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Dozens of Mersey families say they have had their homes sold from under them – and now they could face SOARING bills.

Now angry residents across the region are fighting back against what they’re calling a “leasehold scandal” that could affect thousands across the country.

People who bought affordable homes under leasehold deals say they are now discovering their homes been bought by investors.

That means the cost of buying the freehold of their homes could rise dramatically. And they could also face higher costs for making any changes to their homes – even it’s just putting in a new carpet or a curtain rail.

Residents fear those costs could make their homes much harder to sell. Thousands across Merseyside could be affected.

Among those who have bought such freeholds are David Cameron’s brother-in-law William Waldorf Astor, which owns 160,000 UK properties including some locally.

Housing developers say the sale of such leaseholds is normal practice.

Katie Kendrick of Ellesmere Port, who founded the National Leasehold Campaign after her house was sold without her knowledge, said the issue “is set to be bigger than the PPI scandal”.

Jayne Alexander, of Huyton, is leading a campaign by residents at the Jubilee Gardens estate in Princess Drive.

She said: “It’s causing us undue stress and basically our property is going to be worthless.”

Andrea Millward bought a Taylor Wimpey home in Speakman Gardens, Prescot, in 2011.

She said: “Three months ago a neighbour knocked at our door and asked us if we knew our ground rent was to double in January 2018.

“This came as a total shock to us, and even more shocking was that Taylor Wimpey no longer owned the land our house sat on, they had sold it on from under our feet without offering us the right to buy or even telling us they were selling it.”

* What has happened?

When most people buy a house, they buy the freehold, meaning they own the house and the land it stands on.

But in the North West in recent years, housebuilders have sold many properties on a leasehold basis instead.

That means that residents buy a long lease and then have to pay an annual “ground rent” to the landowner. They can then buy the freehold to their property after two years or more.

The developer keeps hold of the land and the buildings – the freehold. But in many cases the original developer then sells that land on for a profit.

Some such Mersey homes are now owned through a company called Long Harbour, led by William Waldorf Astor.

The new owners then take the ground rent, which is seen by investors as a safe and reliable source of income.

The owners can also choose to increase the cost of buying the freehold.

Some people who live in Taylor Wimpey-built houses have had another shock – because buried within their contracts was a clause saying that the ground rent could double every 10 years.

Because leaseholders are tenants, they have to get permission to make changes to their houses – including anything from laying a new carpet to building an extension.

Managing agents hired by the new owners of these homes can also raise the cost of those charges – and can even charge residents for finding out what those charges are.

*Page Moss: Angry residents vow to fight

Until a few weeks ago, the residents of Jubilee Gardens barely knew each other. Now they are united in their battle against the “leasehold scandal”.

The development was built by Keepmoat Homes. Residents who bought the leaseholds to the houses expected to be able to buy the freeholds from Keepmoat after two years for under £4,000.

But they were sent letters three weeks ago by Leasehold Property Management saying their homes had been bought by a company called Freehold Properties 42 Ltd. Both those companies are controlled by director Robert Steinhouse.

Chris Gildea said: “Basically the houses have been sold from under us without our knowledge”.

Jayne Alexander organised a meeting that was attended by dozens of people from nearby houses, as well as officials from Keepmoat.

Mr Gildea said: “What Keepmoat said is that these sales have no impact on us.

“But I said that it does have an impact because if I want to buy my freehold, it’s about £4,000. Now it could be four or five times that much.

“It does have a financial impact. And it has an emotional impact on everyone in this estate.”

Residents say the fees they have to pay to alter their house have also soared. They say they even have to pay to find out what the fees are.

One neighbour asked how much it would cost for permission for a fitted kitchen and was told it would cost hundreds of pounds.

Mrs Alexander said: “You’ve got to request permission to do anything in your garden, and reading through the terms, even to put a curtain rail up you’ve got to request permission.”

It also costs residents £150 to request a valuation of their land, and £165 to get a copy of their lease.

A spokesperson for Keepmoat said: “There are a handful of residents that have expressed concern regarding their leaseholds at Jubilee Gardens. In order to clear up any confusion, we have listened to each concern and responded individually; while also attending a resident meeting to discuss this in more detail.

“There are no service charges and residents will not face an increase in ground rent as a result of the sale – these provisions are written into the lease and remain unchanged.

“With the exception of ground rent, the only other fee chargeable to residents is the cost of obtaining the landlord’s consent to make certain alterations to their property where it is required under the lease. Again, the requirement to pay these costs remains unchanged following the sale.

“Customer satisfaction remains a priority and additional communication is in the pipeline to address this further.”

The ECHO has approached Leasehold Property Management for comment.

* ‘We’re not stupid people... I had no idea’

Nurse Katie Kendrick was shocked to learn that the cost of buying her home had trebled after it was bought by a new owner.

She channelled her anger into the National Leasehold Campaign which she set up and has seen go from “strength to strength”.

She said: “What the developers have done is find a loophole to effectively sell a second asset on the house. They sell the house but also sell the land separately.

“You don’t own the house. Your freeholder owns the land and everything up to the sky.”

Katie, 37, lives in a Bellway-built home in the Rivacre Village estate in Ellesmere Port with her husband Steve and five-year-old son Jack.

But last year the house was sold to a firm called Adriatic Land 4, a Long Harbour business. The freehold is now managed by HomeGround – whose director is William Waldorf Astor.

Mrs Kendrick said: “They told me after two years I could buy the freehold for between £2,000 and £4,000 and I fully intended to. I didn’t want to be a leaseholder but there were no new freehold properties anywhere.”

