• ON November 21, the minister for housing and planning Matthew Pennycook spoke of the reality of home ownership being a constant struggle for far too many leaseholders in the opening remarks to his agenda for reform in this area.

I welcome the proposals which will hopefully provide greater protections for leaseholders who are far too often treated as second-class citizens by large organisations.

But equally I am concerned about potential delays to the legislation.

One such example which illustrates how large organisations fail to prioritise the treatment of leaseholders is my insurer’s handling of my own leasehold claim.

In December 2023 I asked LV Insurance to confirm whether the “family legal protection” they had sold me as part of my home insurance policy covered leasehold claims given it was clearly stated this additional option covers “any infringement of your legal rights from owning or occupying your home”.

Given the introduction of Consumer Duty (Financial Conduct Authority) to set higher standards of consumer protection it would seem reasonable that a customer might be entitled to know what financial product they had been sold by a regulated financial institution.

And I was initially assured that my “concerns need to be reviewed in full”.

However LV Insurance wrote to me five months later reversing their position and stating they now believed that there was no requirement to explain the product terms. They have maintained their stance of refusing to respond to my policy terms query despite an intervention by the city minister and economic secretary Tulip Siddiq.

There has also been no response from either their press office or executive complaints teams as to whether Colm Holmes – being the CEO of Allianz Holdings – could acknowledge a previously sent email highlighting additional concerns.

JONATHAN LIVINGSTONE, NW3