Category: Older Posts

Sir Peter Bottomley, co chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Leasehold and Common Hold Reform is introducing a debate in Westminster Hall on Thursday 21st December. 1.30pm.

It begins “This house has considered leasehold and common hold reform and leasehold abuses”.

We all know only too well that most estate charges are too high for what is being delivered, with monopoly management companies enforcing payment via one sided vaguely written deeds/lease agreements.

Now is a great time to urge your MP to attend this debate and add to the already long list of abuses in the leasehold sector the private estate with rent charge/service charges.  This is going to become the next new scandal relating to exploitation of home owners by the plc building companies.

HorNet will be writing to Sir Peter, asking him not to leave us out. The whole business model is abusive. We believe this is “son of leasehold” and not only exploits home owners regardless of tenure, but ultimately will lead to slums of the future because the work is not being done to an acceptable standard, with no monitoring being done by councils to ensure section 106 standards are met and no line of accountability to the charge payer either.

 

Now is the time for all HorNets to tell the government what they think about estate management charges. Their survey which is about regulating property management agents and is open to you to complete until the end of November. This is what one member wrote. The specific evidence from their estate is omitted for identity protection.

Regulating Letting and Managing Agents – response to Call
for Evidence

Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this consultation.
I speak from the position of a private homeowner on a new estate of some X homes.
The public open spaces on our estate are owned and managed by ‘Y_MgAgt’.
At the end of this document I give the background to my views, as a further example for you
and to explain the basis for my responses to the consultation.
Comments on the Consultation Paper.
The paper is mostly directed at leasehold and rented properties so the questions are mostly
related to these sectors, where there are already some controls.
There are only 3 references to private homeowners paying maintenance charges, which
suggests that the similarity of our predicament has only been understood recently.
It is very important that the future controls for leaseholders should also apply to freeholders
and that provision should be made for the difference as well as similarities in the nature of
our situation.
Although charges are, in many places, fairly low, there is scope for them to increase
exponentially in the same way as the recent leaseholds. This can cause a blight on sales of
our homes.
‘Y_MgAgt’, the company which manages our Public Open Spaces, boasts that it now
manages over 000 developments, with currently 00,000 homes and another 00,000 planned.
There will be other management companies in addition to this.
This is huge.
Continue reading “Tell Government NOW!”

CALLING ALL HORNETS – EMAIL YOUR MP

The government is consulting on Property Management rip offs – this closes at the end of November.

Now is the time to ask your MP to make representations on your behalf, just as Kelly Tolhurst has done – read in Hansard here – send the link to your MP. https://hansard.parliament.uk/…/PropertyManagementCompanyFe…

Tell them how many constituents live on your estate, it is not just you. Give any examples and evidence of how the rip off affects you.
Continue reading “Keep Up The Pressure”