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Never buy a leasehold property! This was our apartment block where we bought our first property. Shortly after moving in we were told building works were needed to replace a supporting wall. The bill was to be covered by all of the leaseholders. Each property owner was billed £15,000 each. No way out. No hiding from it. Pay now or debt recovery would start. That's what the management company told us. We got legal advice and they said to pay it...you cant win. We borrowed money from parents to pay..which we are still paying back monthly. Never again! Just don't do it.

Nothing worse than an itch you can never scratch. - Leon Kowalski, Blade Runner. "You shouldn’t have bought leasehold. My freehold home is now worth three or four times what I paid in the 90's." Well, good for you. But when many of us bought our homes, freehold and leasehold were both presented as perfectly legitimate routes into home ownership. The scale of the risks - escalating service charges, enormous major-works bills, legal costs and collapsing resale values - had not yet been exposed. Once benign costs became life changing demands. Choosing the option that worked out better for them and what they could afford does not make them wiser in hindsight, and it certainly does not justify sticking the boot into those who were sold a very different reality. They bought a home and prospered. We bought homes too, and now live with the consequences every single day, with less and less money left to live on. There isn't a day we don't regret buying this model of 'ownership' and don't need to be told when we're quite obviously trapped with large bills and negative equity.

EFCC Secures Final Forfeiture of University, Radio Station, 46 Other Properties Linked to Malami The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, secured the final forfeiture of 48 properties linked to a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, to the Federal Government of Nigeria. Among the forfeited properties are  Rayhaan University, Kebbi State, including the Rayhaan University Permanent Site, Rayhaan University Temporary Site, Rayhaan University Third Site, the Rayhaan University Vice Chancellor's House and  Rayhaan Radio along Sani Abacha Bypass Road, Birnin Kebbi. Delivering judgment, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Abuja, held that the Commission had successfully established that the properties were reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities and were not acquired from lawful sources of income. The properties finally forfeited to the Federal Government are: a luxury duplex at Amazon Street, Plot No. 3011 within Cadastral Zone A06, Maitama District, Abuja (File No. AN 11352); a two-winged large three-storey building situated at No. 3 Onitsha Crescent, Area 11, Garki, Cadastral Zone A03, Abuja (formerly Harmonia Hotels Limited); Plot 683, Jabi District, Cadastral Zone B04, comprising a five-storey building (now luxurious Meethaq Hotels Ltd., Jabi, with 53 rooms/suites); Property No. 3130 within Cadastral Zone A04, Asokoro District, FCT, Abuja, comprising terraces; Property No. 3 Rhine Street, Maitama, Abuja (Meethaq Hotels Ltd., Maitama, with 15 rooms); and Plot No. 1241B, Asokoro District (No. 11A Yakubu Gowon Crescent), Asokoro District. Others are: Shop No. C52, Citiscape – Shariff Plaza, Plot 739, Cadastral Zone A07, Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse II, FCT, Abuja; No. 4 Ahmadu Bello Way, Nasarawa GRA, Kano; Plot 157, Lamido Nasarawa GRA, Kano; a commercial plaza comprising commercial toilets, laundering facilities, warehouse tanks adjacent to Birnin Kebbi Market; 100 hectares of land along Birnin Kebbi–Jega Road; and another 100 hectares of land along Birnin Kebbi–Jega Road. Others are: a four-bedroom bungalow at Gesse Phase II, Birnin Kebbi; Shops Nos. A36 and B3, Vegas Mall, Wuse II, Abuja; No. 26 Babbi Drive, BUA Estate, Abuja; No. 27 EFAB Estate, 5th Avenue, 59th Crescent, Gwarimpa, Abuja; a four-bedroom house with two-room boys' quarters at No. 10B Doka Crescent, Abakpa GRA, Kaduna; Plot No. 13, IPENT 7 Estate, Karsana District, Abuja; a bedroom duplex with boys' quarters at No. 12 Yalinga Street, off Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja; two warehouse shops B40 and B46, Wuse Market, Abuja; acquisition of twin houses at Zone E, Apo Legislative Quarters, Cadastral Zone B01, Plot 1401, Gudu District, Abuja; and properties acquired by Khadimiyya for Justice & Development Initiative at the Academic Garden City, Birnin Kebbi, sold by the Federal Housing Authority Mortgage, namely: nine units of three-bedroom bungalows, three units of two-bedroom bungalows, and 5.4 hectares of land. Also forfeited are the Rayhaan Agro Allied Factory in Kebbi State, including the factory buildings, factory machines and plant units, factory mosque, Rayhaan Mill staff quarters, and the Rayhaan Bustan Building.  