Residents from the Kingsmere development in Brighton – who face legal bills of £30,000 following a bungled right to manage application – are to meet their local MP this Friday.
Caroline Lucas, of the Green Party, has taken an interest in the issues raised and is demanding to know how ordinary families at the 120-unit Seventies development have been so badly let down by their legal advisors.
In a letter to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal, Lucas stated: “I am concerned at news that this attempt [to exercise right to manage] by ordinary members of the public, with little knowledge of leasehold law and entirely reliant on professional advice, should have left leaseholders with a significant financial burden.
“I would be grateful if the tribunal would consider the case put forward by Kingsmere RTM Company and, as far as possible, would limit the financial cost to residents of attempting to exercise their Right To Manage.”
The Kingsmere residents approached solicitor Yashmin Mistry when she was employed at Brethertons, but she took the case up after she moved to JPC Law.
The two legal firms are now embroiled in litigation over breach of contract, for which Brethertons has been collecting evidence from the Kingsmere residents.
Only last month in the Commons, Sir Peter Bottomley, MP for Worthing East, condemned “legal torture” by lawyers repeatedly delaying an LVT action taken by pensioners in a retirement development.
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