“An archaic system”; “an affront to the distinctly British dream of owning a home,” “a symbol of rip-off Britain”: so says Robert Jenrick in his scathing attack on leaseholds – all of which is true.
But he seems to have missed a fundamental point that nobody has had a greater opportunity to change the nightmarish outlook for the owners of England and Wales’s five million leasehold properties than the Conservatives. And that his party, via Housing Secretary Michael Gove’s watered-down-to-naught ‘reforms’, are the ones ensuring it will never end.
More than a decade of leasehold ownership has shown me the true depths humanity can plumb in a bid for easy cash. Perhaps there are benevolent freeholders and managing agents out there – as one financial advisor I spoke to recently, who owns 23 properties, was at pains to point out.
But plenty are the last thing from it, happily milking a system that allows them to abuse residents who made the error of assuming they control their own home.
No wonder, then, that research from Hamptons shows service fees have doubled over the past five years alone – mine included.
We have been charged £114 for a “CCTV callout” (we don’t have any); £360 for a doormat, over £22,000 for a lick of exterior paint that an independent contractor quoted a third of the price for. Conjure up any sum, slap it on an invoice with a 15pc management fee and job’s a good’un, where the worst offenders are concerned.
The Government appeared to recognise the scale of the problem at the time of the 2019 manifesto, promising an end to the sale of new leasehold homes, the introduction of nominal or peppercorn ground rents and, per Jenrick (who was then housing secretary), “bring[ing] leasehold to an end, both for homes and flats, once and for all”.
Five years – and endless (very) loud pronouncements from Michael Gove about his plans to topple the “feudal system” – later, we have a government that is “presently considering” a wishy-washy bill that is remarkably light on change.
Currently moving through the House of Lords, the bill suggests improving the transparency of service charges, banning new leasehold homes (but not flats, where service charge abuse is rampant), and ensuring leaseholders are not subject to unjust legal costs. A policy proposing slashing ground rents appears to have been abandoned.
Not only do these promises come without any clear timeline, there is no roadmap to how they will actually be enforced. Currently, the only means of recourse leaseholders have against unscrupulous agents is to go through the First Tier Tribunal, which is at best a broken system to deal with a broken system.
Some renegade companies make it through these courts dozens of times a month, yet on and on they are allowed to go, using the cash gathered from trumped-up service fees to pay for top legal brass, whose threatening letters and in many cases, outright lies, often spook leaseholders from proceeding at all.
For those who do take them on, there is an immense backlog; my small building just secured the right to manage after a year (with the parting gift of a £600 ‘management fee’ on top of their solicitor’s one legal letter).
I refuse to believe that anyone in power considers this system functional or fair. Rather, it’s easier to ignore what is by now a manufactured underclass because they mostly live in flats, often in cities, and likely aren’t voting Conservative anyway.
For a party so concerned with personal responsibility, there’s a mysterious lack of it when it comes to its approach to leasehold reform.
Jenrick notes that for Margaret Thatcher, there was “no prouder word in our history than freeholder” – but the last few years have only highlighted how far that mindset is from that of the current Government.
To bemoan the injustice of these “rogues,” while knowing his party plans to do nothing about it, only adds insult to injury.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
