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British Government Guilty of Price Fixing and Stealing Homes
Added: (Mon May 26 2008)
• A request has been made to the EU Courts to investigate whether the British Government may be guilty of price fixing – an illegal act under EU legislation.
• The request comes from English Leasehold, a partnership between 3 national leasehold reform organisations.
• The Government must now respond to the charge of fixing prices on freeholds in the UK.
• Price fixing – that is allowing the price of something to be decided by forces other than the free market is illegal under EU legislation. (Article 82 of Competition Law).
• Thousands of people in the UK own leasehold property – this means that the rent the land under their home from a landlord on a lease of up to 99 years.
• The value of buying this land is not the same for every buyer. If you live in a building on the land, it costs you more to buy the land than it would if that land would be sold at auction.
• The right to charge the leaseholder more for their land is set out in the Government’s Leasehold Reform Act 2000.
• Additionally, leaseholders can often be faced with large bills for the decoration or upkeep work to their properties, which they may not be able to pay.
• Hundreds of people are forced to pay large sums of money for work on their homes or risk losing them.
• Landlords can apply to the courts to take a leaseholder’s home if they owe more than £350 in rent or unpaid charges.
• The UK is the only place in the world that retains its leasehold law. It has been abolished everywhere else in the world.
• The Government has acknowledged the unfairness of leasehold law but continues to ignore requests to abolish the legislation.
• This is because many powerful people have made and continue to make a fortune from leasehold and it’s associated charges.
• The Duke of Westminster, who headed the review of Leasehold law, is in fact the biggest leasehold landlord in the UK!
• Members of a variety of leasehold organisations have written several times to Ministers at DEFRA and the DTI but their letters have been ignored.
• They have now had to resort to EU law to correct this injustice and ensure that British people who have worked hard for their homes will get to keep them.
Notes to the editor
Pictures, interviews and case studies can be obtained by contacting the Press Officer for English Leasehold. Email: info@englishleaseholdreform.org.uk Telephone: 0794 312 0790
We can provide plenty of real life stories concerning British people who have suffered stress, sickness, financial hardship and even lost their homes as a result of this legislation.