Professor Nick Hopkins & Thomas Nicholls outline the Law Commission’s radical plans for leasehold houses & enfranchisement law
- An overview of the Law Commission’s Leasehold enfranchisement paper, and the reforms it proposes in order to provide a better deal for leaseholders and simplify the enfranchisement regime.
On 19 July 2018, the Law Commission published the Leasehold enfranchisement: A summary of proposed solutions for leaseholders of houses paper. It outlines provisional solutions for reform of enfranchisement law relating specifically to houses. These suggestions will be fully developed in a full Consultation Paper in September, which will address enfranchisement of both houses and flats.
Leasehold houses are not a new phenomenon, but have become more common in recent years—there are now 1.4m, according to the government. But why are houses sold on a leasehold basis at all?
The justification for selling flats on a leasehold basis is apparent: leasehold facilitates the management of blocks despite positive covenants not running with land.
That is less readily applicable to houses, except to enforce positive covenants on an
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