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Pensioners win £68,500

‘If I fail to offend anyone, I will do it next time,’ Bottomley tells appalled LEASE annual conference

February 3, 2017 //  by Sebastian O'Kelly

Leasehold sector insiders were aghast at the address given by Sir Peter Bottomley on Wednesday at the Leasehold Advisory Service “annual conference”.

The event was packed with surveyors, valuers, lawyers and property managing agents paying £350 a head to attend what has until now been the most important trade show of the sector.

Earlier housing minister Gavin Barwell had said that the taxpayer-funded Leasehold Advisory Service must be “solely, and unapologetically, on leaseholders’ side”.

That was an indication to the LEASE politburo – Anthony Essien, the chief executive, and Roger Southam, the chairman – that this conference was not going to be the usual knees-up and mutual back-slapping event that the monetisers of the leasehold sector have made their own (courtesy of taxpayers).

“If I offend anybody, I’m very happy to talk with you afterwards,” Sir Peter began, “And if I fail to offend you, remind me and I’ll do it next time.”


Delay LEASE board appointments to get leaseholders represented. And stop ‘dodgy’ seminars

Sir Peter made devastating criticisms of the Leasehold Advisory Service, long a cause of concern to LKP.

“I’ve been re reading the constitution of the Leasehold Advisory Service and it says that there should be leaseholders on the board.

“There may be somebody on the board who is a leaseholder, but I don’t think they actually include someone who spends their time working for leaseholders.

“I suggest that when the Secretary of State comes to approve the latest applicants for the board that they include people who work for leaseholders.

“If not, he should delay the appointments.

“Those who do work on behalf of leaseholders should have their applications considered in full and get put forward for appointment.”

Sir Peter paid tribute to the work of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, and suggested that the audience (which included some of our own excellent accredited managing agents) make a donation to the organisation “to inform policy and help avoid disadvantage and stress, and promote well-being”.

The donation page is here

Later Sir Peter referred to the LEASE conference staging seminars that encourage exploitation of leaseholders. Like this one

“It is improper for anyone to stand in front of a conference such as this and give advice to freeholders on how you can hide your profits with insurance commissions.

“It happened but I hope it never happens again.

“I hope that one of the results of the minister saying that LEASE will in future be funded properly is that LEASE will not be forced to raise money in a commercial way that leads to dodgy things happening.

“Next time LEASE has a conference I hope it will invite the people who know a good deal about it but the leaseholder representation point of view.”

He said that LKP and the Federation of Private Residents Associations, headed by his constituent Bob Smytherman, should be present.

Shula Rich, champions leaseholders in Brighton and Hove

This was warmly applauded by Shula Rich, of the Brighton and Hove Leaseholders’ Association.

“I would like to second and third what you said about the representatives of leaseholders here.

“I think I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of people here who do not earn a living out of leasehold problems.

“Yet I had to fight to get a place to come here today wihout paying for a ticket.

“I think people who work for or represent leaseholders should by right have a place at this conference without paying.”


Game-playing lawyers should do pro bono work to atone

Sir Peter began his speech with severe finger wagging at the legal profession, which so assiduously serves the freehold interest.

“This leasehold and commonhold field is not one in which I’m an expert. I wish that I were.

“I say this to those who are experts, especially experts in the law, that if any one of you has had your conscience prick you because you have represented a freeholder or a managing agent against leaseholders – and used the law to prevent justice happening – can you please give as much time to the pro bono unit of the Bar Council and help advise those who find themselves on the wrong end of the legal process, if not at the wrong end of the law.”

He then went on to discuss the retirement site Oakland Court in his Worthing West constituency where pensioners – “elderly, frail, poor leaseholders” – were systematically cheated by their freeholder.

Justin Bates: might consider pro bono work, Sir Peter suggested

Their attempts at obtaining justice were frustrated by appeals in a process Sir Peter described as “legal torture” in the House of Commons. The barrister Justin Bates was named in the debate.

“I say to Mr Justin Bates – if you want to see me afterwards, please do – but I hope you give as much time to the Bar Council pro bono unit as other barristers did to help resolve that case.”

Mr Bates, who was speaking in a seminar immediately afterwards, had missed Sir Peter’s speech.

“I hear that my name has been taken in vain,” he told his audience. “Perhaps I should burnish up my two nominations for the attorney general’s Bar Council pro bono awards.”


It never rains but it pours for Martin Paine

From Mr Bates, Sir Peter turned his attention to Martin Paine, the owner of Circle Residential Management, who extends short leases informally resulting in hapless buyers facing up to £8,000 a year in ground rents.

Mr Paine, who was sitting in the front row of the audience, had earlier had a conversation with Sebastian O’Kelly, trustee of LKP.

“How are you enjoying you new found celebrity?” Mr O’Kelly asked him, referring to Mr Paine being named as a “crook” in the Commons on December 20.

