Owners of leasehold properties have demanded that Jeffrey Fairburn, the CEO of Persimmon homes who is in line for a an absurd £130 million bonus, have told him to use it instead to sort out the mess his company has created.
Katie Kendrick, founder of the National Leasehold Campaign, said the Persimmon bonus scheme, which could yield £800 million for its top team, was an ‘insult to the millions of leaseholders caught up in the leasehold scandal that developers have created’.
Give us your bonus, say Persimmon leaseholders
Persimmon homeowners ‘trapped’ in controversial leasehold deals have hit out at the firm’s chief executive who is in line for a £130 million bonus while they fork out thousands of pounds in ground rents and fees. Some called on Jeff Fairburn to donate his bonus to lease-holders affected by the ‘feudal’ practice.
She urged Fairburn to donate his bonus to leaseholders ‘to enable them to own the land their homes sit on’.
Chris Cooke, who bought a Persimmon home in Yeovil for £272,000, faces paying £4,000 – double what he was initially quoted – to buy the freehold. He said: ‘They are using their customers’ lack of experience to enable them to continue extracting money long after they thought they had purchased their dream home.’
Meanwhile, the Sunday Telegraph says a coalition of some of the City’s biggest investors, including a handful of Persimmon’s top 10 shareholders, is understood to have warned the company that the record-breaking payout is “unsustainable”.
Persimmon shareholders tell boss: give up chunk of bonus or step down
Politicians have already pointed to the way Mr Fairburn has benefited from the Government’s Help to Buy scheme. The subsidies have boosted demand for new-build homes and lifted the Persimmon share price, inflating Mr Fairburn’s bonus. The shares have nearly trebled since George Osborne launched Help to Buy in 2013.
One told The Sunday Telegraph that it would want to see Mr Fairburn give up at least 90pc of his pay in order to keep his job, “and even that would be very generous”.
“At the end of the day, it’s simply far too much money for putting up a few timber-framed houses”, the investor said. Anger over Persimmon’s executive pay scheme has already claimed the heads of Nicholas Wrigley, the chairman, and Jonathan Davie, the remuneration committee chairman.
Mr Fairburn has already collected £45 million.
The bulk of this money comes from the soaring share price of Persimmon owing to the taxpayer-funded Help To Buy scheme.
This is supposed to help first-times come off short term tenancies and experience the security of home ownership.
In fact, they were dobbed into leasehold houses and flats with high ground rents, and have found that leasehold properties simply means “long tenancy”.
Politicians are furious that the government has been taken for such a ride by the nation’s venal, cheating housebuilders.
Trust in them has evaporated, which is why Communities Secretary Sajid Javid and Gavin Barwell, the chief of staff of Number 10, are determined to bring them to heal over leasehold houses and the evolved scam of ground rents.
Persimmon shareholders tell boss: give up chunk of bonus or step down
Persimmon shareholders tell boss: give up chunk of bonus or step down
Related posts:
Ground rents are so valid … to pay out £300m bonuses to Persimmon cronies
Persimmon sold leasehold houses for £50,000 more than same-size freehold houses at Harrow View West
Kit Malthouse to meet Persimmon over doubling ground rent at Picket Twenty site
Jeffrey Fairburn, Persimmon CEO, drops ‘virtual freehold’ when selling leasehold
Dear Jeffrey Fairburn … Can I buy the freehold to a Persimmon house before you sell it to anonymous investors, please?
APPG to protect park home owners has as secretariat the site owners’ own trade body!
As a result of his bonus Jeff Fairburn must be one of the only people in the UK that could afford to buy one of his Persimmon properties given the onerous terms they are “sold” on?
….along with Martin Grant Homes who also have erroneous terms in their lease whereby it emerged during a lease extension (following my property purchase 2 years ago) that the ground rent is subject to the revaluation of the entire block every 33 years.
C’mon folks we know that all the urging in the world is not going to persuade the fragrant Fairburn to donate his bonus.
Leaseholders should demonstrate en masse outside Persimmons offices.
I did a double take when I saw the photo of Fairborn as I thought it was a young Brad Pitt. The likeness is spooky………………………..
Kim, Me thinks you are confusing “looks” with the nature of the person? For my part, he is the real “Pitts”
Tee hee hee. Dontchca just love Irony Master E???
We can live in hope that one day they will do the right thing??
Thought I’d ask anyway ha ha.
Katie
Dear Katie, alas there is more chance of hell freezing over than the likes of Fairburn doing “ the right thing”.
Is this the result of the “wealth trickle-down effect” we are supposed to be waiting for?
Oh “self-regulation”?
Fairburn making all that money while we struggle to get by. This corruption has got to stop. Charity status must stop. How can the Government justify these ‘no tax charities’ which, with the help of Politicians and the wealthy, have sprung up like a plague for the last 60 years? We who have so little, pay their taxes from the money they exhort from us in many sly ways.
I could not agree more…freeholders have got away with murder for far too long.
The net is closing in on Property spivs and unscrupulous Managing Agents and not before time. They have lived “ High on the hog” for far too long.
Their days of bullying, intimidation, charging for ‘ services’ or other but not providing the goods (which is I believe fraud) with utter impunity are numbered.
Leaseholders should demand that criminal prosecutions are brought against any individuals who have been found to have committed fraud or any other criminal acts in the dealings with honest hardworking leaseholders.
