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 as long-term tenancies.
Is commonhold the answer to your leasehold woes?
An unusual type of property ownership called commonhold edged closer to the mainstream this week, but experts say it needs huge changes to be viable for most. This week the Law Commission, which overhauls laws, proposed reforms that could kickstart the popularity of commonhold.
The Telegraph said:
“However, the leasehold system is open to abuse, with more than 100,000 homes containing unfair conditions in their leases, according to Nationwide, the building society.”
Commonhold would be preferable, but“only six of the top thirty lenders are even prepared to consider extending mortgages to these homes”.
The government discourages commonhold as well, by barring it from eligibility to the Help To Buy scheme.
This was reported by LKP after developer Stewart Moxon, of Hopton Build, was told there would be no Help To Buy on commonhold flats that he is building near Huddersfield.
This was raised in the Commons by Sir Peter Bottomley on December 10:
LKP praised the Law Commission:
“The Law Commission is doing a very serious job at looking at these problems in leasehold and we are very impressed by them.”
COMMENT: Leasehold homes are easy pickings for greedy investors
A HOME is the most expensive purchase most people will ever make. Not only is it a roof over their heads, it is somewhere they turn into a home, start families, and create a lifetime of memories.
chas
December 19, 2018 at 2:14 pm
Once again a question was asked in the Prime Ministers Questions (PMQ) regarding Leasehold Reform.
Mike Amesbury a Labour Shadow Minister for Weaver Dale , asked the Prime Minister as he had previously asked on the 1st PMQ in 2018 – what more has she done to support the victims of the mis-selling of Leasehold Housing.
The PM stated that:-
Leasehold is required to be fair and transparent and their home to feels like their home.
From July no new government funding will be used to purchase Leasehold Housing.
Having taken action further will be done when Parliamentary time allows.
Another waste of time using Fair and Transparent (meaningless words) because if it was Fair and Transparent, we as Leaseholders would not be in this mess we are in.
From July when? – 2018 or 2019 and no new government funding, what about the funding already provided and what happens to those caught up in the mis-selling, who had used the Help to Buy only now find they have purchased a property they may not be able to sell, which was misused by developers to increase profits.
Trevor Bradley
More useless and meaningless words from the government.
Also, don’t forget everyone, always replace the words “government funding” with the correct term, this being “tax payers money”