The proposals included the removal of ground rent and marriage value, and the establishment of a Commonhold Council to advise the government on implementation of commonhold, which allows homeowners to own the freehold of individual flats in a block or houses on an estate.
However, fewer than one in ten leasehold practitioners report an increase in general or specific enquiries about commonhold since January―suggesting either lack of interest or scepticism about the reforms coming to fruition. Only 3.6% of the practitioners had an increase in specific enquiries.
The poll was commissioned by the government and conducted among Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners (ALEP) members. ALEP members work as valuers, solicitors and barristers in the leasehold sector, so their clients are among those most likely to convert to the commonhold model.
One respondent, who works as a valuer, said: ‘Many clients are individual lessees, and our experience is that even in blocks of flats as small as six it is often hard to get enough consensus to enfranchise, so to change to commonhold must be just as potentially difficult.’
Another respondent said: ‘Commonhold is probably seen as unnecessary, if similar results can be obtained by the lessees of flats purchasing the freehold of their block and extending their leases, with which the majority of flat owners are familiar.’
Moreover, the government has provided no timetable for reform, and ALEP members doubt it will come soon.
Solicitor Mark Chick, a director of ALEP, said: “98% of delegates who voted at our recent conference indicated that they thought there was no prospect of reform in the next two years―something that is perhaps not surprising, given the number of things that will need to be “fixed” to make commonhold work.’
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