March 19, 2024

MP Huw Merriman tells prime minister retirement ground rents should be zero

Tory MP Huw Merriman called for zero ground rents for retirement housing at prime minister’s questions today. He talked of pensioners trapped in McCathy & Stone properties, which have fast depreciating values. He named Vincent Tchenguiz, whose Tchenguiz Family Trust in the British Virgin Islands ultimately owns the old McCarthy and Stone freehold book, and […]

Tchenguiz brothers fall out among themselves, says The Times

The Tchenguiz brothers – who before the crash were among the most powerful corporate players in the UK – are litigating again: this time among themselves, according to today’s Times. The dispute centres on the Tchenguiz Family Trust, based in the British Virgin Islands, which at one point claimed to own one per cent of […]

Guardian reports Warner Court breaking free from FirstPort and Tchenguiz

The Guardian newspaper today reports the right to manage struggle at Warner Court in Camberley, Surrey, and its efforts to break free of the Tchenguiz / FirstPort management. There has been a cascade of retirement right to manage applications this summer. Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation reports the issues of Warner Court here Many retirement […]

Warner Court sky-high sublet costs when a relative goes into care

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], […]

Regulator to rule on whether scandal-hit Peverel / FirstPort Retirement is fit to be a member of ARMA

FirstPort Retirement, formerly Peverel, should not be admitted to ARMA because it has an unaccounted-for portfolio of house managers’ flats and has a track record of misleading residents when trying to sell them. These were the arguments put on Monday to Keith Hill, a former New Labour housing minister, who is the regulator of ARMA […]

Avoid this poisoned chalice from Tchenguiz

A tactic to undermine residents’ right to manage ambitions by Estates and Management – which manages the various freehold vehicles of the Tchenguiz Family Trust, based in the British Virgin Islands – is to offer to dump FirstPort and replace it with another management company. And here they are: CPBigwood, Inspired Property Management, Warwick Estates […]

Kelston Gardens: should we buy?

A Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation reader has been in touch asking for information about Kelston Gardens, in Weston-super-Mare, where she is trying to buy a freehold bungalow but is now getting cold feet. She says: “There are lots of leasehold areas including strips of pathways outside the gardens. We cannot get to the bottom […]

Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation veteran wins another £5,000 off Tchenguiz

Battle-scared Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation veteran Norman Greed has pulled off another coup for residents at Eddington Court: a £5,000 repayment on insurance commissions from the Tchenguiz Family Trust. In June Mr Greed, a director of the Eddington Court RTM claimed £10,000 on past insurance commissions to Kingsborough and Oval.

SFO scroungers who cleaned up along with Tchenguiz

Three SFO incompetents who also cleaned up over Tchenguiz – with bumper pay-offs! The Serious Fraud office has just paid Vincent Tchenguiz and his companies £3 million, plus another £3m in legal costs, but what of the other payments made by the SFO? Bumper pay-offs to its incompetent staff who messed this case up, that […]

Serious Farce Office messes up again, with £6m of your money to Vincent

By Brian Rix Nearly three and a half years after the Tchenguiz brothers were arrested on March 9 2011, this farcical case at last comes to an end. Vincent gets a groveling apology plus a £3 million bung from the Serious Farce Office, which also has to pay an initial £3 million for Vincent’s legal […]

Gibson Court death was ‘tragic accident’, but coroner criticises safety procedures

  The death of Irene Cockerton, 87, in the fire at Gibson Court was a “tragic accident”, the coroner ruled last Friday. Irene was the only resident who did not reach safety after fire swept through the retirement leasehold site on September 30 2011. Her body was found by rescue workers the next day in […]

Tchenguiz’s PR company New Century Media detonates Bottomley during Queen’s Speech debate

Tchenguiz PR man named in Commons ‘Apology’ by obscure website to Vincent Tchenguiz read to MPs Sir Peter asks what was Tchenguiz’s role during the Peverel / Cirrus price fixing scandal? Tchenguiz freehold valuations questioned Why are huge loans issued against valuations ‘created from thin air’? Government should put pressure on professional standards bodies to […]