Nurse launches legal battle against £1.7bn leasehold fund run by Samantha Cameron’s half-brother

Paediatric nurse Katie Kendrick, 40, is taking on a £1.7billion fund after discovering a developer sold the right to her home

A £1.7billion fund run by David Cameron’s brother-in-law is being taken on by a nurse in what is the first group action by people caught up in the leasehold scandal.

Katie Kendrick, 40, is one of thousands of people who bought new houses on leases and discovered the developer had sold the right to own her family home.

Her abode in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, was now part of the Honorable William Waldorf Astor IV’s fund Long Harbour and its price had trebled. 

Mr Astor, a member of the rich and influential Astor clan synonymous with aristocracy, is Samantha Cameron’s half-brother and heir to the title of Viscount Astor. 

But his freehold investor Long Harbour, the second largest in Britain after the fund he used to work for, has interests in 180,000 leasehold homes.

And now mother-of-one Mrs Kendrick, along with 70 other leasehold homeowners in the northwest, has served notice to forcibly buy their freeholds, The Times reported.

The homes all have the same freeholder, Adriatic Land 3 (GR1) Limited, which is controlled by Astor’s Long Harbour. 

William Astor, pictured with wife Lohralee, runs freehold investor Long Harbour, the second largest in Britain which has interests in 180,000 leasehold homes

William Astor, pictured with wife Lohralee, runs freehold investor Long Harbour, the second largest in Britain which has interests in 180,000 leasehold homes

Mrs Kendrick, whose National Leasehold Campaign has grown to 15,500 members, said: ‘This really is the launch of our David versus Goliath battle.

‘I want to own and feel like I own the property that I paid for. Knowing that it’s somebody else’s income stream that I’m working hard for doesn’t help you sleep at night.’ 

New-build houses were often sold as leasehold by developers through the government’s interest-free Help to Buy loans.

Builders were able to earn extra income by selling the freeholds to a third party or rising ground rents.

Mrs Kendrick and her husband, Stephen, 53, who have a son, Jack, eight, used the Help to Buy scheme to pay Bellway £214,995 for their home in 2014. 

But in 2017, Bellway sold their freehold to Adriatic who quoted £13,350 for the Kendricks to buy it informally, more than treble what Bellway had said it would cost. 

Since 2017 the government has tried to stop the scandal but that hasn’t stopped Mrs Kendrick campaigning for justice.

William's mother and father — the fourth Viscount Astor — own a sprawling 17th-century pile, Ginge Manor (pictured) in Oxfordshire

William’s mother and father — the fourth Viscount Astor — own a sprawling 17th-century pile, Ginge Manor (pictured) in Oxfordshire

She teamed up with leaseholders near Liverpool, Bolton and Manchester to campaign to buy their freeholds. 

They are required to pay the freeholder’s legal costs and usually act alone. 

This is the first group action for those caught up in the scandal which means they can share the legal fees.

Louie Burns, managing director of Leasehold Solutions who is acting for Mrs Kendrick’s group, plans to serve group notices for 400 leasehold homeowners to buy their freeholds from five investment companies.  

Homeground, Long Harbour’s freehold management division, said it would not comment on individual cases. 

A spokesman told The Times: ‘We fully support the right of leaseholders to buy the freehold on their home, a process which is set out clearly in legislation. 

‘If a leaseholder has been misled or given inaccurate information at the time of purchasing their home then that is a matter for those that were involved in the original sale.’ 

A Bellway spokesman said: ‘Although Bellway pledged in January 2018 to discontinue the sale of leasehold houses, for many years prior to that it was commonplace for local authorities, certain land owners and the majority of housebuilders to sell homes and development sites on a long-leasehold basis. 

‘The introduction of Help to Buy did not influence Bellway’s approach towards selling homes on a long-leasehold basis.’

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