REDDITCH MP Rachel Maclean has been calling on the government to end so called ‘fleecehold’ charges on households.
Speaking in the House of Commons, during the debate on the Leasehold and Reform Bill, Mrs Maclean echoed the concerns of fellow MPs about ‘the lack of adoption by local authorities’.
Fleecehold refers to the inclusion of onerous terms in the deeds of a freehold property or lease of a leasehold property.
When people have bought their 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.
Mrs Maclean said: ‘’Fleecehold estates have absolutely no place in 2024 Britain.
“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.”