In a touch-and-go encounter, Mr Paine responded that “it was not quite the publicity that we were looking for”, but that it had a silver lining: “a large Jewish investment fund asked us to manage its portfolio”.

On Thursday Mr Paine featured on the Victoria Derbyshire show, apparently viewed by 2 million people, so doubtless further offers will be made. 

It also feature one of Mr Paine’s victims, Luke Mosson, whose lease contained punitive ground rent terms.

Sir Peter continued:

“When people complain I gather your suggestion is that they should sue their solicitor so that the insurance company pays up. Then you offer to buy back the flat at a low price and try to remarket them with the original lease that had obviously misled the purchaser and solicitors. [Mr Paine] seemed surprised when I alerted the auctioneers to have the property withdrawn from sale.

“I believe that any kind of writing of a lease that misleads more than one solicitor is clearly an unfair term and should be struck out as unenforceable. And there should be no more ground rent payable on the property for the rest of the lease.”


Bellway: What kind of society are you trying to create?

Sir Peter’s attention then turned to the leasehold house scandal, referring to a case raised by Justin Madders, Labour MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston in the Commons on December 20.

“Why is it that young first-time buyers in a home built by Bellway should have the prospect of buying the freehold at £4,000 from the developer, who then sells it to someone else and the asking price has gone up to £12,000?

“When they get more expert advice the offer comes down to over £7,000.”

“What kind of society are we when people who are new to property law should find out that the asking price for the freehold should more than double in a year for the home that they live in?”

“Can you think of any of the reasons for having a leasehold house? None.

“What is the reason for having a leasehold on a house at all? I agree with Bob Bessell, [founder] of Retirement Security Ltd, who has to have leasehold but ensured that there is a peppercorn rent.

“You should not have a ground rent to create a secondary value involving constant payments by the owners of the lease.

Bob Bessell, of Retirement Security. A housebuilder who thinks ground rent is wrong

“In the North-west there is a tradition of having leasehold houses and developers continued. But it needs to stop.

“Ground rents doubling every 10 years is a return of 7 per cent.

“What is the reason for ground rent going up by the equivalent of 7% for the first 50 years? None at all.

“Meanwhile the value of the lease goes down and down,

“So I say to the developers if you did sell to the original purchaser, who used your recommended solicitor, look for the effect on the capital value on the lease when they come to sell.

“This is miss-selling. When we first heard about PPI we wondered whether there was anything in it, and it turned out that there was. The same thing applies in this leasehold field.”


Stop freeholders nobbling lease extension valuations

Chartered surveyor James Wyatt thinks lease extensions are a racket to favour freeholders

Sir Peter reference the Mundy case, against freeholders the Wellcome trust and the Sloane Stanley Estate, where chartered surveyor James Wyatt, of Parthenia, is challenging the valuation models for lease extensions that are weighted in favour of freeholders.

This results in millions of pounds unfairly lost to leaseholders, it is argued.

Mr Wyatt is seeking leave to appeal from the Court of Appeal next month.

More here 

“If the case fails I think the government should step in and ensure that there are simple graphs. It is only in very unusual circumstances that solicitors, surveyors and others have a great big argument over what the price should be.

“It is wrong for year after year to have these costs imposed in a fairly simple transaction.”


Devastated residents of Charter Quay in Kingston mourn the departure of Vincent Tchenguiz as their freehold owner in 2013

Tchenguiz and Mire, but their advisers are worse

After a brief reference to Benjamin Mire, of Trust Property Management who was removed from his judicial appointment and “against whom the RICS had a great difficulty getting their professional misconduct case taken to a satisfactory conclusion”, Sir Peter went on to discuss Charter Quay, in Kingston, and the Tchenguiz’s complex interests.

Here the head lease was bought for around £800,000, revalued at £3.2 million and then bought by the residents for £900,000.

It is the site where Martin Boyd is chairman of the residents.

Sir Peter said that these valuations were “presumably signed off by surveyors, accountants and bankers”.

“I don’t think regulated professionals should get away – whether on purpose or by mistake – with things that are wrong. It’s not for me to say what is criminal, and what is a civil tort, and what is just unacceptable behaviour.

“I am going to say that if you don’t start looking at some of these examples we won’t make the kind of progress that we ought to.”


Bad retirement resale values

Sir Peter referenced appalling retirement leasehold resale values:

“I think somebody should do a study of retirement little properties and see how the property prices on resale compared with the prices paid for them when new.”


I will be back …

“I hope to come back in five years’ time to find that commonhold is in and is working.

“I hope to find that the CMA has struck out unfair terms.

“That LEASE is prospering and that its board included people who have been working for leaseholders.”


“Disgraceful,” said one leasehold sector insider in the bar afterwards. “Peter Bottomley should be shot.”

