CMA closes leasehold probe into Barratt for lack of evidence

The Competition and Markets Authority closed its leasehold case against Barratt Developments on Tuesday, citing a lack of evidence.

As part of its wider probe into the residential leasehold sector, the competition watchdog was looking into alleged mis-selling by the FTSE 100 housebuilder.

It said that after “careful scrutiny” of the evidence gathered, it concluded that it was insufficient to support a “clear legal case” for the CMA to secure collective redress for Barratt leaseholders under its consumer law powers.

“This was unlikely to change with further investigation and consequently continuing with the case would not be a good use of resources,” the CMA said in its statement.

“Barratt’s sales practices have changed, and they no longer sell leasehold houses.”

At the same time, the CMA said it was “positively engaging” with firms that purchased freeholds from Taylor Wimpey, to secure formal commitments from them to remove doubling clauses from their leases, and for any doubling terms that were converted to be based on the retail price index (RPI).

“This follows Taylor Wimpey’s commitment to the CMA to help get such clauses removed at no cost to leaseholders,” the regulator said.

At 0956 BST, shares in Barratt Developments were down 0.26% at 485.65p, while those in Taylor Wimpey were 0.46% lower at 123.78p.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.