{"id":786400,"date":"2026-09-29T13:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T13:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/786400\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T13:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T13:44:12","slug":"angela-rayner-announces-crackdown-on-cowboy-leasehold-property-agents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/786400\/","title":{"rendered":"Angela Rayner announces crackdown on ‘cowboy’ leasehold property agents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leaseholders will be given extra protections from “cowboy” property agents and hidden fees, Angela Rayner has announced.<\/p>\n

The housing secretary told Labour’s annual conference the government would legislate for a new independent regulator and launch a consultation to cap “rip off” administrative fees.<\/p>\n

The changes would cover the estimated five million leaseholders in England and Wales who can be forced to pay a landlord for simple changes to their home, despite having bought it.<\/p>\n

Rayner told party activists she had heard of leaseholders being charged \u00a3250 for permission to own a pet and \u00a3400 to change their front door.<\/p>\n

She said people in these situations were “powerless against the vested interests that only take, while giving nothing back in return”.<\/p>\n

The government is already legislating, external<\/a> to ban new leasehold flats, described in Labour’s 2024 election manifesto as a “feudal” system where people own the right to occupy a property via a lease for a limited number of years from a freeholder, or landlord, who owns the land.<\/p>\n

Through the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill<\/a>, ministers want a commonhold system where residents collectively own and manage their buildings.<\/p>\n

Now, Rayner is taking aim at the web of management companies that operate between leaseholders and their effective landlords.<\/p>\n

She said the sector had many decent businesses which were “undermined by far too many cowboys, crooks and con artists”.<\/p>\n

People excited at buying their own homes are “tricked” into using in-house services, meaning that “with no transparency or accountability, vultures can take advantage”, Rayner added.<\/p>\n

“We will legislate for an independent regulation to rein these cowboys in,” she said, announcing legislation for an independent watchdog of property agents.<\/p>\n

This includes estate agents, managing agents and estate managers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leaseholders will be given extra protections from “cowboy” property agents and hidden fees, Angela Rayner has announced. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-786400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}