Category: FPRA, Justin Bates, Latest News, LEASE, Martin Paine, News, Oakland Court, Parliament, Slider2, TchenguizTag: Anthony Essien, Bellway, Benjamin Mire, Bob Bessell, Charter Quay, Gavin Barwell, James Wyatt, Justin Bates, LEASE, Leasehold Advisory Service, Martin Paine, Mundy, Parthenia, Roger Southam, Shula Rich, Sir Peter Bottomley, Ted Ayres, Vincent Tchenguiz

Young barrister who won ‘legal torture’ case is nominated for award

November 2, 2012 //  by Sebastian O'Kelly

Stephanie Smith

The young barrister who represented for free the pensioners in the notorious ‘legal torture’ case at Oakland Court in Worthing is up for an award.

Stephanie Smith, a barrister in her twenties, defeated Justin Bates, who was acting for the freehold-owning landlord and is a more senior lawyer in her own Arden Chambers.

Bates is an expert on leasehold law who frequently represents freeholders in actions against leaseholders. He was instructed by Laceys solicitors of Bournemouth, who style themselves “honorary solicitors” to the trade body, the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA).

The freeholders repeatedly challenged whether the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal should hear the case. When the pensioners eventually won the case in May this year, two of the original applicants had died.

The local MP Sir Peter Bottomley condemned these legal stratagems as “legal torture” on the LKP website and in the House of Commons. The case was referred to during the LKP briefing at Westminster for MPs, hosted by Sir Peter earlier this week. …

Category: Justin Bates, News, Oakland Court, Sir Peter BottomleyTag: Justin Bates, Laceys, Oakland Court, Stephanie Smith

Full ‘legal torture’ tribunal ruling is published

September 15, 2012 //  by Sebastian O'Kelly

The full Leasehold Valuation Tribunal rulings at Oakland Court in Worthing – including the preliminary decision, refusal of leave to appeal by the LVT and the final determination – has been published on the Ministry of Justice website. The link is below.

The pensioners were contesting the notional rent of the house manager’s flat, but the landlord’s barrister, Justin Bates, assisted by Laceys solicitors of Bournemouth – who also style themselves the ‘honorary solicitors’ of ARMA – repeatedly argued that the case should not be heard. Sir Peter Bottomley, Conservative MP for Worthing East, told the House of Commons that these legal stratagems amounted to “legal torture” of the pensioners.

Two of the original applicants had died by the time the dispute was settled in the residents’ favour. Search Oakland Court on this site for full details, or click the Oakland Court menu on the “news by category” index.

http://www.residential-property.judiciary.gov.uk/Files/2012/May/CHI_45UH_LIS_2011_31_14_May_2012_12_35_19.pdf

Category: Justin Bates, News, Oakland Court, Sir Peter BottomleyTag: Justin Bates, Laceys, Oakland Court, Sir Peter Bottomley

‘Legal torture’ pensioners settle for £68,500 … but two of the original leasehold applicants have since died

August 24, 2012 //  by Sebastian O'Kelly

The landlords’ lawyers repeatedly delayed the LVT case of the leasehold pensioners at Oakland Court, which was criticised as “legal torture” in the Commons by Sir Peter Bottomley

Leasehold residents at the Oakland Court retirement development in Worthing today accepted a £68,500 settlement of their dispute with their landlord over the notional rent of the house warden’s flat.

Sadly, two of the original applicants have died and three have moved to full-time nursing care since the application to the LVT was made in April 2011.

The £68,500 amount equates to one-half of the £137,000 referred to in the decision of the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal in May, which was the total payment for the warden’s flat dating back to the Eighties.

The payment has been made by the landlords, the Oakland Pension Fund, whose lawyers’ stratagems to delay the case were described as “legal torture” by local MP Sir Peter Bottomley in the House of Commons.

The landlord employed as solicitors Laceys, of Bournemouth, who descibe themselves as “honorary solicitors” of ARMA, and barrister Justin Bates.

The £68,500 amounts to almost 12 years’ notional rent in respect of the warden’s flat for which leaseholders were confident of obtaining judgement had they had to go to court to enforce the LVT’s decision.

The residents’ association says the settlement of £68,500 is best viewed as representing more than full repayment of all sums erroneously charged to present leaseholders and has 100 per cent  support among them.

One of the alternatives to settling would have been to go the county court for the full £137,000, much of which would have been paid by former residents who have been dead for many years.

Full details of this case and the political fallout from it can be found on this site by searching ‘Oakland Court’

Category: Justin Bates, News, Oakland Court, Sir Peter BottomleyTag: John Fenwick, Justin Bates, Laceys, Oakland Court, Sir Peter Bottomley

Sort out LVTs and keep on exposing leasehold ‘legal torture’, Sir Peter Bottomley tells the Commons

July 17, 2012 //  by Sebastian O'Kelly

Sir Peter Bottomley wants ministerial statement on LVTs by September

Sir Peter Bottomley, Conservative MP for Worthing West, praised those who have been exposing leasehold abuses in a statement to the Commons this afternoon.

