In the first working week of the New Year, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick announced major reforms to the way that houses and flats are owned in England and Wales. The changes could affect more than 4 million leaseholders across England and Wales.
The government has come under increasing pressure in recent years to tackle what Read More
Just like buses and government slogans, it seems that Law Commission reports on the future of residential property in England and Wales come in threes. Following separate, lengthy consultations, the Law Commission has this week published its proposals for reforming leasehold enfranchisement, tenants’ statutory right to manage (“RTM”), and Commonhold ownership.
It is estimated that Read More
Property cases do not often make it all the way to the Supreme Court, let alone cases relating to a landord’s refusal of consent under a lease. For that reason alone, the Supreme Court Justices’ decision in the case of Sequent Nominees Limited v Hautford Limited this Autumn is valuable reading. That said, it was Read More
What does enfranchisement actually mean and what’s wrong with the current regime? Enfranchisement is the process by which people who own property on a long lease may extend the lease, or buy the freehold. The procedure for doing so is not, however, universally popular. Leaseholders argue that it is complex and expensive, leading to unnecessary Read More
The sale of houses on a leasehold basis has been criticised in some quarters because of its apparent unfairness to leaseholders. Leaseholders, in contrast to freeholders, lease a property for only a number of years. The question then being, what happens at the end of the term?
Enfranchisement rights provide leaseholders who hold a lease Read More
The last two months have seen two key appeals in which the court was required to decide whether the tenant of a particular type of building should enjoy the statutory right to acquire the freehold of a house. This right is enshrined in the Leasehold Reform Act 1967.
The properties, and the questions for the Read More
In Westbrook Dolphin Square Limited -v- Friends Life Limited [2014] EWHC 2433 (Ch) the High Court has paved the way for one commercial owner to compel the transfer of another’s freehold property to it, by the process of collective enfranchisement.
Under the collective enfranchisement regime created in the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act Read More
Anyone looking out of their office window in central London will see that the development market is back. From our offices in Holborn, we have been able to see (and feel!) the works going on at the new Goldman Sachs headquarters on Farringdon Road, AXA Real Estate’s 12 storey scheme at Holborn Viaduct now occupied Read More
In a brave move, the Supreme Court has allowed appeals by two London landlords in Day v Hosebay and Howard de Walden v Lexgorge and clarified what can reasonably be called a house under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967.
Senior Associate, Tim Reid, applauded the unanimous decision for its clarification of the law: