehold forfeiture, says Ministry of Justice

Emma Reynolds, Labour’s shadow housing minister, has discovered that no one knows how many cases of leasehold forfeiture take place – and it would be too expensive to find out. The astonishing admission came from the Ministry of Justice in one of the last parliamentary questions of the session.

Leasehold mediation from commercial operators backed by government

Both Eric Pickles and Housing Minister Brandon Lewis gave a final “vote for us” message to leaseholders earlier this week with a resume of their achievements. In truth, they add up to very little and the only real reason not to vote against the government is because of almost no sign of life on leasehold […]