Leasehold home ownership: extending your lease and buying your freehold - Law Society response
The Law Society has responded to the Law Commission’s consultation on Leasehold home ownership: extending your lease and buying your freehold.
This consultation constitutes part of the Law Commission’s wider review of residential leasehold and commonhold under its 13th programme of law reform.
In it, the Commission makes provisional proposals for reform designed to enhance and improve enfranchisement rights and provide a new unified procedure for all claims designed to benefit leaseholders of both houses and flats.
The Commission has also set out options for reducing the price payable by leaseholders to exercise their enfranchisement rights, whilst ensuring sufficient compensation is paid to landlords to reflect their legitimate property interests.
The proposed reforms were reviewed by the Commission under the policy objectives set out by government which include:
- to promote transparency and fairness
- to provide a better deal for leaseholders as consumers
- to simplify enfranchisement legislation
- to make enfranchisement easier quicker and more cost effective.
Leasehold reform is a complex and important task. There are different interests at stake. The Law Society recognises the scale of the problem, and we are keen to work with the Law Commission and the government to identify solutions.