LKP has urged Poltair Homes and the Tchenguiz Family Trust to sort out 80 shared ownership leases on houses which are now unmortgagable owing to the disastrous terms.
Ground rents on the properties, which have never sold for more than £125,000, are presently £1,500pa and rise every year with RPI. As a result, the residents – who were all deemed to have local housing needs – are stuck.
Local builder THF Limited – a related company of Poltair Homes – built the three sites with the same 62% shared ownership leases from 2004. They are:
Pentowan Gardens estate, Loggans, Hayle, TR27 5AZ
Ellis Meadow, Connor Downs, TR27 5FB
Beacon View, Mount Hawke, TR4 8FG
LKP raised the issue with Ron Ley, CEO of Poltair Homes, whose then related company THF Limited, built the site in correspondence copied to Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, local Tory MP George Eustice, Cllr Barbara Ellenbroek, the leader of Cornwall Council, Cllr Oliver Monk, who heads Cornwall’s Strategic Housing Group, and Homes England, which doles out subsidies to housebuilders including Help To Buy.
Mr Ley replied:
“I am in receipt of your email. I must explain that Poltair Homes or any Poltair group company is not connected with THF nor is the latter a subsidiary of Poltair. Furthermore, I have never been a director of any THF company.
“Please direct your enquiry to others.”
This was a surprising response as Mr Ley’s own biography on the Poltair Homes website acknowledges his connection to THF:
In addition, THF Limited references a £300,000 payment to Poltair Developments Limited under ralted party disclosures “for construction services supplied in respect of the company’s development at Hayle, Cornwall”. LKP assumes that this is the shared ownership site at Pentowan Gardens:
Oh, and here’s the completion certificate for one of the houses on a Pentowan Gardens, also referencing Poltair Developments:
THF Limited sold on the freehold of these sites and they are now owned by Rockwell (FC100) Limited, incorporated in the British Virgin Islands and ultimately owned by the Tchenguiz Family Trust, whose property interests are administered by the Consensus Business Group.
The local Tory MP George Eustice wrote to Mr Gove on 31 January 2022:
“Regrettably, Cornwall Council cannot directly force a resolution to this issue, as the freehold is (legitimately) owned by a private investment institution who are entitled to retain or sell on to a further institution as they see fit.”
George Eustice MP letter to Michael Gove is here
On the other hand, Cornwall Council might reasonably withhold planning consent on future Poltair Homes schemes (“We have created over 500 homes in wonderful locations and there’s plenty more to come”) until this mess of its – or THF Limited’s creation – is sorted out, similar to Mr Gove’s intervention into the cladding / building safety defects scandal where a sector-wide levy on housebuilders has now been grudgingly accepted (by almost all).
Turning off the spigot of Help To Buy subsidies from Homes England might also help concentrate the mind.
LKP has asked Poltair Homes and the Consensus Business Group to liaise to sort the matter out as both are powerful property interests and those impacted are not very affluent partial home owners, who are in a mess through no fault of their own.
LKP’s correspondence to Mr Ley was also copied to his business partner, Anthony Paul Fleming Stephens, who is a person of significant control of both Poltair Homes and THF Limited, and who might reasonably be described as Mr Ley’s business partner.
Section 106 agreements with Penwith District council on 12 November 2004 and 12 July 2006 make clear that the undertakings were signed by both Poltair Developments Limited and THF Limited.
The woes of the shared owners at Pentowan Gardens have been reported in the local newspaper the Hayle Times and in Private Eye.
Hayle Times report is here
Leaseholders own account of the issues is here
Related posts:
Shared ‘ownership’ is NOT ownership. It’s the ‘pay-day loan’ of housing and most regret having bought, London Assembly told
LKP backs Sadiq Khan demand that ALL shared ownership leases to be 999 years
Telegraph reports plummeting value of shared ownership flats
Retirement housebuilder Platinum Skies breached shared ownership rules with onerous ‘staircasing’ charges in the lease
Advertising Standards Authority rules against Notting Hill Genesis on over-egged shared ownership adverts
Note to Mr Gove: FSA was warning of ‘reputational risk’ in not cracking down on secret leasehold insurance commissions 17 years ago!
The affordable housing market is generally a mess and create situations where people are stuck or where affordable homes are even being sold to second home owners because there is no local interest. I am the only leaseholder out of seven 106 flats living in the property. The others are rented out to locals ( or non locals if advertised for a certain number of weeks without local interest). I wonder why leaseholders don’t live here as it does not make financial sense to let them due to a monthly service charge and letting agents fees. I am aware that at least one 106 flat has been bought by a second home owner. The flats go on the open market after being marketed for sale for a certain number of weeks, 28 in the case of 106 here. When resold 106 restrictions apply. In the meantime, how long the flat is going to be owned by a second home owner is clearly an unknown. I can only reach the conclusion that a second home owner would buy a 106 flat because they can afford the council tax premiums and know that letting the flat to a local would provide them with a monthly amount of money that would be far greater than interest that would be gained by putting the money in a bank account. Of course this applies to cash buyers. They must be cash buyers as having a mortgage wouldn’t make sense. Most of the 106 flats that have been sold here have been greatly reduced due to a lack of local interest. Selling them is difficult but if buying them with cash and letting them, a person can maximise ‘interest’ on their investment. Of course a person has to be wealthy to be able to do this. I think this is happening. Rich people are cash buying 106 to let them to get higher financial gains from that money than bank account interest would provide.
Were solicitors or conveyancers not involved in any transaction? Would not £1,500 ground rent payable pa have raised at least some query? How on earth can rogues get away with this?
Ah, of course, this is England, where anything goes when property is involved. Disgraceful.
This just beggars belief – surely the solicitors would have picked up on this or did they shove the purchasers to their “recommended” solicitors as they knew the job was being done by suitably unexperienced staff who don’t read the fine print?!