Leaseholders Freed From Costly Contract Terms

Following CMA action, leaseholders with Countryside Properties will no longer be subjected to ground rents that double every 10 or 15 years. Countryside Properties – one of the UK’s leading housing developers – has voluntarily given formal commitments to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to remove terms from leasehold contracts that cause ground rents to double in price. The effect of these increases, which kick in every 10 to 15 years, is that people often struggle to sell or mortgage their home and their property rights can be at risk, for example, if they fall behind on their rent. Read more on the GovUK website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/leaseholders-freed-from-costly-contract-terms 

Help To Buy Leaseholders Can Now Sell Homes At ‘Cladding Affected’ Value

Leaseholders who used the Help to Buy programme to purchase their homes in blocks affected by cladding will now be allowed to sell their properties at reduced prices after the organisation in charge of the programme reversed its policy. Homes England has shifted its advice to those carrying out valuations, stating that surveyors should now take into account the impact that dangerous cladding will have on the value of the property before a leaseholder sells or redeems the loan on their home. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/help-to-buy-leaseholders-can-now-sell-homes-at-cladding-affected-value-says-homes-england-72058?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60 

Minister Says Building Safety Bill ‘Cannot Resolve’ Leaseholder Costs Issue

The newly published Building Safety Bill “cannot resolve” the issue of leaseholders facing huge costs for historic fire safety defects, a minister has said, directly contradicting previous government promises on the matter. Speaking at the Local Government Association annual conference, building safety minister Lord Greenhalgh said that while leaseholders are facing “very big bills” for “seriously shoddy work”, the Building Safety Bill is not the right mechanism to address it in full. The comments will infuriate leaseholders and campaigners who have previously been told by Lord Greenhalgh and colleagues that the new bill would be an opportunity to fix some of the issues. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/minister-says-building-safety-bill-cannot-resolve-leaseholder-costs-issue-despite-previous-government-promises-71482 

Thousands Of Leaseholders In Unsafe Homes Will Be Unable To Sue Developers

Thousands of leaseholders living in dangerous blocks will not be protected by the latest government attempt to tackle the spiralling cost of the post-Grenfell fire safety crisis, it has emerged, as ministers publish legislation allowing developers to pass on costs to residents. The housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, introduced a bill extending leaseholders’ rights to sue developers, but residents in at least 239 buildings will not be able to take advantage because their buildings are too old, according to research by the UK Cladding Action Group. The study appears to undermine Jenrick’s claim that the “lion’s share” of the buildings identified as fitted with dangerous cladding would qualify under the 15-year retrospective law. Read more on the Guardian website.

Thousands of leaseholders in unsafe homes will be unable to sue developers | Housing | The Guardian

Leaseholders Given Two Months To Find £30,000 For Cladding Work

Leaseholders at a development in Manchester have been given two months to find around £30,000 each for cladding and repair works, with the management company pointing to Building Safety Fund rules to explain the tight deadline. Residents in one block on the development that does not require cladding remediation are still being asked to stump up tens of thousands to allow works to go ahead as soon as possible. Read more on Inside Housing.

Inside Housing - News - Leaseholders given two months to find £30,000 for cladding work

Council Seeking To Charge Leaseholders Up To £217,000 Each For Repair Works

Thanet District Council’s cabinet has agreed to tender a £2.8m contract for repairs – which it describes as “essential structural works” – at two buildings it owns on Ramsgate’s historic Royal Crescent. The council-owned buildings are divided into flats, with 12 tenanted and 10 leasehold homes, with the leasehold homes having been sold under the Right to Buy. Leaseholders in one block are facing bills of between £94,000 and £164,000 each, while in the other the proposed costs range between as much as £177,000 and £217,000. Read more on Inside Housing.

Inside Housing - News - Council seeking to charge leaseholders up to £217,000 each for repair works

Landlord Spends £22m Buying Back Homes

In its unaudited accounts for 2020/21, Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) said it has purchased 73 of the 105 homes on the Paragon Estate in west London, which was evacuated in October last year after an intrusive survey identified several building safety concerns. NHG evacuated roughly 1,000 residents, including students living in student accommodation, while further investigative work was undertaken. It said this investigative work, which will “establish the full extent of any required structural and fire safety works”, is not yet complete and in the meantime NHG has offered to buy back the homes of leaseholders, including shared owners. Read more on Inside Housing.

