REGARDING THE article about the leasehold houses at Winnington Village - we are also caught in the leasehold trap.

We purchased our Barratt home at Victoria Gardens in Widnes in June 2016. We were told at the time it was leasehold, the ground rent was £250 per year, and a service charge of £135, this would be approximately a few pounds per week.

We were not advised of a rent review in line with inflation (RPI) after 15 years and were never given the opportunity to buy freehold at the point of sale.

We did not even know that this was an option when we bought the house.

We then received a letter from Barratts in June this year to advise they had now disposed of the freeholds to Landmark Collections.

No-one advised that this would happen.

We now have to wait two years to go down the formal route and hope we can buy the full freehold at a fair price.

We have been informed that a few residents had been able to buy the freehold before it was disposed of for £5,000.

We have asked for an informal calculation to buy the freehold from Landmark Collections, who have quoted 50 times the ground rent - total £12,500 plus £375 legal cost.

This is nearly three times the amount we would of paid if we had been advised.

We would not have bought this house if we had known the full facts.

Dorothy Clare Widnes