Last week the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) wrote to developers Countryside and Taylor Wimpey requiring them to remove contract terms that mean leaseholders have to pay ground rents that double every 10 or 15 years.

The National Leasehold Campaign (NLC) has welcomed the announcement, which it says the CMA has directed at what they call “two of the worst offenders in the leasehold scandal”. 

A not for profit organisation, the NLC was created four years ago by three women campaigners, Katie Kendrick, Cath Williams and Jo Darbyshire, who found themselves trapped by unfair and extortionate leasehold arrangements. The campaign says that the systematic mis-selling of new-build properties with high and doubling ground rents, which are a charge for no service, has led to leaseholders living in properties that are unmortgageable and unsellable. 

NLC founder and spokeswoman Katie Kendrick, said: “This announcement proves how unfair these contract terms are. We are delighted that CMA is calling this out and making the key players accountable for creating leases with ground rent terms that are unfair. However, ground rents are only one of the ways for freehold investors to make money at the expense of leaseholders.”