Another day, another example of all that’s wrong in retirement housing in this country …
The freehold of Fairwater Gardens in Evesham is up for sale and the residents – there are 22 flats – passed by the opportunity to buy it. Now it is supposedly for sale offshore.
Meanwhile, the management contract is up for grabs and FirstPort and Freemont property management – the property management outfit set up by the former politburo of Peverel – are fighting it out.
For some reason, they are wooing the leasehold residents. Quite why, is a mystery: leaseholders have no say in the appointment of management … unless there is some sort of reference in the lease.
Most of the residents are in their 80s and 90s and many want little active participation in issues like this.
But the sad truth is that leaseholders must always ALWAYS buy the freehold.
If it is sold to an offshore entity – as so many others have been – they will never know who is taking the decisions over their lives. It may well have paid for itself in five years as the residents could have controlled costs.
The magazine Private Eye has reported the staggering amounts of commercial and residential property in the UK now owned by offshore entities (£160 – £200 billion..
Most of these keep their ultimate ownership secret (just why is that, do you wonder?)
Why does the electorate put up with this?
