Last week saw a volley of government announcements for the private rented sector and investors in leasehold residential property. At the Chartered Institute of Housing Conference on 27 June, Prime Minister Theresa May and Communities Secretary James Brokenshire announced “bold action”, as soon as parliamentary time allows, to empower tenants and tackle perceived inequality in
Tag Archives: Leasehold Reform
No quick fix for a broken housing market – government consults on leasehold reform
We blogged previously about the government’s proposed reforms banning the granting of new residential long leases of houses and setting ground rents at a notional figure. The government has now published its consultation on how to implement these proposals and also proposals to make charges paid by freeholders for maintenance of communal parts fairer and more
Radical proposals on enfranchisement rights
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
Dolphin sees literal meaning of statute triumph over porpoise
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
Move along squatters, investors in residential property also need legislative reform
After press reports of police up and down the country taking action to remove squatters from residential accommodation, perhaps the government should now turn its attention to the legislative pitfalls awaiting potential investors in this sector? The Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 offers rights to those who own leases of residential flats