'Fleecehold is not true home ownership' Rachel has said.
Rachel has been calling on the government to end this model, instead returning to the requirement for developers to hand over completed estates to the local authority for adoption.
Too many homeowners are afflicted with costly, remote and unaccountable management agents that provide a very poor service.
Speaking last week in the House of Commons, during the debate on the Leasehold and Reform Bill, Rachel echoed the concerns of fellow MPs about 'the lack of adoption by local authorities', adding 'It is a blight on many homeowners in Redditch.' Rachel is a former Housing Minister and has seen problems all over the country, as a result she believes there is a pressing need for reform to leasehold and fleecehold housing.
Fleecehold refers to the inclusion of onerous terms in the deeds of a freehold property or lease of a leasehold property. When people have saved up and bought their dream home, they sometimes find out much later on that there are clauses and conditions attached that allows a management company to impose a service charge on the householder. These can often increase without any notice, and homeowners are unable to challenge them. The charges can be out of all proportion to the service delivered, for example thousands of pounds collected annually for grass cutting that hardly ever takes place, provision of a children's play area that is not maintained, so is closed. Homeowners are already paying council tax and often ask why they have to pay again for maintenance of shared open spaces or play parks, when the public can use them as well without contributing. Such onerous charges can even make it difficult for people to sell or remortgage later on.
The Competition and Markets Authority has investigated fleecehold and acknowledged that “households are facing financial and emotional detriment, and, if the status quo is maintained, this is likely to worsen over time”.
Rachel said:
''Fleecehold estates have absolutely no place in 2024 Britain. As a former housing minister, I saw firsthand some of the personal tragedies, the huge costs and complete unfairness of the fleecehold system. Home ownership should mean exactly that, you own the home and are not tied up in some expensive ongoing legal wrangle trying to extricate yourself from a management company that does not deliver or inflicts outrageous charges.'
We see all too often a local authority and developer locked in an ongoing conflict of who owes what, who is going to pay and who is going to conduct the maintenance and repairs of shared facilities. For example, Brockhill residents bought their homes on a promise of play parks, but 25 years later, their children long grown up and moved out, still no play equipment is anywhere to be seen."
