Wednesday 18 July Old Palace Yard, Westminster, 11am
Home owners are taking matters into their own hands and bringing their demands to Parliament. The National Leasehold Campaign will deliver a petition to MPs at Old Palace Yard, Westminster at 11am then board an open top bus to publicise the campaign.
Let’s join them on Wednesday and show that London’s leaseholders are right behind them!
The National Leasehold Campaign was formed a year ago in response to doubling ground rents in leasehold houses. Developers like Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon and Bellway had no reason to use leasehold for detached houses – except to rip off residents!
The buyers didn’t know about the ground rents because they were pressured by the developers to use ‘preferred’ solicitors who didn’t point out the onerous clauses in the lease. And some houses were sold with the government’s Help to Buy scheme which made the dodgy deals seem legitimate. Justin Madders, MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston, where many of the sales occurred, has described it as the PPI of the building industry.
The Facebook group for those affected grew to 11,000 strong – largely due to extraordinary tenacity of Katie Kendrick. The NLC grew out of the group and last year persuaded Sajid Javid to commit to ending the sale of leasehold homes.
Today many of the buyers are still in legal disputes, fighting arbitrary charges, or unable to sell. Taylor Wimpey announced a £130m fund for redress but there is no regulation or oversight of it. For instance they offer a price for the freehold on condition that no further claims e.g. for bad legal advice are made.
Despite their mistreatment of leaseholders, Taylor Wimpey have won the contract to build new homes in Blackhorse Lane. Please share your concerns about this with Cllr Simon Miller, Minister for regeneration.