By Michael Voges, executive director ARCO Retirement event fees – a term used to describe exit fees on re-sale – align interests of buyers and operators and are the business model for retirement housing in New Zealand, Australia and the US, said Michael Voges, executive director of the trade body the Association of Retirement Community […]
APPG July 11: Retirement event fees ‘align interests of buyers and operators’, Michael Voges tells meeting
July 13, 2018 By
ARCO conference offers a different vision to retirement housing, but …
July 7, 2018 By
There will be – and there are already – issues with big event fees The conference of the Association Retirement Community Operators in central London last week offered a fascinating alternative vision for the retirement housing sector to the one that we have. The organisation represents providers who build and manage their own sites, as […]
DCLG stakeholders hear of ‘calamitous’ Law Commission report on exit fees
April 13, 2017 By
The DCLG leasehold stakeholders’ group was told yesterday that the Law Commission report into exit and other fees published earlier this month was ‘calamitous’. The study had come about following the Office of Fair Trading investigations into the retirement housing sector. One concerned the systematic cheating of pensioners over the Peverel / Cirrus collusive tendering […]
Law Commission: you will create an investment asset class, not protections for pensioners
April 7, 2017 By
Martin Boyd replies to Stephen Lewis, of the Law Commission, on his report into retirement housing event fees We are a tiny charity that you kindly credit as being one of the key drivers in initiating your work with event fee project. Unlike others we were not part of your advisory panel, but we have […]
Law Commission’s tokenistic report helps retirement house builders and freehold investors, not families needing to house a relative
March 31, 2017 By
Only 2 per cent of UK over-65s live in specialist retirement housing – against 12 per cent in USA and 17 per cent in Australia – and there is no reason for more to do so because of today’s report from the Law Commission. It does not address the scandals of the retirement housing sector, […]
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation and AgeUK reject Law Commission draft on exit fees
November 14, 2016 By
Law Commission backs developers over huge exit fees, and dumps OFT qualms over ‘likely’ unfair contract terms What began as an exercise supposedly to help pensioners and their families facing exit fees in retirement properties has ended up with the Law Commission backing the charges. The Law Commissioner Stephen Lewis met Campaign against retirement leasehold […]
Methodist Housing Association flat falls 40% on re-sale, says BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours
August 24, 2016 By
… So about average for our dismal retirement housing market BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme featured retirement housing this afternoon in an item on the Methodist Housing Association. It can be heard here at 08:09. Penelope Garnham’s mother, who died in February 2012 aged 96, paid £125,000 in 2007 for a flat in Rowanberries […]
Law Commission outlines ‘event’ fee report, but still wants to hear from leaseholders
January 16, 2016 By
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 […]
Family hit with £9,341 contingency fee charge on Anchor’s Cherry Trees flat …
January 1, 2016 By
… that’s on top of a £26,950 fall in value after 11 years of ownership A family whose parents owned a one bedroom flat at Anchor’s 59-unit Cherry Trees site in Redcar, Cleveland, have been hit with a double whammy common in retirement leasehold. First, the flat for over-55s was bought for £79,950 in 2004 […]
Law Commission: Don’t ignore £318 ‘information packs’ that leaseholders have to pay
January 1, 2016 By
As well as exit fees, monopolising estate agency with exorbitant charges, sellers of retirement property also have to pay for ‘information packs’ to the property manager and the freeholder. Here, Alan Eadie, a long-standing supporter of Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation who is a leaseholder at Homepine House in Folkestone, tells the Law Commission to […]
Exit fees and retirement estate agency: You now have 29 days to act
December 31, 2015 By
In the second of our articles on the Law Commissions work on exit/transfer fees, we turn to their survey of some of retirement company web sites. Again the picture is very mixed in terms of how clear each company is in providing information about the fees that leaseholders face. As well as “exit” fees the […]
Exit fees: You have less than 30 days to provide your input
December 30, 2015 By
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation has published a number of articles about the Law Commission’s work on “exit”/transfer fees, and which sort of charges should be allowed going forward. The end of the public consultation is January 29. One of the problems faced by the project is that while those working in the retirement sector […]
