A London lawyer bought the land under Southport homeowners' houses. Then the threats began

Dear readers — last month, our Sheffield sister title, The Tribune, published a shocking investigation into Andrew Milne: a London lawyer who has been sending dozens of letters to residents in the city, threatening to take them to the high court if they didn’t hand over upwards of £25,000 to buy the land their homes were built on.

Following their coverage, the story has been picked up by the likes of Private Eye, and Milne’s conduct is being looked at by South Yorkshire Police. However, further digging by The Post has revealed that Milne’s unsavoury antics first began a little closer to home: in Southport. 

For today’s story, we headed to the town to uncover how Milne has been causing elderly residents anxiety and distress for nearly three years. “There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think about [the letters],” one told us. “The anxiety is always there, it never goes away.”

 But first, your Post briefing.

Your Post briefing

Paul Doyle, the man accused of driving into a packed crowd during LFC’s victory parade in May, cried in Liverpool Crown Court yesterday as he appeared for the beginning of his trial. The 54-year-old “broke down in tears” upon being asked to confirm his name, cradling his head in his hands as jurors took their seats. Doyle went on to plead “not guilty” to 31 charges, including one count of dangerous driving, nine counts of causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, 17 of attempted GBH with intent and three of wounding with intent. Doyle, a former Royal Marine, was behind the wheel of a Ford Galaxy that ploughed into throngs gathered on Water Street on 26 May to watch the Liverpool team celebrate their recent Premier League title. Over 100 pedestrians were injured during the incident. Jurors have been warned to ignore the “public attention” the case has attracted and “stick to the rules”. 

Tons of historic World War II rubble on Crosby Beach is to be relocated to another part of the Merseyside coastline, famous for its wartime debris. Sefton council are planning to move around 400 tons of wreckage — originally dumped after the Luftwaffe bombing raids in 1941 — to the so-called ‘Blitz Beach’, to help bolster coastal defences. Bar London, Liverpool endured the heaviest bombing campaign during World War II, with more than 4,000 people killed during 1941. 

And Premier Inn’s attempt to block Liverpool’s new £2 visitor levy has been thrown out by Westminster. In June, the parent company of the nation’s biggest hotel chain made a request to the government to void the ballot result — voted on by the city’s hoteliers and serviced apartment owners — that ushered in the new overnight charge. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government launched an investigation in response, with Liverpool council agreeing that any money collected in the interim via the new charge would be held, pending the outcome. Now the decision has been made: the levy stays. Bill Addy, chief executive of Liverpool BID, told the Echo that the ruling means that the cash, intended to be reinvested in the city’s visitor economy, could now be implemented “in full” and that the levy was “about creating a circular and sustainable visitor economy”. 

*names have been changed

Anne* remembers when the first letter came. It was a quiet, cold morning in September 2022; after finishing a light breakfast, she settled into her armchair to watch the news. At 88 years old, she’s been living in her modest bungalow in Southport for over 40 years, first moving in during the late 70s with her husband — now living alone after his death.

She was disturbed by the sound of envelopes pushed through the post-box. As she shuffled through the letters — mostly bills, council updates and takeaway menus — one stood out. A white envelope with a dark blue stamp, her name printed in large black letters across the bottom. 

Intrigued, she opened it. “I just couldn’t believe what I was reading,” she tells me. That letter marked the beginning of her experience with Andrew Milne, a solicitor with offices in the City of London. In the letter, Milne informed Anne that he had recently bought the freehold to her property. And he was making an offer to sell. 

Generally, in England, a homeowner will own the freehold to their property — that is, as well as owning the house, they own the land that it sits on. But that’s not always the case. In some instances, the houses were built and sold as leaseholds. That means homeowners own the house, but not the land, and have to pay ground rent to a landlord. 

Sometimes, as in Southport, these leases run for centuries out into the future, meaning there’s little incentive for homeowners to actually buy them. Especially when the ground rents are so low — Anne was paying just £25 a year, and her lease wouldn’t run out until the year 2874. 

Chasing up lots of homeowners for small sums that become increasingly worthless with inflation is no-one’s idea of a great business model. Maybe that’s why, when a bundle of 17 freeholds in Southport was put out to auction in August 2022, there were no takers. 

But Milne must have spotted it somehow. After the auction, he came to an agreement to buy the lot for £4,000 — or around £235 per freehold.

When Milne got in touch with Anne, he was looking for much more than that to sell the freehold to her: £6,000. “This price is notionally divided as to £3,000 for the sale of the leasehold and £3,000 for the removal of the restrictive covenants,” he wrote in his letter. “Also, there are my solicitors fees…and the Land Registry fee”.

Milne was within his rights to offer a price, just as Anne was within her rights to turn it down. After all, given the minimal ground rent Anne was paying, £6,000 would be a huge sum to pay — well over its fair market value.

But then the letter takes on a more threatening tone. If Anne wasn’t going to buy from him, there were rules that must be followed. “As you will be aware, the leases are very restrictive and the restrictive covenants in my opinion are of the nature that you would find in a short term rental agreement for a property rather than for long term ownership like a freehold.” This included “an absolute ban on anyone working from home from the property”, and all alterations to the property were “prohibited” without Milne’s prior approval. The Post has looked at the lease for Anne’s house on the Land Registry, which doesn’t record any restrictive covenants. Milne’s letters also included some incorrect statistics to suggest that owning a leasehold property is incredibly unusual. “99% of houses are freehold”, he asserts (the true figure for England is 93%, and much lower in some areas).

“It was very upsetting,” Anne says, adding that she “tossed and turned” all night thinking about the letter. The next day, she called her son in distress. He drove four hours from his home near London to assist her, immediately knocking on neighbours’ doors to see if anyone else had received a letter.