Наследница отказалась от квартиры-пенсии: застройщик отказал в возврате жилья

I was so desperate I tried to give away my retirement flat - the response was shocking EXCLUSIVE: Roz Collins tried to give her inherited retirement flat back to the developer for free - but her offer was declined. A woman struggling to sell a retirement flat was so desperate to escape the property that she offered to hand it back to the developer for free, but was told it was “not possible”. Roz Collins, 65, inherited the one-bedroom apartment in 2024 after her late mum, Hilda Hudson, died at the age of 87. Hudson had previously lived in South West England, but moved to Lymington, Hampshire, in 2020 to be closer to her daughter. She initially moved into a care home after suffering from mental health problems, but soon wanted to leave. Unable to use her mobility scooter, she became increasingly isolated and wanted to regain her independence. Retirement housing, which provides homes for people aged 55 or older, was a sweet middle-ground solution. It is built for older residents, offering amenities such as communal lounges, on-site staff, bistros and emergency call systems. But unlike care homes, it also allows for independence, as residents live in self-contained properties and often own their own homes. Hudson decided to purchase a property from McCarthy Stone, the UK’s largest developer of retirement homes, for £146,000 in March 2022. At first, she was renting the place from its previous owners on the promise that she would eventually buy the one-bedroom apartment. “That was how much we wanted it,” Collins told the Express, adding that the flat “seemed perfect”. “It was very modern, very clean and, most importantly, independent. She could come and go as she pleased, get on her scooter and go to Lymington every day, the doctors were across the street, everything was very convenient for her,” she added. In 2024, Hudson passed away due to Covid. Following the probate, Collins and her brother put the flat on the market. At the time, the siblings already knew they had to go down with the price to stand a chance on the ruthless market. Retirement flats are notoriously hard to sell, mostly due to their limited pool of only older buyers and extremely high service charges that often exceed £10,000 per year. There is also a surplus of them on the market, with an estimated 10,000 empty retirement properties across England and Wales. Collins set the asking price at £129,000, which didn’t last for too long. After trying three different estate agents and still having no results, she put the house up for auction in September 2025 at the minimum price of £50,000. “The auctioneers originally appeared quite confident and were sure they could sell it,” Collins said. “But when it got to the fourth auction, one just told me that this was not going to work.” Paying £50,000 for a modern, one-bedroom flat in what is dubbed Britain's poshest coastal town might seem like a sweet deal. Not if it’s a retirement flat. Collins recalled there was one apartment in the same block that went to auction for £5,000, but still didn’t sell. Last year, she went as far as offering the flat to McCarthy Stone for free. She said: “I told them: ‘please, just have it back, I don’t want any money’. It was an incremental desperation.” In correspondence to McCarthy Stone, seen by the Express, Collins has gone to the developer multiple times to offer them the property for free. While they acknowledged her offer, they didn’t accept it. “They said it wasn’t possible. “It was just incredulous. I couldn't really believe how they could justify it.” She contacted the developer again earlier this month to ask them for an explanation. Their response said that they would address her problem in September. In one word, Collins has felt “helpless” dealing with the situation. “I have done everything I can possibly think of, including joining a pressure group. But we all keep banging our heads against a brick wall.” Eventually, the siblings were forced to rent the place out to a lady who pays enough to cover the service charge, which, for Collins, went up by more than 50% from 2020. According to McCarthy Stone’s website, it is now at £1,282 a month, while the ground rent costs £435 a year. But Collins is still not making any profit - with the insurance and other costs, she has a “lot more overheads”. At the moment, Collins has “completely given up” on the prospect of selling. “It’s just better to rent that to continue to wait until the estate is completely bankrupt,” she said. With the new Renters’ Rights Act, she will have to rent anyway. Most fixed-term tenancies have been replaced with rolling agreements. Landlords can still ask tenants to leave if they want to sell, but they cannot do this in the first 12 months of a new tenancy. At the Lymington complex, there are currently 19 flats out of a total of 42 offered for sale on the McCarthy Stone Resales website. The cheapest listing starts at £45,000. McCarthy Stone spokesperson said: “As a property developer, it is not McCarthy & Stone's policy to buy back homes from their owners. We know that some people who inherited their property have difficulty selling them in this current market and we're extremely sorry to hear of any of these cases. However, we are pleased to hear that Dr Collins was able to rent out her apartment. “We are working hard on options to provide even more support to customers in similar positions. We are also taking action for the future so new customers have more ways to access the McCarthy & Stone lifestyle, such as renting from us rather than buying. “All owners, prospective owners and executors are provided with detailed breakdowns of service charges, and any purchaser should seek independent legal advice so that they are clear about what they are buying. Our service charges, which we believe deliver exceptional value, are linked to ownership not occupancy and the vast majority of charges are passed on at cost: we don’t add any mark-up, and they are paid fairly by all apartment owners. “Our dedicated specialist resales team is working closely with customers looking to sell now to help them achieve the best possible outcome. Last year alone, the team helped to sell 800 apartments across the country. Of course, as with any property sale, timescales and prices vary, and while many of our apartments do go up in value, some do decrease, just as in the wider apartment market. “We're proud that thousands of people choose McCarthy & Stone for the lifestyle, community and support our developments provide and we are working hard on a number of initiatives, specifically aimed at addressing some of the issues raised, to ensure that that remains the case.”