An estimated 100,000 UK homeowners have unknowingly bought houses from firms such as Taylor Wimpey that have toxic "doubling leases" under which ground rents double 1990s. Thus a ground rent set at, say, £295 a year would reach £9,440 a year in 50 years. The "toxic leases" threaten to make houses impossible to mortgage or sell. The practice is being likened to the misselling of endowment policies in the 1980s and every 10 years and the PPI scandal in the 2000s.
An estimated 100,000 UK homeowners have unknowingly bought houses from firms such as Taylor Wimpey that have toxic "doubling leases" under which ground rents double every 10 years. Thus a ground rent set at, say, £295 a year would reach £9,440 a year in 50 years. The "toxic leases" threaten to make houses impossible to mortgage or sell. The practice is being likened to the misselling of endowment policies in the 1980s and 1990s and the PPI scandal in the 2000s.