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Although the consultation is entitled “Tackling unfair practices in the leasehold market” there is a section devoted to private estate charges. The government are not offering much, simply the right to go to the first tier lands tribunal for service charge disputes. On the face of it, not much to get excited about, especially as we know how expensive this can be for leaseholders who can use it already.

Look at it another way and it is the first glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. It is an admission that the government DO know about this and the associated problems. Huge thanks to all HorNets who have lobbied for this for years.
Continue reading “Government Consultation”

Inspired by people with leasehold new build homes trying to buy their freehold who then discovered they were out of the frying pan into the fire:

Fleecehold is a shorthand description for covenants in freehold deeds which create an income stream for a third party. The covenants relating to estate land management maintenance, usually with an embedded (can’t change it) company are now the norm with new build houses. Often there are also restrictive covenants where permission for even quite minor alterations has to be requested from the builder or management company who then charge exorbitant fees to even consider the matter.

These are a freehold rip off – hence the catchy term!

We work closely with the National Leasehold Campaign, who have successfully brought attention to the gross exploitation of home owners with doubling ground rent leases. As a result of their pressure the government have pledged to stop this practice, but have not addressed any of the wider issues like how to compensate existing home owners who find their home unsaleable or the scandal of private estates where charges are totally unregulated.

Leaseholders who thought they would be better off buying their freehold now find that they will still have a problem, both through restrictive permission clauses with unjustifiably high fees and estate charges which are unregulated. Jokingly  referred to as fleecehold, this has become a catch phrase for the whole money making scam.

We cannot accept a “sticking plaster” approach to this whole problem of home owner exploitation – a wholesale reform of feudal property law is needed to protect everyone who aspires to own and live in their own home.

Private estates are not gated communities, but an arrangement between developers and councils where the estate land is not put up for adoption, but retained as an asset by the developers who then do not have to pay a large commuted sum for adoption and can either keep or sell on the land. It is a new asset class with an income stream at the expense of the home owners. To protect the asset, limitations are placed on the home owners as well as the obligation to pay for maintenance.

It is land banking and privatisation of pubic open space without any democratic scrutiny. It has to stop, at least until there has been a parliamentary debate.