Here’s a short presentation which brings together the major issues we have found from talking to home buyers and residents about estate charges over the last 8 years.
What’s the Problem?
Adoption Policy Briefing August 2024
We have produced this document for any supporter/fellow sufferer to lobby their MP – it would be great if an APPG task force was set up by the MPs who have strongly supported us from all parties in the past. We will also be sharing it with a number of government agencies and it could inform supporters when the time comes to engage with the upcoming government consultation.
The King’s Speech
At the opening of the new session of parliament following the general election, the King lays out his government’s plans for future legislation.
After 8 years of campaigning we are in it – with a promise to “end the injustice of private estate management”.
As many of you know, the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 was rushed through at the end of the last session under the Conservative regime. Much work is still to be done on the detail, but there are parts which are in force straight away – of special interest to “fleeceholders” with a rent charge is the removal of the section 121 remedies for non payment of the estate rent charge. Now it can only be chased as a debt in the county court.
It does appear that the detailed statutory instruments for the right to challenge estate charges and appoint a new manager are not in place yet. Nor are the detailed regulations for managing agents as far as we can see.
The good news in the king’s speech is that not only will the new government finalise this Act, but it plans to go much further, implementing the Law Commission recommendations on Leasehold and laying the groundwork for much more commonhold tenure in future.
For “fleecehold” they have pledged to get rid of the “injustices” but don’t say how! Expect more consultations on that one. We will continue to lobby for universal adoption of public spaces on estates, new or old. There is no place for private management or ownership of these spaces.
Working together as a network has been successful in getting the issue to this stage and our ambition is to build on this to get the model scrapped altogether.
Electoral Promises
The general election campaign is well underway and HorNets are still working away contacting their local candidates with many positive responses. The issue of private estate charges has always been considered cross party, and so far we have the Labour Party Manifesto promising “We will act to bring the injustice of ‘fleecehold’ private housing estates and unfair maintenance costs to an end.” and George Galloway has made personal contact with the residents of Rochdale via our co-ordinator who is a constituent. This has resulted in his backing of our campaign for the ending of “fleecehold”.
We encourage all of our supporters to press their candidates of any party or none to pledge support for the ending of privately managed public spaces on estates in favour of universal adoption.
Keep it up HorNets – great work so far!
Don’t forget you can use our policy briefing to inform your discussion with the candidates.
Dead DLUC???
No response to CMA recommendations for more adoption….
At the end of March we wrote to Lee Rowley, housing minister thus
After parliament was prorogued for the snap election, we received the reply below. It tells us nothing and is written by a civil servant. We have noticed over the years of campaigning this trend of delegating correspondence, so that lobbying groups who don’t have financial clout are not engaged with and are fobbed off with letters like this. Yet another example of government serving “the money” rather than the populace.
In our letter we asked about the government’s response to the CMA recommendation for more adoption. There is no answer here, but then the government did not respond to the CMA as they should do within 90 days of the recommendation. Like everything else, if the going gets tough, shut up shop and start again. It is little wonder there is no progress in issues that really matter to people.
What now? Lobby parliamentary candidates – we have just published a policy briefing which you can share with candidates when they are canvassing for your vote!! Hope it helps!! Policy Briefing
Write to Your Council
Lots of fleecehold victims are asking for a template to help them put pressure on their council to implement adoption now that the CMA back this approach and Stratford Council have successfully introduced policies to do so.
We suggest you write to Your Local Councillors (Find them On Write to Them), cc Planning Chair, Leader and Opposition Leader plus council CEO. You can either find the rest on your council web site or ask your local councillors to forward a copy if you have that level of trust!!
The wording is below, but please don’t feel you have to stick to it!
Dear Councillors
I live on the [NAME] development, which has unadopted areas managed by a private company making me am a victim of “fleecehold” in your ward.
It is fundamentally unfair that I pay upkeep for public spaces and amenities for all to use and abuse. My estate is not private, just privately managed. The liability for this cost was not fully explained to me when I bought the house and I now find that there is no accountability or transparency over the rapidly escalating charge(s). I feel badly let down by the councils lack of care in allowing this to happen via planning arrangements with the developer.
When I dig deeper, I find that the estate construction is below adoption standard, adding insult to injury in making maintenance more costly for me. In addition, the estate has become run down due to this factor together with lack of proper maintenance. There is no accountability over maintenance standards or quality control mechanisms. Councils have a duty to prevent blight and you collectively have failed in this duty.
In their recent Market Study, the CMA have identified lack of adoption as the underlying cause of detriment for home buyers and have recommended adoption for both future and existing estates. Regulation of managing agents as being implemented by parliament is not enough on its own.
Some councils such as Stratford Upon Avon have already implemented policies which will stop private management via planning agreements. They are ahead of the game, and I would strongly urge you to develop similar policies here. I am sure you will find the same level of support if you were to conduct a consultation in our area. This article explains what they did https://www.stratford.gov.uk/news/press.cfm/current/1/item/138223
Their policies will only help future developments, and if adoption is not universal it will create a two tier system and further disadvantage people like me. It will become harder to sell homes with estate charges and there is no doubt that value will fall even further. I ask you to go a step further and consider how to take over established privately managed estates. Again, this is something the CMA have recommended.
Can you please agree to work towards implementing similar policies in [YOUR AREA] and keep me informed of progress.