Moved by
Baroness Fox of Buckley
85: After Clause 69, insert the following new Clause—
“Prevention of leaseholder abuse in retirement housing
(1) Within one year of the passing of this Act, a Minister of the Crown must publish a report assessing the state of the United Kingdom’s retirement leasehold sector with special regard to the treatment of elderly and vulnerable leaseholders.
(2) The report must consider whether the government should introduce legislation on retirement housing to address consumer detriment while encouraging downsizing, a larger, healthier retirement housing sector and a better functioning property market.
(3) The report must also include—
(a) an assessment of the extent to which the following factors harm leaseholders in retirement housing—
(i) service charges not subject to resident control;
(ii) inability to easily switch managing agents to remove predatory or poorly performing service providers;
(iii) license and permission fees;
(iv) short leases;
(v) shared ownership structures;
(vi) exit and event fees;
(vii) resale values, and
(b) an update on the government’s implementation of the recommendations in the Law Commission report “Event Fees in Retirement Properties”, published on 30 March 2017,
(c) the Older People’s Housing Taskforce report and a statement on the government’s implementation of its findings,
(d) legislative options to address the significant financial loss and emotional distress of leaseholders in retirement housing and those of their families, and
(e) a recommendation as to whether the housing-with-care model, license to occupy schemes and commonhold developments should be promoted by the government as preferred alternatives to leasehold tenure in the retirement sector.”
Member's explanatory statement
This new Clause would require a Minister of the Crown to publish a report to establish the experience of leaseholders in retirement housing and to outline legislative options to improve consumer outcomes in this sector.