I have heard nothing but a litany of complaints about managing agents whilst “ Interviewing” many many leaseholders. I have also visited retirement homes and was alarmed at how frightened some of the elderly residents had become of their “ Managing Agent”. Some were to frightened to say anything. For the sake of balance there has to be a least five decent honest managing agencies,
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!
Please sign the online petition if you have not already done so. signatures.
Strength in numbers folks!!
The various government departments should act like organised fighting divisions to deal with this gigantic problem and crisis by :
1. Removing Persimmon built new properties from the Help to buy scheme..
2. Chancellor of Exchequer to impose 20% VAT on sale price of all new leasehold properties which include ground rent exceeding £1 per year. starting from 6th April 2018 .
3. CMA to declare the ground rent payment after the first 33 years on existing leases to be an
unfair contract term. .
4. Restrict sale of freehold title for a blocks of leasehold flats to leaseholders in the block. and allow leaseholders to become directors of the company owning the freehold.title .
5. Require the freeholder company and their directors jointly or severally to pay for the replacement of combustible cladding on blocks of flats or else be put into liquidation and bankrupcy .
6. Order the banks to quit lending for purchase of ground rent income for blocks of flats…
The above proposals need to be refined and synchronised with replacing leasehold system by commonhold system.
1. HM treasury and Agents ( for help to buy equity loan scheme) to remove Persimmon built new leasehold property from the scheme .
2. Chancellor of Exchequer to impose 20% rate VAT on first registration of new leasehold property which requires payment of annual ground rent. The 0% rate VAT will apply to first registration of Freehold, Commonhold and Leasehold with NIL annual ground rent.
3. Chancellor of Exchequer to terminate scheme allowing developers to reclaim VAT paid on supplies used during construction of new blocks of leasehold flats..
4. Chancellor of Exchequer to terminate loan interest as an allowable expense against purchase of freehold title for blocks of flats. and apply tax rate of 40% on ground rent income as if income was received by directors ( for bringing a level playing field with 40% tax rate paid by leaseholders. ) .
5. Housing Minister to introduce legislation to allow easy conversion of leasehold title to Commonhold title after collective purchase of freehold title by payment of 10 x annual ground rent .
6. Housing Minister to withdraw forfeiture of lease proceedings ( for arrears of ground rent ) on residential leasehold property..
7. CMA to declare the requirement for ground rent payment in new residential leases of 21 years term or longer to be an unfair contract term from 6 th April 2018.
8. Bank of England and PRA and FCA to order the banks to withdraw lending facilities for financing of annual ground rent income.
addition ideas :
9. Chancellor of Exchequer to introduce a 90% windfall tax on Persimmons bonus scheme to raise funds to pay for the replacement cladding mess .
10. All Members of Parliament holding economics degree education to speak out in support of leasehold reform because the leasehold property system does not benefit any leaseholders as it takes their invested savings and passes the value to companies based in the offshore tax haven countries.
Investing in your own home is paramount to UK families to future lifeblood England & Wales . Post Brexit transition period , it does not make economic sense for our own homes to be legally owned by companies controlled by corporate entities or LLCs based in overseas tax havens and helped by tax concessions given away by HMRC rules.
Restore freehold ownership of residential block of flats by restricting sale to the leaseholders in the block of blocks. only and reduce the price by ending the ground rent payments.
Housing minister to to prosecute directors of developer companies for sale of leasehold houses and flats with long leases having ground rent increasing every 10 years under the part 4 of the Fraud Act 2006 . ( fraud by abuse of position )
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/35/section/4
Fraud by abuse of position
(1)A person is in breach of this section if he—
(a)occupies a position in which he is expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of another person,
(b)dishonestly abuses that position, and
(c)intends, by means of the abuse of that position—
(i)to make a gain for himself or another, or
(ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.
(2)A person may be regarded as having abused his position even though his conduct consisted of an omission rather than an act.
Marriage value should be abolished completely…this is NOT something stipulated in a lease/contract, but stipulated by legislation & therefore freeholders would NOT need to be compensation.
Allowing marriage value is the government rewarding freeholders for nothing.
Glad to see a new suggestion about ending “marriage value”.
I have put forward a lot of actions which the Government can action immediately and not wait for the Law Commission to make their proposals .
Its pretty economically senseless to keep 4.1 million leaseholders in England and Wales locked into paying leasehold ground rents for 99 or 125 years and allow their after tax savings invested in the lease be transferred into the bank accounts of those freehold companies controlled by unscrupulous business men based in overseas tax havens .
The leaseholders pay tax at 20%,40% and 45% on their earnings but the freehold companies are financed by bank loans which can be offset against rental income so no tax is paid.
So we can see that leaseholders are paying taxes and contributing to the Government finances BUT in return the Government policies are allowing the freehold companies to escape paying tax and letting the Law Courts help to screw the leaseholders out of their life savings.
I have requested a buyout valuation from Persimmon Homes and was quoted £3750. One of my neighbours obtained and independent valuation and are now buying out their lease for £2500. I used the same company to obtain my independent valuation for the same style house and are now being quoted £3120 by Persimmons and they refuse to discuss the difference in our quote and our neighbours. What do I do pay the £3120 or insist on requesting an explanation as to why the 2 houses are quoted differently.