By Harry Scoffin The Estates Gazette has recently provided insight into the thinking of the obfuscators of the leasehold sector. The opinion piece makes delicious reading for leasehold campaigners and others pushing for fairness in this murky corner of the housing market. * The genie is out of the bottle The volume and pace of […]
Taylor Wimpey’s Pete Redfern tells FT ‘we got it wrong on ground rents’
By Harry Scoffin Pete Redfern, the chief executive of Taylor Wimpey, this week told the Financial Times that his company “got it wrong” on leaseholds. The newspaper reports that between 2007 and 2011, Taylor Wimpey sold properties with onerous leasehold terms, including ground rents that doubled every 10 years. The terms had the effect of […]
Exclusive: Commonhold can only work if ground rents are banned, said Ministry of Justice – in 2009!
By Harry Scoffin As government stands ready to issue its verdict on the Communities Select Committee report and the findings of the public consultation from November, Leasehold Knowledge Partnership turns back the clock to 2009. There was no LKP, no All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold reform, and no social media movement like the National […]
Tory maverick MP Crispin Blunt is urged to back Help To Buy ONLY on commonhold
By Harry Scoffin Conservative MP Crispin Blunt is being urged to throw his weight behind an LKP-backed proposal to make state support for developers contingent on selling ALL new-build flats as commonhold or share of freehold. The appeal to a Tory backbencher who has characterised leasehold tenure as an “arcane feudal system” may have resonance […]
Estate Agent Today supports LKP’s campaign to introduce commonhold
The trade news website Estate Agent Today has come out in favour of LKP’s campaign to introduce commonhold. It is the latest endorsement of a campaign to reinvigorate commonhold, which has been on the statute book since 2002 but has not had take up because developers and assorted speculators make so much money playing the […]
Housebuilders WILL benefit from commonhold, Hopton Build developer tells Law Commission
By Harry Scoffin The housebuilder owner of Hopton Build who is completing a commonhold scheme in Yorkshire told the Law Commission last week that the tenure works and will benefit housebuilders. Stewart Moxon, of Hopton Build, which is selling a site in Liversedge, near Huddersfield, said: “Believe me, developers will do well out of commonhold. […]
London mayor Sadiq Khan launches leasehold advice portal and slams LEASE as ‘unfit for purpose’
London mayor Sadiq Khan has launched a new leasehold advice portal, and has condemned the taxpayer-funded Leasehold Advisory Service as “unfit for purpose”. He also backed “wholesale reform of leasehold, including a long-term shift toward alternative tenures such as commonhold”. Today’s statement from the mayor’s office reads: “Government funds the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) – […]
Leaseholders and the sector react to Law Commission reforms to commonhold and right to manage
There is bound to be a contrast between successful professionals in the leasehold sector discussing reforms, and the reactions of more emotive leaseholders who see themselves as the victims of its injustices. Examples of both were evident on Tuesday at the Law Commission’s symposium at London University’s law faculty. Consultation on the proposals to reform […]
Lawyers to Communities Select Committee: Stop ‘sticking plaster reforms’. End ‘draconian’ forfeiture. £10 ground rents a ‘mistake’. Make legal costs fair to leaseholders. Commonhold failed because developers make money out of leasehold …
The evidence provided to the Communities Select Committee by lawyers – and the Law Commissioner Professor Nicholas Hopkins – add up to devastating criticisms of the leasehold system. Three lawyers who have made their careers in the sector barely had a good word to say about leasehold law, when they came before the Select Committee […]
Law Commission seminars on commonhold and RTM launched
The Law Commission has just opened applications to attend a series of seminars for both leaseholders and those working in the sector to hear about their consultations on Commonhold and the Right to Manage. The seminars for the leaseholder events are 12th Feb in London, 16th Feb in Brighton, 18th Feb in Cardiff and 19th […]
LKP persuades government to allow commonhold tenure on Help To Buy
The government has back-tracked on the bar on Help To Buy for commonhold properties and will now allow purchases of this form of tenure, which prevails in the world outside England and Wales. For God’s sake! Now it emerges £8.3 billion Help To Buy scheme – that turned house builder executives into multi-millionaires – is […]
LKP praises Law Commission over commonhold in Telegraph
Commonhold is slowly working its way into the national consciousness – 16 years after being introduced to the statute book. Last Friday, Sam Barker in the Daily Telegraph reported the Law Commission’s study of the tenure. Commonhold exists almost all jurisdictions apart from England and Wales, where flats and over a million houses are held […]
‘The time is right for commonhold,’ announces Law Commission. (Pity the government doesn’t agree …)
Push for alternative to leasehold system Expansion of the commonhold system of home ownership as an alternative to leasehold tenancies has been urged by the government’s law reform adviser. Commonhold – where people own their homes without an expiring lease – was introduced 14 years ago, but has been little-used. Meanwhile, there have […]
For God’s sake! Now it emerges £8.3 billion Help To Buy scheme – that turned house builder executives into multi-millionaires – is not available on commonhold properties!
The Help To Buy scheme that has hugely boosted plc house builders share prices – and turned the likes of Persimmon’s Jeff Fairburn and David Jenkinson into multimillionaires – is not available for commonhold properties. This astonishing revelation comes from small house builder (and former leaseholder) Stewart Moxon, of Hopton Build. He trying to selling […]
Commonhold is back! House builder offers flats without leasehold tenancies
Five flats might not amount to a revolution, but it might be an indication of where market sentiment is heading. If so, Stewart Moxon, founder of Hopton Build, is going to be well ahead of the curve. He is selling five two-bedroom apartments at Liversedge, near Huddersfield, as commonhold units rather than leasehold. And the […]
Leasehold needs to stop being a means to produce ‘ever-increasing profits’, says Conveyancing Association
The Conveyancing Association says it is going to deliver a “full and frank” response to Sajid Javid’s consultation on the leasehold sector. “It’s clear that we want to move away from leasehold being used purely as a motive to generate income, and produce ever-increasing profits for whoever might own the freehold,” writes Eddie Goldsmith, the […]