He also called on the government to examine the process of Leasehold Valuation Tribunals and asked for a written ministerial statement on their workings to be provided in September.

He cited the case of his constituent, John Fenwick, who won the LVT action over £137,000 notional rent paid on the house manager’s flat at Oakland Court dating back to the Eighties. This issue may now be coming to a resolution.

‘Legal torture’ of pensioners

“I described what was happening to people who, in the majority, are frail and elderly people in their 80s and 90s—those who are still alive since the case began—as, in effect, legal torture, to which they were subjected as they tried to get into the leasehold valuation tribunal proceedings.”

Fenwick and the Oakland Court leaseholders were represented by the Bar Pro Bono unit.

“[But] they were confronted by demands from solicitors and a barrister [for the landlord] to the tribunal ‘to decline jurisdiction and…to dismiss the whole of the application as being frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of process, having no prospect of success.’

“If it takes two or three goes to get in front of a tribunal and the application costs, say, £350, there is a major problem that needs dealing with.

“My issue is about the inequality of arms that leads to oppressive behaviour by managing agents or freeholders. If leaseholders are faced with a freeholder or managing agent who has associated companies in which they do not declare their interest, we end up with the situations disclosed in leasehold valuation tribunal judgments, whereby each leaseholder may be asked to pay insurance costs of £6,000 or £7,000 when the appropriate cost is about £2,000.

“There are scandals that need exposing. We need publicity and better adoption of rules and guidance and, if necessary, the law—although I suspect that the registration of managing agents would do far more —so that many vulnerable and elderly people do not suffer.”

Sir Peter was praised by Barry Sheerman, Labour MP for Huddersfield, for raising the issue. Sheerman has been active on behalf of beleagured leaseholders in his constituency.

…

Category: News, Oakland Court, Sir Peter BottomleyTag: Bar Pro Bono, Barry Shearman, CentreForum, Justin Bates, Martin Boyd, Oakland Court, Sir Peter Bottomley, Stephanie Smith

Stop this ‘legal torture’ of pensioners, says MP

June 4, 2012 //  by Sebastian O'Kelly

Sir Peter Bottomley denounces LVT stratagems in post on LKP

Sir Peter Bottomley attacks “relentless money-grabbing opponent”

A senior Tory MP has posted on LKP today to express his utter disgust at the delaying tactics used by the freeholder  – whose lawyers included Laceys, who proclaim themselves the “honorary solicitors” of ARMA – at the Oakland Court LVT earlier this month.

Sir Peter Bottomley, MP for Worthing West, claimed that this amounted to “legal torture” and he condemned the entire LVT process, referring to “the series of actions and expensive stratagems faced by elderly frail constituents without the financial resources to play unending tribunal games with a relentless money grabbing opponent”.

The £137,000 action [see below] was won by the 40 pensioners, but two of the original applicants died and three went into care before the LVT was heard.

…

Category: Leasehold Valuation Tribunal, News, Oakland Court, Sir Peter BottomleyTag: ARMA, John Fenwick, Laceys, Sir Peter Bottomley

Pensioners in £137,000 victory

May 17, 2012 //  by Sebastian O'Kelly

Leasehold residents wrongly charged for warden’s flat … dating back to 1986!

Landmark victory at Oakland Court, in Worthing, means notional rent for a warden’s flat cannot be paid out of service charges

 

In a landmark case, 40 elderly leaseholders have won an epic battle against paying for the notional rent of their warden’s flat through the service charge.

Since 1986 this has cost the residents in Worthing, Sussex, £137.000.

The battle was fought in the face of repeated delaying tactics by their landlord, the Oakland Pension Fund, which challenged whether the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal should hear the case.

This form of delay is difficult in the civil courts, which is where this case is now headed unless the leaseholders get their money back.

But they are permitted with LVTs, which were set up to provide supposedly low-cost, simple tribunals to resolve leasehold disputes.

John Fenwick, who led the residents

“It is a fantastic victory,” said John Fenwick, 65, a former law firm employee who led the action. “Eight of our members are in their 90s, 13 in their eighties, 12 in their seventies and six in their sixties.”

The case has huge implications for other leaseholders who are being charged for the notional rent of their house manager’s flat, even though this is not mentioned in the lease.

…

Category: Justin Bates, News, Oakland Court, Sir Peter BottomleyTag: Fryzer Property Services, John Fenwick, Justin Bates, Laceys, Oakland Court, Oakland Pension Fund, Sir Peter Bottomley, Stephanie Smith

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