When I realised what lease holds were, and how with flats you “own but not really” your property, I immediately felt they were a scam

This is the best summary I could come up with:

"The worst decision of my life," reflects Richard Moore, as he sits in the small flat he bought as an investment to provide him with a pension in his old age.

A freeholder owns the physical building and the land it’s built on, and employs a managing agent to act on their behalf and collect services charges to cover the cost of maintaining and insuring the building.The managing agent says the increase is justified because the roof needs repairing.

According to The Property Institute (TPI) - the trade body for managing agents - service charges like Richard's have risen by over 40% in the last five years, but just 4% in the last 12 months.

"We empathise with the plight of leaseholders and the fact that they're under emotional and financial strain and we are doing all we can to support that," says Mervyn Skeet from the Association of British Insurers.However, he adds: "I think the industry is correctly pricing the risk that's there.

"But premiums are still going up year on year despite government pledging several billion pounds to remove flammable cladding and other building safety issues.The new leasehold laws will also restrict insurance brokers' ability to charge large commissions for writing the policies, which it is claimed some managing agents have passed on to leaseholders with an additional administration charge of their own.

"Many insurers became more risk averse following Grenfell, refusing to provide cover for tower blocks with safety issues.The government has been putting pressure on the industry over soaring premiums charged by those still prepared to take on the risk.As a result, insurers have just launched a new scheme which aims to better share the risk of the most dangerous blocks which have yet to be repaired – of which there are still several thousand, according to the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign.Mr Skeet said: "We hope to see that scheme having an impact over the next 12 months.

The original article contains 874 words, the summary contains 323 words. Saved 63%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!