March 19, 2024

Park home owners demo against 10% sales commissions

Park home owners marched on 10 Downing Street on September 18 to protest against the 10% resale commissions levied on their properties at resale by site owners. Chanting “We pay 10%. What do we want? Zero!” a delegation headed by Sonia McColl OBE, the veteran park home leader, accompanied by Sir Peter Bottomley, delivered a […]

Legal and General explains why it is investing in Inspired Villages, and wants reforms to the sector

Ben Rosewell, Legal and General, Head of Investment Later Living Business (Inspired Villages), addresses the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold and commonhold reform on 27 March 2023 and explains why Legal and General is investing in this sector, and why it wants to see changes We entered into the senior housing space in 2017 […]

Bottomley to raise with Churchill Retirement its decision to continue charging ground rents

Sir Peter Bottomley is to raise with Churchill Retirement – a private company owned by the McCarthy family – its decision to continue to charge ground rents on sites that have not yet opened. New ground rents were banned under the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, which came into force at the end of […]

Park home demonstrators demand end to 10% sales fees – as litany of crooked practice reported to MPs

Around 80 park home owners converged on 10 Downing Street yesterday to deliver a blunt message demanding reform of their scandal-hit corner of the retirement housing market. The residents, mainly in their 70s, are furious at the skulduggerous behaviour of certain park home owners – and, truth be told, have little good to say about […]

Dudley Joiner’s Team Property Management that also managed RTM retirement sites goes bust owing £635,958

Dudley Joiner’s Team Property Management went bust owing £635,958.61, according to the liquidator’s report (below). His company the Right To Manage Federation Limited, which is not a federation but a private facilitator of right to manage applications, is still trading. Dudley Joiner informed told LKP in 2015 that being disqualified as a company director for […]

APPG July 11: Robust debate over retirement ground rents and event fees

By Sebastian OKelly, LKP trustee The controversial issues of ground rents and exit fees in retirement housing were discussed at this week’s meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold and commonhold reform. These were the main event in a meeting which also had an insider’s examination of leasehold insurance commissions, and why developers […]

Fryzer Property Services lifts ‘ban’ on relatives at major works meeting

Residents at Oakland Court, in Worthing, West Sussex, were told that “friends, relatives and carers” could not attend a meeting next week to discuss major works at the site. The ban came from Fryzer Property Services, but has now been rescinded after indignant residents contacted Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation. We in turn referred the […]

‘If I fail to offend anyone, I will do it next time,’ Bottomley tells appalled LEASE conference

Leasehold sector insiders were aghast at the address given by Sir Peter Bottomley on Wednesday at the Leasehold Advisory Service “annual conference”. The event was packed with surveyors, valuers, lawyers and property managing agents paying £350 a head to attend what has until now been the most important trade show of the sector. Earlier housing […]

The day the Leasehold Advisory Service was returned to leaseholders

– Sector insiders paying £350 each at LEASE’s ‘annual conference’ are told by housing minister Gavin Barwell that leaseholders are the priority – It will be given the funds to do its job properly without pandering to the commercial interests in leasehold – Onerous ground rents wrong, says minister. But chartered surveyor valuers tell audience how to […]

The Guardian reports the £8,000 a year ground rents at Blythe Court

The Guardian newspaper has today reported the Blythe Court ground rent scandal that has left leaseholders with bills of up to £8,000 a year. In 95 years the ground rents can reach £8 million a year for a one-bedroom flat bought for £58,000, says the article, written by Guardian staff reporter Rupert Jones. It quotes […]

The Times: ‘Exit fees and poor resale values: the uncomfortable truth about retirement homes’

The Times today (September 10 2016) reports the research by Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation into re-sale values recorded on the Land Registry for retirement properties. The article, headed “Exit fees and poor resale values: the uncomfortable truth about retirement homes”, quotes Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation / LKP patron Sir Peter Bottomley, who earlier […]

Law Commission: ‘We want to hear your problems with leasehold law’

LKP met Professor Nick Hopkins, the Law Commissioner concerned with property law, at Westminster yesterday. The meeting, held by Sir Peter Bottomley and Jim Fitzpatrick – the MP patrons of LKP – and trustees Martin Boyd and Sebastian O’Kelly – concerned issues surrounding leasehold law as part of the 13th law reform consultation which launched […]