WHAT ABOUT US, MR JAVID?

Your leasehold reforms don’t go far enough say families STILL trapped in their homes

‘Turned into a costly nightmare’ Victory over leasehold rip-offs on new homes

PLANS to end the scandal of toxic property leaseholds were in disarray last night.

Campaigners said ministers were ignoring the plight of more than a million buyers locked into rip-off deals.

They cited figures showing that more than 100,000 homes are effectively unsellable because of unfair contracts. Some owners face their ground rent doubling every year.

Sajid Javid yesterday unveiled an eightweek consultation on plans to crackdown on leasehold abuse, including plans to ban the sale of leasehold houses.

The Communities Secretary said the form of ownership would be restricted to properties with shared services, such as flats which charge ground rent to cover maintenance.

However, there was little on offer for those already burdened with a leasehold contract on newly-built houses. Leaseholders have a legal right to occupy and use a property for a set period, typically from 99 to 999 years.

But on many housing estates, developers have sold on the freehold to overseas investors, who have then ramped up ground rents. In one example in Bolton, the charges on a £200,000 property are due to hit £10,000 a year by 2050.

Taylor Wimpey set aside £130million this year to buy customers out of leasehold contracts in which the ground rent doubles every decade. The firm apologised after it emerged that some new-build properties were nearly worthless.

Mr Javid said a number of house-builders had set up compensation schemes and he was also looking at ways buyers could seek redress from solicitors who did not spot the clause on leaseholds in their contracts.

But campaigners said the existing plans did not go far enough.

Sir Peter Bottomley, co-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on leasehold reform, said: ‘The Government has gone further than any other government has and this is welcome, but they don’t go far enough.

‘What plans do they have to help people who currently have toxic terms in their leases? They should be helping people who have suffered gross exploitation.

‘They have totally disregarded interests of people unable to sell their houses. The terms can be regarded as so unfair that they

From yesterday’s Mail should be unenforceable. There has been a gross exploitation of leaseholders, an unfairness and wrongdoing in the sector.’

The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, a charity that campaigns for reform, said that there were now 100,000 properties in England and Wales that were unsellable because of their leasehold terms.

Sebastian O’Kelly, the group’s director, said: ‘The consultation doesn’t go far enough. The main question is what’s going to happen to people living in leasehold properties? Most lenders won’t touch these deals.’

Katie Kendrick, who set up the National Leasehold Campaign Facebook group, said: ‘It’s not clear what they are going to do to help those who are already stuck in this situation.

‘We will campaign relentlessly for the thousands of people who are already affected by this.

‘Houses should not be sold as leasehold. And if the Government is saying this shouldn’t happen in the future, then it shouldn’t have happened historically.’

Liberal Democrat MP Ed Davey, also a member of the parliamentary leasehold group, said the Government was doing nothing to help affected leaseholders.

He added: ‘Action is urgently needed to help those whose dream of home ownership has turned into a costly nightmare.’

John Healey, Labour’s housing spokesman, said: ‘The Government has known about and ignored the ground rents scandal for a long time, allowing hard- working families to be ripped off under costly lease-

hold agreements.’ On Monday, Mr Javid unveiled his plan to end the ‘feudal’ practice of selling new homes with a leasehold.

He praised the Mail for exposing the unfair practices, saying developers had been given a chance but had failed to mend their ways.

Under the plans, builders will be banned from selling new leasehold houses, a practice that was not widespread until recently.

There are an estimated 1.2million leasehold houses in England.

In 1996, just 22 per cent of new builds were leasehold. But by 2015, this had risen to 43 per cent.

Ministers hope the plans, which are subject to consultation, will be in force by early next year.

However, there are also concerns that no property lawyers have been disciplined over the scandal.

Some first-time buyers have claimed they were not given proper advice when buying leaseholds.

Solicitors who work in the property industry can be disciplined by the Solicitors Regulation Author- ity, while the Council for Licensed Conveyancers investigates other legal professionals.

An SRA spokesman said it had received just a handful of complaints about bad practice in relation to leasehold, while the CLC said it had received none.

A Taylor Wimpey spokesman said last night: ‘All our customers received independent professional legal advice from regulated legal firms when purchasing their property and signing their leases, the terms of which were outlined simply and clearly.

‘We would expect all solicitors to explain the ownership structure of a property and any rent reviews to their clients.

‘Similar to all major housebuilders... Taylor Wimpey has typically sold its underlying freehold interests. This is because the administrative structures needed to manage a portfolio of freehold is very different to a housebuilder’s core business.’