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05 August 2020 / Nick Hopkins , Rebecca Sage
Issue: 7898 / Categories: Features , Profession , Property
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Leasehold reform: a long time coming (Pt 2)

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The Law Commission’s reforms represent a better deal for leaseholders, say Nick Hopkins & Rebecca Sage

In brief

  • Reforms to improve the rights available to existing leaseholders.
  • Leasehold ownership.

On 21 July 2020, the Law Commission published three reports on leasehold and commonhold reform (https://bit.ly/3katg5p). In our first article we focused on commonhold reform and the future of ownership in which residential leasehold is no longer needed (‘Leasehold reform: a long time coming’, NLJ 31 July 2020, p8). While there can be an ambition for freehold to be the basis of ownership for most flats as well as houses going forward, it is essential that the law is reformed to help those who remain or become leaseholders.

Our reports contain recommendations to improve the process by which leaseholders can buy the freehold or extend their lease (enfranchisement) or take over the management of their building by exercising the right to manage (RTM). In line with the aim of the projects agreed

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

Fieldfisher partner appointed president as LSLA marks milestone year

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Firm promotes two lawyers to partnership across employment and family

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Firm promotes five lawyers to partnership across key growth areas

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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