The best way to tip
Money Box
BBC
4.2 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 23 November 2019
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Money Box has learned that an increasing number of families who bought new build freehold homes are finding a few years later find they cannot sell them. It's down to the annual charges made to pay for things like maintenance of roads, streetlights, and parks. In many cases the local council will not take on these costs so, through a management company, developers impose a so-called rentcharge on the houses to cover these expenses. Legally this means that the management company can take possession of a property if the homeowner gets 40 days behind with their payments - something mortgage lenders don't like.
Every year more than 4000 people reach state pension age - but do not qualify for a state pension. Many of them are self-employed and may have paid thousands of pounds a year in National Insurance contributions - but not the right sort of contributions to qualify for a pension. We speak to someone in that situation.
When you buy a meal do you leave a tip? Around one in eight of us never does. Perhaps because we carry less cash or because we're not quite sure what happens to the tip we leave. Do the waiters really get the money? Or is it taken by the managers to meet their costs?
Presenter: Paul Lewis Reporter: Dan Whitworth Producer: Alex Lewis Editor: Andrew Smith
Transcript
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| 0:46.7 | Hello. Later, as more bars and restaurants go cashless, what's the best way to tip the staff and the self-employed people who've paid their contributions but won't get estate pension. |
| 0:52.4 | But first, the families who bought new-billed, freehold homes, |
| 0:56.5 | but a few years later find they cannot sell them. |
| 0:59.4 | We've reported before on Moneybox how developers are increasingly imposing |
| 1:02.9 | annual charges on homeowners to pay for maintaining roads and streetlights and parks. |
| 1:08.1 | In many cases, the local council won't take on these costs. |
| 1:11.4 | Through a management company, developers impose what's called, confusingly, a rent charge |
| 1:16.5 | on the freehold houses to cover these expenses, and that charge can rise year on year without a |
| 1:22.2 | cap. By using the legal definition of rent charge, the management company can take possession of a property |
| 1:28.4 | if the homeowner gets 40 days behind with their payments. Dan Whitworth has more, Dan. |
| 1:34.3 | Well, Paul, Moneybox has learned that house sales are falling through because of rent charges |
| 1:39.0 | for two reasons. The cost of the rent charges themselves and the fact that they can, as you |
| 1:43.4 | say, seem to arbitrarily go up year on year. |
| 1:46.5 | And that legal clause you mention, which allows homes to be repossessed by developers if homeowners fall more than 40 days behind on payments. |
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