Residential Estate Management Companies Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Richard Foord
Main Page: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)Department Debates - View all Richard Foord's debates with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
(1 week, 6 days ago)
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Richard Foord (Honiton and Sidmouth) (LD)
It is an honour to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Stuart. It is plain from what others have said that this is a sector-wide problem. In 2017, Sajid Javid, when he was the Secretary of State, set up the regulation of property agents working group, under Lord Best. When it reported in 2019, it recommended
“a model for an independent property agent regulator”
and
“a single, mandatory and legally-enforceable Code of Practice for property agents”.
The Government would do well to follow that advice.
I want to refer to the constituency case of Cathy Gardner, a resident of Sidmouth. Since 2017, her insurance premiums payable to Blue Cedar Homes management company have risen from about £100 a year to as much as £900 because she is being charged for every single eventuality, including terrorism. Now, we do not have a great deal of terrorism on the retirement estates of mid and east Devon, so I can be certain that a large cut is being taken out of that fee. We need transparency so we can all know why that is happening and where that money is going.