23rd June 2021
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced today that is has secured formal commitments from Aviva and Persimmon as part of its ongoing work to tackle issues in the leasehold sector.
The commitments signed by Aviva and Persimmon – known formally as ‘undertakings’ – mean they have now agreed to the following:
- Aviva will remove from leasehold contracts:
-
- certain clauses which were doubling the ground rents payable by leaseholders.
- terms which were originally doubling clauses and have been converted into RPI-based ground rent terms.
Where Aviva is the current freeholder, those leaseholders’ ground rents will revert to the original amount – i.e. when the property was first sold – and this will not increase over time. Aviva has agreed to repay homeowners the excess money they had paid over this time.
- Persimmon will:
-
- offer leasehold house owners the option to buy the freehold of their property at a discount.
- extend the timeframe that prospective buyers are given to exchange contracts after reserving a property, and to provide people with more upfront information about the annual costs of buying a home.
The CMA has also written to the investment groups Brigante Properties, Abacus Land and Adriatic Land, setting out its concerns and requiring them to remove doubling ground rent terms from their contracts.
For more information on the CMA’s ongoing investigation and for future CMA updates, please visit the leasehold case page.
Other information:
- CMA videos and guides for consumers who may own or be buying a leasehold property
- Competition & Markets Authority launches enforcement action
- Competition & Markets Authority to investigate leasehold mis-selling
- Competition & Markets Authority launches consumer law investigation into leasehold market