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The Sunday Times examines the growing controversy over high-cost leases attached to new homes. Up to 100,000 people are thought to be saddled with “toxic” leases in a scandal that has been likened to the mis-selling of endowment policies in the 1980s and 1990s.
The scandal centres on leasehold clauses that double the cost of ground rent every ten years – threatening to make homes impossible to mortgage and potentially impossible to sell. Homebuyers have been further angered by the fact that in many cases they were persuaded to use conveyancers and mortgage brokers recommended by the developers behind the properties.
In one case highlighted by the Sunday Times, around a dozen owners of properties with “doubling” leases are said to be considering class actions against Taylor Wimpey for misrepresentation, and against their conveyancers for negligence.
