Leasehold reform ‘years, not months away’ says expert
The Freehold and Leasehold Reform Act has no timetable in place and is likely to be some time before it becomes law says co-CEO of LEASE.
Reform of leaseholds is ‘years, not months away’ despite the passing of the Freehold and Leasehold Reform Act in the days before the end of the Conservative government earlier this year says LEASE’s Alice Bradley (pictured).
No timescales have been put in place.”
Speaking at this year’s Society of Licensed Conveyancers (SLC) conference she said that: “No timescales have been put in place and that the government would take its time to consider what steps might be taken to fulfil its election promise to reform the leasehold system, before bringing forward secondary legislation.”
In May, just before the Tories lost power, their ban on leaseholds for new houses and the extending of standard lease terms to 990 years became law. The controversial cap on ground rent, however, was left out.
Promises made
As reported in The Neg, when Labour came to power, it promised to implement those reforms but also said it would go ‘much further.’
This would include implementing the Law Commission’s recommendations relating to leasehold enfranchisement, which would give leaseholders greater rights to extend their lease and/or buy the freehold and take over the freeholder’s building management functions or ‘right to manage’.
Labour also says it wants to tackle high ground rents and remove the “disproportionate and draconian threat of forfeiture as a means of ensuring compliance with a lease agreement”.
Four months on and there are few signs of progress and frustration at the slow pace is building. It now appears, though, that those delays could get considerably worse.
