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NLJ this week: Leaseholders stuck in limbo

21 November 2025
Issue: 8140 / Categories: Legal News , Leasehold , Property
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The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024—once heralded as a breakthrough—has instead plunged leaseholders into confusion, warns Shabnam Ali-Khan of Russell-Cooke in this week’s NLJ

The Act promised cheaper, simpler enfranchisement, yet key provisions—such as abolishing marriage value and capping ground rents—remain unimplemented or tied up in litigation. Leaseholders and advisers now face a volatile mix of political promises and legal uncertainty.

Ali-Khan argues that government must consult lawyers, surveyors and managing agents to avoid costly mistakes and market paralysis. She urges a pragmatic, evidence-based approach: publish timetables, sequence reform logically, and engage with professionals before mandating commonhold.

Without consultation, she warns, leasehold reform risks creating new problems faster than it solves old ones.

Issue: 8140 / Categories: Legal News , Leasehold , Property
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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Corker Binning—Priya Dave

Corker Binning—Priya Dave

FCA contentious financial regulation lawyer joins the team as of counsel

Hill Dickinson—Paul Matthews, Liz Graham & Sarah Pace

Hill Dickinson—Paul Matthews, Liz Graham & Sarah Pace

Leeds office strengthened with triple partner hire

Clarke Willmott—Oksana Howard

Clarke Willmott—Oksana Howard

Corporate lawyer joins as partner in London office

NEWS
Social media giants should face tortious liability for the psychological harms their platforms inflict, argues Harry Lambert of Outer Temple Chambers in this week’s NLJ
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024—once heralded as a breakthrough—has instead plunged leaseholders into confusion, warns Shabnam Ali-Khan of Russell-Cooke in this week’s NLJ
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has now confirmed that offering a disabled employee a trial period in an alternative role can itself be a 'reasonable adjustment' under the Equality Act 2010: in this week's NLJ, Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve analyses the evolving case law
Caroline Shea KC and Richard Miller of Falcon Chambers examine the growing judicial focus on 'cynical breach' in restrictive covenant cases, in this week's issue of NLJ
Ian Gascoigne of LexisNexis dissects the uneasy balance between open justice and confidentiality in England’s civil courts, in this week's NLJ. From public hearings to super-injunctions, he identifies five tiers of privacy—from fully open proceedings to entirely secret ones—showing how a patchwork of exceptions has evolved without clear design
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