Inside Housing - News - G15 landlord spends £22m buying back homes on development evacuated over safety issues

Residents Warned Of Smoke Danger Two Years Before Fire

Residents of an east London tower block that caught fire had warned about the danger of smoke spread and protested that fire wardens were ineffective during a years-long wrangle to make their homes safe. Leaseholders at New Providence Wharf, which has Grenfell-style cladding and combustible wooden balconies, told the developer Ballymore more than two years ago that fire had caused smoke to spread to such an extent that an apartment several storeys up and across in an adjoining block was “severely affected”, but no one contacted the tenant to help her evacuate. Read more on the Observer website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/16/london-tower-block-residents-warned-of-smoke-danger-two-years-before-fire 

Grenfell: Survivors Condemn New Fire Safety Laws

New laws that could leave flat owners facing bills for fire safety measures are "indefensible", say Grenfell Tower survivors and bereaved relatives. The Fire Safety Act is aimed at making homes safer following the 2017 blaze, in which 72 people died. But a push to include more financial protections for leaseholders was defeated in a Parliamentary vote, despite a large Tory rebellion. The government has made a £5bn fund available to remove cladding. Read more on the BBC website.

Grenfell: Survivors condemn new fire safety laws - BBC News 

MPs Defeat Bid To Save Leaseholders From Huge Fire Safety Bills

 Hundreds of thousands of leaseholders living in unsellable and potentially dangerous high-rise homes could be left with fire safety bills of up to £100,000 each after MPs voted against a proposal to protect them from the crippling costs. Amendments intended to stop building owners passing on the costs of fixing defects were defeated in a Commons vote, after being submitted by the House of Lords. It was backed by Labour, but failed to attract sufficient Tory rebels to pass, and was defeated 322 to 253. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/22/mps-defeat-bid-to-save-leaseholders-from-huge-fire-safety-bills

Help to Buy Scheme: Insulation – Parliamentary Written Answer

Apsana Begum: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to extend the interest free period on Help To Buy Loans for leaseholders living in buildings with unsafe cladding.

Christopher Pincher: The Government is conscious of the need to make any financing scheme affordable for leaseholders. That is why we have said that any financing scheme will have a £50 a month cap. We will publish more details on how these will work alongside existing funds (including the Building Safety Fund (BSF)) soon. There are no plans to extend the interest-free period on Help to Buy Equity Loans.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2021-02-22/156607

Freehold Company Hikes Ground Rents For Leaseholders Facing Huge Fire Safety Bills

 A freehold company has hiked the ground rents of leaseholders facing crippling bills to repair fire safety defects in their building. E&J Estates has enacted its right to a 10-year ground rent review at the Hemisphere Building in Edgbaston, Birmingham, with most rents rising from around £300 to more than £400 a year. The 344-home development is facing the prospect of a £13.8m remediation project after a fire engineer’s report identified combustible EPS insulation and build defects in the external facade. E&J said the hike was necessary because of the demands of the pension fund it invests the money in. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/freehold-company-hikes-ground-rents-for-leaseholders-facing-huge-fire-safety-bills-69859?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Commons Defeat Leaves Flat Owners Facing Huge Bills To Fix Cladding

A plan to protect leaseholders from the spiralling costs of fixing fire safety problems in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster has been rejected in parliament after the government headed off a cross-party challenge. Hundreds of thousands of homeowners are facing bills of up to £100,000 to repair dangerous cladding, fire doors and insulation systems, but ministers opposed proposals from the House of Lords, Labour and some Conservative backbenchers to protect them from costs. Amendments to the fire safety bill were defeated in a Commons vote after Labour accused the government of moving “at a snail’s pace” to tackle the problem. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/24/commons-defeat-leaves-flat-owners-facing-huge-bills-to-fix-cladding 

