The annual conference of the Leasehold Advisory Service takes place on February 4.
The free evening conference for leaseholders takes place from 18.15 and the venue is:
etc venues, 200 Aldersgate, St. Paul’s, London EC1A 4HD
Those wishing to attend need to pre-register here
LEASE says:
“This conference aims to inform, educate and offer support to leaseholders. Delegates will be able to listen to experts and professionals in the sector and also interactively participate though a series of workshops.
“Alongside the conference, one-to one appointments with advisers from LEASE will be available and an advice surgery with ARMA.”
Hopefully, by February 4 ARMA will be able to say which managing agents are actually members of the trade body – because it is not saying so at the moment. On January 1 the more exacting ARMA-Q criteria for membership came into force.
Read interview with LEASE chairman Roger Southam here
Related posts:
Motion of no confidence in Roger Southam as LEASE chair
LEASE chair Roger Southam in Private Eye (again)
Justin Madders MP demands LEASE chair has ‘no business interests in the leasehold sector’
Re-energised LEASE holds annual conference
‘If I fail to offend anyone, I will do it next time,’ Bottomley tells appalled leasehold professionals at LEASE annual conference
Interview with LEASE chairman Roger Southam
Dear Sebastian, I lost my home and I am homeless now after a decade of living in my home flooded and all sort of abuses by the freeholder. I do not have a group of leaseholders behind me as some others and I am isolated. I want to expose my horror leasehold story who made me homeless. Would please report my story?
Dear Victor,
I am so sorry that it has come to this, which must be a really awful time for you.
This is not solely, or even primarily, a leasehold dispute. You have lost your flat not through forfeiture to the freeholder, but to an eviction order from your former partner.
Had you been straightforward with us from the start, we would have understood this earlier. Yours is a domestic dispute, not a leasehold one.
There are undoubtedly leasehold game-playing issues in your block. Your freeholder, a firm of Croydon solicitors, have played all the advantages their position gives them in law, even though these flats are not their home and their investment, compared with the combined value of the flats, is tiny.
There have been other victims of this: I was appalled to learn of the woman who had a breakdown after successfully presenting the residents’ case, only to lose it on appeal.
Martin Boyd has spent hours on your problems, contacted the council and the solicitors, and involved MPs.
All was a waste of time, as you must have known it was, because of your ex-partner’s legal action to evict you.
This is a sorry state of affairs, and not one that will be further discussed here.
Please be assured of my sympathy and sincere hopes that you can close this issue and move on.
Best wishes and in bocca al lupo,
Sebastian O’Kelly
LKP
19 January 2015 – Dear Sebastian, thank you for your response. The eviction order from my former friend is only a masked version of what is really going on. There are so many elements of the story that you and Martin are not aware of.
The purpose of exposing the truth about my story will contribute to finding the truth so that justice can finally be done for me and for other people in the similar situations. I made the request of exposing my story several times, but it was never heard without being given any chance to explain myself, publicly or within the institutions themselves.
But this goes without saying: I experienced that silence to which I was constrained after a decade-long attack on my dignity as a human being before I was removed from my home with my evidence being ignored. My home has been flooded for 10 years and I was deprived of any dignity in my own home. I do not have a big group of leaseholders behind me as Martin had and hence I am completely isolated and silenced. .
The only objective of any exposure is the search for truth. There is no place for the “politically correct.” in a system that privileges parasitic opportunists at the expenses of families and people that cannot defend themselves on equal grounds.As anyone should be given the right to expose their side of the story according to the evidence available. If you and Martin grant me this help I will only expose what is certain free from any subjective assumptions and I will refrain from making any personal comment. I hope that you and LKP will concede me this opportunity always with respect for the law and, of course, to relevant enquiries.
An isolated and silenced leaseholder,
Victor
Dear Sebastian and leasehold Knowledge Partnership,
I must rectify an information with regard to my eviction. I faced three forfeiture attempts deliberately arranged by the freeholder whilst my home was constantly flooded for 10 years as shows the video attached here.
While this abuse was happening for 10 years – between 2013 and January 2015 I was asked and forced to pay roughly almost £26,000.00 of service charges most of which for major roof and building repairs and a share of £106,000 for one day at the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal in June 2012 for ‘having dared to defend my home and my rights to live with dignity.
My eviction was caused by those service charges and by the extraordinary amount of distress suffered after years of flooding and legal abuse which took away from me the precious strength, health and time to come back in employment. The eviction order from a different third party is simply the final episode of the story as direct result of the leasehold abuse I endured..
I have indeed at all time been straightforward with you from the start but since I met you and Martin the first time my case evolved from a simple leasehold abuse to something very different – What it has been uncovered in the last few months has been fully confirmed in December 2014 by the Local Authority Information Officers in response to my Freedom of Information request (FOIA).
You mention that Martin has been in touch with ‘the solicitors’ without clarifying who these solicitors are – I assume that these ‘solicitors’ have made sure to depict my case as ‘a domestic a domestic dispute, not a leasehold one’ because so is convenient for them to be used as yet another cover-up of the truth and isolate me even more confusing the case with a clever hearsay. In listening their version please remember that comes from people who has never even seen my home or the building.
I invited you and Martin in more than one occasion to visit my flat. Unfortunately you could not find time to come over and accept my invitation to see the truth by yourself.
The truth, or part of it, is simply what the video of my former home shows that one that anyone can read publicly from the Local Authority Information Officers in response to my two Freedom of Information requests . https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/conversion_in_eight_flats_at_34 and
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/freehold_property_at_38_coombe_r
Anyone can read the official response in the links above and make their own conclusions. I hope that you will not contribute to silence me even more by deleting this post.
I hope also that you allow me to report my story solely based on the evidence available and always with respect for the law and, of course, to relevant parties involved.
Victor
Video of Flat 2 at 36 Coombe Road, Croydon, CR0 1BP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSfdrZVToq8
Hi
I’ve been unable to make this event tonight but wondered if you could send me information from the event? I’m a leaseholder in a block of 16 flats. Five leaseholders are collectively approaching our Landlords about extending our leases which are all 61 years. They are asking for around £35,000 for the lease of each flat which seems quite hefty. We are currently looking for how to take it from here, recommendations for specialist solicitors (if needed) and advice on negotiations.
I was hoping to gather this information at your event. Will you be producing a post-event summary or something similar?
regards
Dushana