header-logo header-logo

25 October 2024 / Shabnam Ali-Khan
Issue: 8091 / Categories: Opinion , Property , Leasehold , Landlord&tenant
printer mail-detail

Uncertain landscapes

194065
What can be expected from the Draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill? Shabnam Ali-Khan sets out the knowns & unknowns

Following the rushed Royal Assent of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, further controversy has arisen. In the King’s Speech on 17 July, the new Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill was announced, but the full details of the Bill have yet to be released. We can expect more information on this in the near future.

Five key areas

The current guidance highlights five key areas the Bill will address. We explore each of these in detail below.

First, it enacts remaining Law Commission recommendations to strengthen leaseholders’ rights to extend their lease, buy their freehold, and take over management of their building. The 2024 Act addresses most of the Law Commission’s recommendations on lease extensions and freehold purchases. These include offering a 990-year lease instead of the current 90 years, removing the two-year ownership requirement for flat lease extensions, and extending the right to acquire freeholds in buildings where the commercial area makes

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

WSP Solicitors—David Ashcroft & Jessica O’Shea

WSP Solicitors—David Ashcroft & Jessica O’Shea

Commercial property and child law teams expand with senior hires

Duxton Hill Chambers—Lucas Bastin KC & Joshua Hiew

Duxton Hill Chambers—Lucas Bastin KC & Joshua Hiew

Set expands London and Singapore offering with senior international disputes hires

Gilson Gray—Gregor Duthie & Stephen Forsyth

Gilson Gray—Gregor Duthie & Stephen Forsyth

Firm strengthens real estate and litigation teams with partner promotions

NEWS
Behind the profession’s polished exterior, lawyers are ‘internally drained rather than physically tired’, according to a stark assessment of burnout in legal practice
Five years after the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 came into force, concerns remain that the family courts continue to minimise allegations of abuse in child contact disputes
Uber has built a formidable strategy for insulating itself from liability for drivers’ conduct, but the legal terrain differs sharply between the US and England and Wales
The Civil Justice Council’s review of Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974 could mark the end of what one commentator calls an ‘outdated’ and overly technical regime governing solicitor-client fee disputes
The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026 marks a constitutional watershed by severing the centuries-old link between hereditary titles and automatic membership of the upper chamber
back-to-top-scroll