Joanne Darbyshire, above, and her husband Mark bought their £400,000 house leasehold from Taylor Wimpey in 2010. The couple claim the salesman told them the freehold could be bought later for £5,000
The law must be changed to help families stuck in toxic leasehold deals escape their unsellable homes, MPs are demanding tomorrow.
In a highly critical report, the House of Commons housing committee says there is no excuse for not helping the estimated 100,000 victims of the scandal.
The committee’s findings are a major victory for campaigners and the Daily Mail, which has led the way in exposing the use of rip-off leases by developers.
Its report accuses big housing firms of exploiting buyers with leasehold contracts that impose crippling ground rents and ‘excessive’ fees on everything from building conservatories to changing carpets.
In some cases, these can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds and make it impossible to sell the homes.
The MPs also lambast solicitors for failing to warn clients about the rip-off deals and say some are too cosy with developers.
Ministers have already banned the sale of new houses with the toxic deals. However, the report calls for them to go further and consider law changes to help existing victims of the practice.
Mrs Darbyshire, 48, said: ‘People say you should have read the small print but none of these things were there.’ The annual ground rent on the detached three-bed property was set at £295, a figure that would double every ten years
It calls for a full-blown inquiry into the sale of leasehold properties after widespread claims that many families were victims of mis-selling, with some calling it ‘the PPI of the housing industry’.
Committee chairman Clive Betts said: ‘I’d like to recognise the work the Mail has done to highlight the plight of ordinary people who have been affected by this scandal.’
The report came just a day after housing giant Persimmon, which was among developers that sold leasehold homes, revealed it paid bosses nearly £90million in a single year.
The company has been heavily criticised over fat-cat pay, with critics saying it has made record profits off the back of the taxpayer-funded Help to Buy scheme.
After hours of testimony and an ‘unprecedented’ number of submissions by the public, the committee’s report:
Says it is ‘legally possible’ for the Government to intervene and help victims of the leasehold scandal;Calls for a complete overhaul of the leasehold system and says ground rents on all properties, including flats, should only be ‘peppercorn’ amounts in future;Backs calls for the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the sale of leasehold homes, and;Says developers should be banned from offering buyers deals to use their recommended solicitors.Joanne Darbyshire and her husband Mark feel trapped in their home after changes to their lease left them facing soaring costs.
When they bought their
