MP Helen Jones has expressed her “disappointment” at the response of the government minister to her questions about the purchase of leasehold properties.
The Warrington North MP had asked what steps the government was taking to advise housebuyers of the potential risks of buying leasehold properties and what talks had been held with house-builders on the matter.
In July, the government announced proposals to ban the sale of new leasehold properties and to restrict the level of ground rent – possibly to zero.
But since then, nothing has been heard of the plan.
Ms Jones said: “I know from my postbag that many of my constituents have been hit hard by onerous service charges and the sale of freeholds to third parties.
“The government seems to have taken no steps at all to advise housebuyers on the possible dangers of purchasing leasehold properties. Instead, they talk about consultations and vague talks with the Home Builders Federation.
“Homebuyers deserve better. They need clear, unambiguous advice now so they are properly informed and able to make informed choices when seeking to buy their new home.
“The government should be running a proper information campaign instead of ignoring the problem.”
Picture for illustrative purposes
MP “disappointed” over leasehold properties
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It’s a problem enough for young couples to get on the housing ladder, without them having to face the mired situation of increases in leases and ground rents. The government should do what they said they would do a few months ago when the consequences to families of exorbitant increases of leases and ground rents were revealed.
Yes Helen – so many of us are ‘disappointing’ and for so many reasons.
The government needs go wake up and get off their backsides to help resolve this so that more people do than fall into the developers/freeholders traps. Saying that though many much older properties are also still leasehold as ours is. We have no idea who now owns the freehold to ours ours and even land registry don’t seem to know as there’s nothing in the deeds saying it has passed on to some other beings g from who it once was. We’ve not paid any of the ground rent chargeable for 25 years as nobody has ever even asked for it. I wonder if after all these years we could just claim the freehold… Anyone know….
Dizzy, you can redeem your ground rent charges and by so doing obtain the freehold of your property.
Go to http://www.gov.uk.guidance.ground rent and the procedure is set out for you. One word of caution, this government procedure eventually shows what the settlement sum should be, but there are some ground rent holders (ground rents are traded like stocks and shares) who might add a hefty legal expenses component on to the usually acceptable settlement sum.
They really have no reason to add the legal fees into the mix other for pure greed, because the government backed procedure is legally watertight.
Gawd…. Blummin predictive text on a tablet I’m not used to strikes again … Sorry and hope you sort of understood it lol