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Leasehold And Commonhold Reform – Government Statement Confirms Timing and further reforms

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 received royal assent in the wash up just prior to the election.
 
It included some of the changes around the rights of leaseholders of flats and houses to obtain extended leases and the freehold that The Law Commission had recommended, i.e. providing for leases to be extended by 990 rather than 90 years, doing away with the need to have owned for two years to qualify for an extended lease and bringing more buildings within the right to enfranchise or manage by increasing the threshold of non-residential parts from 25% to 50%.

Right to Manage – is a breach of the statutory framework fatal?

The right to manage is simple in concept but unfortunately complex in its application as there are a lot of procedural hurdles that participating flat owners can fall at and this can lead to litigation as of course their landlord needs to be sure whether management will validly vest.  Consequently there are a huge number of cases taken by landlords challenging the validity of claims which some might find surprising.

Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 – Royal Assent

In 2018, the then Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid announced a “crackdown on unfairly sold practices” that would include setting ground rents on new long leases to zero and working with The Law Commission to make the process of purchasing a freehold or extending a lease of a flat “much easier, faster and cheaper”.