Home owners on an award-winning estate say they are being "left in limbo" due to struggles over their leaseholds, including an 18-year wait for builder Taylor Wimpey to sell some rights to a third-party property firm. Staiths South Bank in Gateshead has about 600 homes and flats which were sold on a leasehold basis, with residents having the right to use their property for up to 150 years while paying annual ground rent to a freeholder. Built next to the River Tyne on the site of the 1990 National Garden Festival, the estate was designed in partnership with fashion star Wayne Hemingway after he criticised the "Wimpeyfication" of Britain's new-build homes.
It won the Royal Institute of British Architects' Housing Design Award 2005 for the best large project. Although a number of residents have been able to buy their freehold, others on the development say they are "going round in circles". Taylor Wimpey apologised for the "difficulties faced by some of our customers", describing it as a "complex process".
Peter Heelas and his wife, Jean, have lived in their current home since 2018. Like the other leaseholders at Staiths South Bank, they currently pay £135 each year in ground rent, up from an initial £100. Taylor Wimpey has previously told them the cost of buying their freehold would be £1,200, plus solicitor's fees.
However, their home is classed as being in Phase 3 of the development which, along with Phase 4 properties, is in the process of having its leasehold and freeho.
