Leaseholders 'in limbo' over 18-year freehold wait

Homeowners on an award-winning estate say they are being "left in limbo" due to struggles over their leaseholds, including an 18-year wait for builder Taylor Wimpey to sell some rights to a third-party property firm.

Staiths South Bank in Gateshead has about 600 homes and flats which were sold on a leasehold basis, with residents having the right to use their property for up to 150 years while paying annual ground rent to a freeholder.

Built next to the River Tyne on the site of the 1990 National Garden Festival, the estate was designed in partnership with fashion star Wayne Hemingway after he criticised the "Wimpeyfication" of Britain's new-build homes.

It won the Royal Institute of British Architects' Housing Design Award 2005 for the best large project.

Although a number of residents have been able to buy their freehold, others on the development say they are "going round in circles".

Taylor Wimpey apologised for the "difficulties faced by some of our customers", describing it as a "complex process".

Peter Heelas and his wife, Jean, have lived in their current home since 2018. Like the other leaseholders at Staiths South Bank, they currently pay £135 each year in ground rent, up from an initial £100.

Taylor Wimpey has previously told them the cost of buying their freehold would be £1,200, plus solicitor's fees.

However, their home is classed as being in Phase 3 of the development which, along with Phase 4 properties, is in the process of having its leasehold and freehold rights sold by the housebuilder.

It says it entered into an agreement in November 2006 to transfer them to a company called Regisport, which was then incorporated into Longterm Reversions (Harrogate) Limited in 2018.

Mr Heelas, who is in his 70s, says owning the freehold would give him "absolute peace of mind".

"The ground rent is not a huge cost, but it's a cost I just don't want to continue to pay.

"I'd like to get this resolved as I don't want to leave these problems to my family."

The situation has been made more frustrating, Mr Heelas says, as Taylor Wimpey emailed him in January to say the freehold was available.

They then messaged again to say the firm had made a mistake over which phase his property was in.

"They did the same when we lived nearby in our first house on the estate from 2011," he added.

Fellow homeowner Suzanne Hutton also lives in a Phase 3 property, as well as having a cafe on the estate and an adjoining flat.

The latter two properties are classed as part of Phase 1, which Taylor Wimpey retains the rights to, and Ms Hutton was told in 2018 the freeholds were in the process of being made available for £1,200 each.

Since then, she says, progress has stalled.

"The cafe [and flat] is my battle at the moment. I haven't even started on the fight with the house.

"It's holding up my life massively. I've been going round in circles. You just don't get any information.

"They can't have people in limbo for this long. I thought it would be done in a few months, not six years."

Taylor Wimpey said it was contractually bound to proceed with the sale of the freeholds in phases 3 and 4 and anticipates that process will be finalised next year.

It blamed the 18-year wait for the transfer to what is now Longterm Reversions on legal issues around which property falls into each phase.

Phase 1 owners such as Ms Hutton, it said, could enter into discussions with Taylor Wimpey to acquire their property's freehold. It gave no explanation why she had faced a six-year wait so far.

In a statement, it added: "We are sorry for the difficulties some of our customers have faced and the time this process is taking when trying to buy the freehold of their property at our Staiths development.

"We have so far completed the transfer of over 70 freeholds to customers where Taylor Wimpey had retained them.

"For properties where the freehold is being transferred to a third-party company due to pre-existing contractual obligations, there has unfortunately been a significant delay."

Longterm Reversions said it echoed Taylor Wimpey's statement and had nothing further to add.

Labour MP for Gateshead Central and Whickham Mark Ferguson told the BBC he met with Taylor Wimpey representatives last month "to relay the concerns of some Staiths residents".

He added the firm had agreed to "look into" the cases he raised.

Last month the government announced the leasehold system in England and Wales will be overhauled by the end of the current Parliament.

Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook said that commonhold - where people own their homes without an expiring lease - would become the default tenure before the next election.

However, campaigners warned it may come too late to help current leaseholders trapped in problematic arrangements.

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