PEOPLE living in freehold properties should have the same rights as those in leasehold homes, a Caerphilly AM has said.

Freehold residents do not have the same legal rights as leasehold residents to challenge management companies responsible for maintaining common areas or facilities in the estate or housing block if they have provided poor service.

And, speaking in the Assembly last week, Caerphilly AM Hefin David called on the Welsh Government to address the disparity.

Saying he hoped the new law would be “of benefit to the people of Wales as a whole”, Mr David called the current arrangements “deeply unfair".

“The payment of a monthly fee to a property management and estate company is common practice among leasehold properties, where the monthly fee is known as ground rent, and leaseholders now have statutory rights, including recourse to a tribunal, to appeal against what they perceive as poor standards of service,” he said.

“Freeholders don't have this right."

He added: “I want the Welsh Government to use this opportunity to make sure that freehold property owners do not miss out, and they're accorded the same rights as leaseholders, because actually leaseholders have more rights in this regard, when it comes to challenging the decisions of residential management companies, and their appointed agents.

“We need property estate management companies to be properly professionalised, and regulated, as other trade and professional bodies are, to stop rogue traders, and people ripping off innocent home owners.”

His proposal won cross-party support, with Conservative Suzy Davies saying she was concerned about the of developers to be able to demand monthly payments for managing roads in new estates.

“When you consider how many of this type of estate are likely to be going up under local development plans all over Wales, as councils scramble to meet the housing targets they've been set, this estate rent charge has become a bit of a developer's dream, I think - completely unregulated, no obligation to consult, no obligation to offer reasonable charges, no right for rent payers for copies of accounts or access to a first-tier tribunal,” she said.

And Plaid Cymru's Bethan Sayed said: "Home owners and flat owners are facing estate service charges that are often completely unjustifiable, arbitrary and can cause great financial difficulty. It's a system particularly widespread and expensive in the apartment sector."

Ukip’s Gareth Bennett also backed the idea saying: “It is scandalous that these fairly arbitrary charges can be imposed without much in the way of consultation, transparency or the right of legal challenge.”

Responding, housing and regeneration minister Rebecca Evans said she agreed there was a “pressing need to professionalise and raise standards of behaviour in the property and estate management sector”.

“Some of the most professional companies are the ones displaying some of the poorest behaviour,” she said.

She added she would “open up discussions” with the sector over the issue.