UK seaside town fury as flat owners forced to spend £5k to buy back own homes | UK | News

Flat owners in a popular UK seaside town have been forced to buy back their homes due to poor practice of property agents. Some of the residents had been in their homes for nearly 20 years and have been left feeling “distraught” by the ordeal.

The flat owners in Brighton had to pay a whopping £55,000 to buy back their freehold. They are now calling for stricter regulation of agents to avoid the same happening to others.

As reported by GB News, Stuart Martin purchased his flat two and a half years ago. He was director of a private limited company set up to manage the building freehold alongside nine other flat owners.

The group, which managed their share of the building their flat occupies, hired an agent to act as the company secretary. However, Mr Stuart became worried about the quality of repairs taking place in the building and discovered that the company dissolved in 2016.

This meant the flat owners were no longer owners of the building. As well as this, the company’s insurance and fire alarm contracts had lapsed.

Mr Stuart told the BBC: “I felt like I’ve been completely ripped off. Then having to tell everyone else in the building, it was really not a nice situation for me.”

As the company had dissolved and all assets, including the freehold, were returned to the Crown, the residents had to pay £5,000 each. They also had to cover legal fees to buy back the freehold.

Mr Stuart added: “People didn’t have that money, they were really distraught. Some of them had to borrow money from family, some of them had to take out personal loans.”

Julian Clark, who has owned his flat for 18 years, said: “It’s been stressful, it’s been very expensive. We are all trying to claim some money back from the old managing agent but we haven’t got very far.”

Daniel Stern, head of property litigation at Slater Heelis solicitors, said property owners were vulnerable due to a lack of regulation.

He explained: “Anything which affects one’s property which isn’t regulated is at serious risk of being misused or abused by individuals in the marketplace who think this is an easy way to make money and they don’r actually have to honour their duty of care to the residents.”

A Managing Agents Regulation Bill was introduced in Parliament in July. It established an independent regulator of agents, including mandatory professional qualifications.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “We’re also giving people greater protections over their homes by bringing in stronger powers from the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act.”