Earlier this summer Mark Loveday of Tanfield Chambers was successful in the Court of Appeal on a key point which could affect hundreds of thousands of existing shared ownership lessees and more in the future.

The case of Avon Ground Rents v Canary Gateway concerned the lessees of Canary Gateway and their lengthy attempt to take over the management of their building using the Right to Manage process. They started their claim in 2019 pre covid and several First Tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal decisions later found themselves in the Court of Appeal on this specific point.

A new Bill which will fundamentally change the way renting residential property in the UK works is currently going through its second reading in the House of Commons.

If enacted, Assured Shorthold Tenancies will be scrapped and all new tenancies will be Assured Periodic Tenancies. The Section 21 ”No fault” process for recovering possession will no longer exist and so landlords will only be able to recover possession by using the existing Section 8 procedure and proving their ground for recovery of possession.  It is proposed that new grounds for recovery of possession will be added including where the landlord wishes to sell the property.

The Building Safety Act 2022 (the Act) came into force on 28 June 2022. It created new financial protections around the cost of remediation of historical safety defects for leaseholders of buildings at or above 11 metres or five storeys with historical safety defects.

While flat owners who benefit from this protection will welcome this unfortunately there are problems around the conveyancing process as it adjusts to the effect of the complex new rules which may adversely affect the sales process and the Government overlooked the effect of the legislation on flat owners extending their leases.