<p><span>Crest Nicholson, Miller Homes, Redrow and Vistry have agreed, under the Competition and Markets Authority’s direction, to work with companies that purchased their freeholds to remove doubling terms from them.</span><span></span></p> <p><span>The four housebuilders are the latest to be targeted over controversial leasehold practices, which emerged in 2017; some housebuilders had been selling houses as leasehold with onerous terms attached</span><span>. </span></p> <p><span>In September 2020, the competition regulator launched <a href="https://www.house-builder.co.uk/news/cma-launches-action-against-housebuilders"><span>enforcement action</span></a> against Persimmon, Barratt Developments, Countryside and Taylor Wimpey relating to leasehold contracts and “potential mis-selling”.</span><span></span></p> <p><span>CMA said Crest, Miller, Redrow and Vistry were “co-operating” with it to remove the doubling clauses from their leases which they had sold to freeholders.</span><span></span></p> <p><span>In its statement, the CMA also said it had secured undertakings from nine companies that had bought leaseholds from Taylor Wimpey. These firms must now remove terms under which ground rents double in price every ten years. “These terms can lead to people being trapped in homes they cannot sell or mortgage,” CMA stated.</span><span></span></p> <p><span>The companies to whom Taylor Wimpey sold its freeholds will also be expected to remove contract terms that were originally doubling clauses but were converted to the ground rent increasing in line with the Retail Price …