Revealed, SamCam half-brother’s links to leasehold rip-offs
A MEMBER of David Cameron’s family is embroiled in the row over the sale of thousands of new leasehold houses.
Developers are selling new properties with leases, meaning buyers do not own homes outright and must pay an annual fee to the freeholder.
Builders then sell these contracts to investors, who can demand huge sums from families wanting the freehold to their home. Those who cannot afford to buy must carry on paying ground rents instead, giving investors a lucrative income.
William Waldorf Astor IV – the half-brother of Mr Cameron’s wife Samantha – has links to firms that rake in cash by owning and managing freeholds.
The 38- year- old runs fund manager Long Harbour, which has the freeholds of 160,000 homes on behalf of institutional investors. He is also a director of HomeGround Management, which looks after 70,000 freehold contracts for Long Harbour, collecting cash from leaseholders.
Latest accounts filed – and signed off by Mr Astor – show HomeGround brought in £2.9million in 2015 and made a profit of £334,339. But Mr Astor’s businesses have been engulfed in a row over the way developers and investors treat families sold new homes with leases.
Buyers have complained of soaring ground rents – with some doubling every decade – and extortionate fees to buy the freehold on their homes.
Nurse Katie Kendrick, 37, bought her new home from Bellway in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, three years ago for £214,000. She said: ‘It was supposed to be our forever home, but it’s the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.’
She and husband Steve, 52, claim they were told by Bellway they could buy the four-bedroom house’s freehold for £2,000 to £4,000 after two years. But 18 months later she was told the freehold had been sold to a firm called Adriatic, of which Mr Astor used to be a director.
Adriatic is one of the firms through which Long Harbour’s clients, such as pension funds, own the freeholds. Mr Astor’s firm HomeGround now manages the freehold for Adriatic and said the contract would cost the Kendricks £13,350. This was knocked down to £7,680, but the couple, who have a five- year-old son, think it is still too high and are considering taking the case to tribunal.
Local MP Justin Madders likened the affair to the PPI misselling scandal. HomeGround said it recognised leasehold issues and was engaging with Whitehall to ‘find a solution’.
A spokesman for Mr Astor said HomeGround, which manages the properties, was set up to treat leaseholders fairly.
Bellway said some land was available only on a leasehold basis and said freeholds were sold to firms better equipped to manage them.