Cladding Tax Is ‘Laughable’, Says Property Developer

Taxing developers to help pay for cladding remediation work is “laughable” the chair of a development firm has said. Andrew Southern, chair of developer Southern Grove, has criticised the government’s plan to introduce a new development levy in an attempt to alleviate the crisis that has seen thousands of leaseholders hit with extortionate bills to rectify historic issues with their buildings. Mr Southern said: “Why should a company that has never installed dangerous cladding, and perhaps never built high-rise blocks in the past, be tarred with the same brush and penalised when they’re no more responsible for this scandal than those in other sectors building cars, running our hospitals and educating our children?” Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/cladding-tax-is-laughable-says-property-developer-69500?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Johnson Accused Of Betraying Homeowners Over Cladding Crisis

 Boris Johnson stands accused of betraying homeowners after ministers unveiled a £3.5bn fund to fix dangerous cladding which risks leaving an estimated half a million people still facing financial difficulties. The prime minister faced a backlash from his own MPs after the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, announced that homeowners in blocks less than 18 metres tall would be left out of a new cladding crisis fund. They will be offered long-term low-interest loans instead, which some said risked pushing them into negative equity. Last week Johnson told parliament: “No leaseholder should have to pay for the unaffordable costs of fixing safety defects that they didn’t cause and are no fault of their own.” Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/10/boris-johnson-accused-of-betraying-homeowners-over-cladding-crisis

Leaseholders Feel ‘More Trapped’ In Blocks With Cladding Because Of Help To Buy Loans

Some leaseholders who have attempted to move have been blocked by Homes England, the administrators of the Help to Buy programme, because of restrictions around sales of apartments in blocks with dangerous cladding. The government’s housing delivery agency is now preventing the redemption of loans on these homes, too. Homes England currently has a condition in place in which those who have bought their homes with support of a Help to Buy loan are only allowed to sell their home at an ‘unaffected market value’. This means that homes cannot be sold at a price that takes into account the dangerous materials on the building. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/leaseholders-feel-more-trapped-in-blocks-with-cladding-because-of-help-to-buy-loans-69463?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60 

Leaseholders To Be Given Right To Extend Leases By 990 Years With No Ground Rent

Hundreds of thousands of leaseholders stuck in unsellable homes with escalating running costs have some light at the end of the tunnel. “Feudal” leasehold laws are to be swept away, making it easier – and cheaper – for them to extend the leases on their homes. The key change unveiled by housing minister Robert Jenrick is the right to extend their leases by almost 1,000 years. Once a lease is extended leaseholders will no longer have to pay annual ground rents to their freeholders either. Read more on the Homes & Property website.

https://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/leasehold-reform-extend-ground-rent-a140724.html

MPs Back Amendment To Protect Leaseholders From Cladding Costs

A total of 22 Conservative MPs have now signed the McPartland–Smith amendment to the government’s Fire Safety Bill. The bill is a new part of legislation that looks to increase fire safety in blocks in response to the Grenfell Tower fire. The Fire Safety Bill, which was put before parliament last March, is aimed at amending the 2005 Fire Safety Order and includes stronger rules to ensure building owners fix fire safety defects internally and externally. The amendment puts forward a change to the current legislation to ensure the costs of historic work will not be passed on to leaseholders. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/wave-of-conservative-mps-back-amendment-to-protect-leaseholders-from-cladding-costs-69123?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Leaseholders Paying More Than £11,000 A Month For Waking Watch

Leaseholders living in blocks with dangerous cladding are paying more than £11,000 a month between them for waking watch patrols, new government figures have shown. The figure paid by each individual leaseholder is £137 on average. However, the monthly figure increases to £17,897 per block when you take the median average and £331 per leaseholder. A waking watch is a measure that is required when the presence of dangerous cladding or fire safety issues means the evacuation policy on a block changes from stay put to simultaneous evacuation. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/leaseholders-paying-more-than-11000-a-month-for-waking-watch-mhclg-analysis-says-68232?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60 

Social Landlords ‘Face £10bn Bill To Fix Fire Safety Problems’

Social landlords have warned they are facing a bill of more than £10bn to fix fire safety problems after the Grenfell Tower disaster and that much-needed affordable housebuilding is in jeopardy unless the government funds a bailout. The cost is at least 25 times greater than the £400m budgeted for so far by ministers for housing associations to remove Grenfell-style cladding. It emerged as pressure grows on Downing Street to sanction a separate bailout of private leaseholders estimated at more than £2bn, with hundreds of thousands of homeowners unable to sell or mortgage their homes. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/02/social-landlords-face-10bn-bill-to-fix-fire-safety-problems