Others are assets at Azbir Arena, Kebbi State, including Azbir Hotel, Printing Press, Gallery, Gardens, Mosque, Azbir Clothing, and Azbir Pharmacy and Supermarket. Other forfeited properties include the Al-Afiya Energy tanker garage opposite Rayhaan University Health Centre along Sani Abacha Bypass Road, Birnin Kebbi; Rayhaan Security House off Sani Abacha Bypass, Birnin Kebbi; an uncompleted two-storey plaza located opposite Central Motor Park (Eastern Park), Birnin Kebbi; Amasdul Oil and Gas Ltd. filling station structure along Sani Abacha Bypass Road, Birnin Kebbi, near Jambali Automobile Workshop; the assets of Zeennoor Hotel at Kabuga Satellite Town, off Gwarzo Road, Kano, with 131 rooms; Zeennoor Mosque at Kabuga Satellite Town, off Gwarzo Road, Kano; and the old Zeennoor Hotel building. It would be recalled that on January 6, 2026,  Justice Emeka Nwite granted the interim forfeiture order following an ex parte motion moved by counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ekele Iheanacho, SAN. Sequel to the granting of the interim forfeiture order, and in compliance with the order of the court, the EFCC published the interim order in national dailies, inviting interested persons to come forward and show cause why the final forfeiture order should not be granted in favour of the Federal Government of Nigeria. The EFCC subsequently filed a motion for the final forfeiture of all the properties. Meanwhile, following the publication of the interim order, Mr. Malami, SAN, and 14 other persons, mainly his family members and associates, filed applications to show cause and also urged the court to set aside the interim forfeiture order on the properties. They further challenged the jurisdiction of the court to grant the order and urged it not to grant the final forfeiture order. The case was heard before  Justice Joyce Abdulmalik on May 27, 2026, and the matter was thereafter adjourned for judgment. Delivering judgment on Wednesday,  the court held that the EFCC had sufficiently established that the 48 properties were reasonably suspected to have been acquired with proceeds of unlawful activities, and that the respondents failed to discharge the evidential burden placed on them, as they could not show the legitimate sources of the funds used in acquiring the properties. The court further held that the respondents merely claimed ownership of the properties without providing proof of how they acquired them with funds from lawful sources. According to the court, non conviction-based forfeiture proceedings require respondents to adduce evidence showing the lawful sources of the funds used in acquiring the properties, and not merely make bare assertions of ownership.

A Section 20 major-works bill can become service-charge arrears. Arrears can become forfeiture proceedings. And forfeiture can mean losing not only your home, but every pound of equity you built up in it. How many people have been made homeless this way? Guess what? The honest answer is that the Government doesn’t know. The Ministry of Justice has admitted that its systems cannot accurately identify residential leasehold forfeitures. Ministers have relied instead on stakeholder estimates and even those figures don’t tell us how many began with unaffordable major-works bills, or how many people and families were ultimately displaced. That absence of data is not reassurance. It is an indictment. Don’t think they can take your home? Under leasehold, you may discover that you were never regarded as its true owner. You’re simply standing in the way of their asset. The happy family on the settee with the Labrador, or the smiling young couple holding their keys aloft in their postage stamp garden in the publicity photographs, have done their work. They sold you homeownership. The small print sold you something else entirely.