Once the new owners took over Ms Kendrick was told the cost of buying the freehold has gone up from £3,750 to £13,500. Ms Kendrick said: “People say we were stupid to sign up. but we’re not stupid people.

“I didn’t think it would affect me because I had the intention to purchase the freehold. I had no idea their intention (Bellway) was to sell.”

Ms Kendrick says that after talks with the landowner: “They have come back to me and said they will accept £7,600”.

A spokesman for Long Harbour said: “When we acquired these freeholds we notified the leaseholders as we are required to do by law.

“Every qualifying leaseholder, including Mrs Kendrick, has the right to buy their freehold by sending us, as the manager of the assets, proper notice under the existing legislation and we will then officially engage with them.

“Our investors are all UK pension institutions and hold these assets as part of their very long term investment strategy, ascribing a value to each property and only wishing to sell it at that level; however, as we have tried to do with Mrs Kendrick, we can usually informally negotiate a price which can often save both time and some of the professional fees.

“In the rare event we cannot agree, the leaseholder still retains the right to turn to the statutory process which will establish the price as well as the legal fees they have to pay.”

Bellway has been approached for comment.

* ‘Who would buy these houses?’

Andrea Millward and her neighbours in Speakman Gardens, Prescot, were shocked to find their homes had been sold without their knowledge – and were stunned to find what it would mean.

She said: “Who would buy a house where the land could be sold from underneath you? Nobody in their right mind would.”

She told the ECHO: “We bought our property in 2011 from Taylor Wimpey as first time buyers. We were advised at the point of sale that our ground rent would be £295 per year and that we would be able to buy our leasehold at 10 times the annual ground rent within the first 10 years of owning the property. The reservation document we signed advises that the ground rent is £295 and changes every 250 years.”

But then three months ago, a neighbour told Ms Millward that the freeholds to the houses had been sold and that ground rent would double from January 2018.

Ms Millward said: “People in similar positions to us have tried to sell their property and people buying have been advised to offer £40,000 less than the value to accommodate for buying the lease.

“This has left us in an awful position where we are now unable to afford to buy the lease as the new company can charge us any fee they like or even refuse to sell it.”

Ms Millward, who is taking legal action against her solicitor, also gathered comments from her neighbours.

One said: “Houses aren’t selling on the estate unless prices are drastically dropped due to the leasehold scandal”.

And another added: “At no point was it pointed out that the £295 annual ground rent would become such a burden... who in the right mind would have agreed to those conditions if it was properly disclosed and explained?”

In April Taylor Wimpey said it was setting aside £130m to help customers affected by the ground rent and apologised for the “unintended financial consequence and concern”.

A spokesperson for the housebuilder said: “We’ve listened to the concerns and difficulties that some of our customers have faced as a result of their ten year doubling lease and although we are under no legal obligation to take action, we want to help our customers.

“We have announced a scheme that is specifically aimed at addressing concerns that have been raised by some customers regarding how easy it is to sell or get a mortgage on properties with a ten year doubling ground rent clause.

“This is a voluntary scheme and if our customers wish to take up this offer, Taylor Wimpey will facilitate and cover the cost of the lease conversions. We have set aside a significant provision to cover this cost and will also make a contribution to customers’ legal fees.

“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. ”

* ’A recipe to print money’

The companies that buy leasehold properties have found a “recipe to print money”, campaigner Sebastian O’Kelly says.

Mr O’Kelly, trustee of campaign group the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, said leaseholds were complex and that buyers should have been better advised.

“Unfortunately consumers there have been very misguided buying these properties,” he said.

“It’s not just about buying leasehold, it’s a complicated investment asset class.

“People think they’re buying homes but in fact they’re creating an income stream for 1,000 years for somebody else. There’s ground rent, consent fees...

“You’re a tenant. You don’t own the land. You don’t own the bricks and mortar itself. You own time between the walls of the building.”

Mr O’Kelly said that because ground rent was simply an annual fee from the land, leaseholders got no benefit from paying it.

He said: “It’s a recipe to print money. Ground rent is for no service whatsoever.”

He added: “It’s a totally unregulated multi million-pound business.”

The North West, Mr O’Kelly said, was the “epicentre” of the leasehold problem.

* So who’s buying these homes?

Long Harbour Ground Rent Fund, led by William Astor, has bought more than 160,000 residential units across the UK since it was founded in 2010. The North West is, as a map on the Long Harbour website shows, a hotspot for ground rent investments.

Executive director Richard Silva, who’s responsible for the round rent business, said: “The stable, high quality cash flow from ground rents has attracted pension fund and other long-term investors. Meanwhile our Management platform means that our ground rents business is completely transparent and investors receive an exact picture of the health of the business they are investing in.”

And the Long Harbour website says: “Key to its success is treating leaseholders fairly and in a manner that befits their status, as customers of Long Harbour’s many housebuilding vendors.”

Freehold Properties 42, which bought the freehold to the Huyton properties, is controlled by Robert Steinhouse. Companies House lists him as a director at more than 90 companies, including several numbered companies called Freehold Properties.

Jubilee Gardens residents found about the takeover through a letter from Leasehold Property Management Limited – another company which has Mr Steinhouse as a director.

Mr Steinhouse is also a director of the NLP school, which says it is “home of the best practical life change techniques in London”.

On the NLP school website, a biography of “Robbie Steinhouse” says “Robbie’s focus on coaching, NLP and the human dimension of business stems from his career creating and running businesses in recruitment, property and insurance – now run by an independent management team”.