LEASEHOLD JOURNALIST SCOOPS TWO AWARDS
<p>News on the Block </p>
Sebastian O’Kelly, of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, has won the Best Online Editorial and “Scoop of the Year” awards at the LSL Property Press Awards 2013. The awards, were presented by veteran broadcaster and journalist, Andrew Neil, who edited the Sunday Times for 11 years.
Sebastian, the former Property Editor of the Mail on Sunday, nixed competition from the Financial Times Online and Estates Gazette, and was particularly recognised for his coverage of the leasehold dispute involving Plantation Wharf in Battersea. That story has since continued to receive wider coverage, including The Daily Mail and Private Eye.
“The award is a massive public recognition of the achievements of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership and the importance of its work,” said O’Kelly.
"LKP was set up by Melissa Briggs, the brilliantly effective head of the Campaign Against Retirement Leasehold Exploitation, and draws on the contributions of formidable leasehold campaigners such as Martin Boyd.
"Those who have contacted LKP over the past year, drawing public attention to the abuses they have experienced, are warmly thanked. Leasehold is the murky corner of residential property where ordinary homeowners can be preyed upon by monetising freeholders, their managing agents and an array of expensive lawyers. At every stage the dice are loaded against the ordinary leaseholder, in spite of all the protections Parliament has introduced to this flawed form of property tenure, that is unique to England and Wales. The amounts of money are vast and the vested interests are formidable.”
Sebastian was guest speaker last year at “Leaseholder 101: Everything you wanted to know about owning a flat but were afraid to ask”, organised by News on the Block.
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