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 […]
LKP guidance for responding to the government consultation on tackling unfair practices in the leasehold market
This article offers some tips on responding to the government consultation on “tackling unfair practices in the leasehold market”. It gives you links to some of the documents you might want to read and gives an explanation of some of the questions asked in the consultation as well as highlighting some of the issues you […]
Urban Owners finds 41% of leaseholders have not had lease terms explained by solicitors
Less than 2% worried about about ground rents when buying a flat Less than 5% have a good understanding of commonhold, but … … APPG on September 11 is to consider the ground rent scandal, the government response to it … and the need for commonhold to replace leasehold The LKP-accredited management company Urban Owners […]
Commons Library’s excellent resume of leasehold problems will give MPs plenty of ideas for reform
The Commons library has done a superb job of spelling out the problems of leasehold. It is the first time we have seen a third party report into this sector with no regard to the disingenuous interventions from self-interested professionals, trade bodies, dubious “stakeholders” or compromised quangos. Its report, published yesterday and written by Wendy […]
Spire View, in Pickering, shows a commonhold future with no leases at all, says Sunday Times
Just before Sajid Javid’s ban on leasehold houses and pledge to reduce ground rents to “as low as zero”, commonhold tenure – on the statute book since 2002 – has raced back onto the housing agenda. The issue is now up for consultation. The Sunday Times today reports how Spire View in Pickering, North Yorkshire, […]
Time to ‘get political about leasehold’, says the Financial Times
The Financial Times today produces an important article urging reform to protect leasehold property owners. Now is the “perfect time for the political parties to grasp the deadly nettle of leasehold property”, says Lindsay Cook, who wrote a brilliant article on leasehold in July. Leasehold is a feudal, wasting asset with opportunities for exploitation, says […]
Philip Rainey QC: Reform of the law is a duty (and for landlord and tenant law it is overdue)
In an address to the ARMA conference last week, Philip Rainey QC (right) did nothing less than urge the whole-scale reform of landlord and tenant law that has provided him with a comfortable living. Although prefaced with the lawyerly proviso – “it should not be assumed that I agree with all or any of the […]
