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UK Watchdog Closes Housebuilder Barratt Probe

By  |  August 16, 2022

The UK markets authority has closed a three-year investigation into alleged mis-selling of leasehold properties by housebuilder Barratt Developments.

The Competition and Markets Authority said the decision to close the case followed “careful scrutiny” of available evidence.  

It concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support a clear legal case against the homebuilder.

The CMA continues to investigate freeholds sold by fellow housebuilder Taylor Wimpey and said it would provide an update in due course.

Its investigations examined clauses that required leaseholders to pay elevator charges for ground rents.  

Barratt has changed the way it sells leaseholds and no longer sells leasehold houses, CMA said.  

The regulator said it was still engaging with firms that bought freeholds from Taylor Wimpey “in order to secure formal commitments from those freeholders to remove doubling clauses from their leases”.  

It will look specifically into whether any doubling terms were converted to the Retail Price Index.

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