Retirement Home Exit Fees

12. What recent assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of exit fees for retirement homes.

Event fees should be fair, transparent and communicated effectively. The Government continue to give careful consideration to the recommendations set out in the final report from the older people’s housing taskforce, including in respect of implementing the Law Commission’s 2017 recommendations to regulate event fees.

A constituent of mine has been unable to wind up his late uncle’s estate since 2023. The shared ownership retirement flat, managed by Abri in Poundbury, is incurring £15,000 in service charges; even if they find a buyer, those charges plus the exit fees will effectively wipe out any value from the sale. What steps are the Government taking to tackle excessive service charges and ban exit fees in the retirement housing sector?

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question—this is a really important issue. We consulted on a package of measures last year to strengthen leaseholder protections, including on the use of event fees, and will hopefully be responding to that consultation in the near future. More broadly, resale values are influenced by a range of factors, but the older people’s housing taskforce commented on resale values and on what might be done, and produced a series of recommendations, which we are carefully considering.

Unfair terms on retirement village leases are leaving grieving families in Derby trapped, facing huge exit fees while extortionate service charges rack up on their empty properties. Will the Minister support those families by addressing the unfair terms that they face when a parent or loved one passes away?

As I have just made clear, we are looking carefully at resale values and the recommendations made by the older people’s housing taskforce in this area. I wonder whether both my hon. Friend and the hon. Member for West Dorset (Edward Morello) might send me some of the examples they have referenced, as any evidence we can get on how this issue is affecting homeowners and their families across the country would be incredibly useful.

I call the shadow Minister.

The Minister should also consider the impact of the conveyancing process on this important issue. I have heard many complaints from older people in my constituency about the lack of transparency from solicitors, with families then hit with huge fees at the worst possible time. I am sure if people knew what they were signing up for lots of these properties would never be sold. Will the Minister commit to going further than the older people’s housing taskforce report and look closely at the entire conveyancing process?

It was remiss of me not to welcome the hon. Gentleman to his place, and I do so now. He has diligently pursued the issue of conveyancing and buying and selling over many months, not least in his role on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee. I cannot go further at the Dispatch Box than saying that we are carefully considering the recommendations from the older people’s housing taskforce, but I am more than happy to sit down with the hon. Gentleman and discuss this issue if he would like to do so.