Rawdon Crozier examines the challenges of modern leasehold conveyancing
- Homebuyers often do not understand leasehold and the conveyancer should point out onerous terms and potential problems.
In December 2017, the ministerial foreword to ‘Tackling unfair practices in the leasehold market, summary of consultation responses and government response’ was noteworthy for its description by Sajid Javid, then Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government, of aspects of the leasehold sector as ‘… practically feudal and entirely unjustifiable’.
Whether or not the ‘feudal’ tag was intended as more than a rhetorical flourish, it was not without justification. The development of new-build leaseholds into what could be described as modern ‘fee farms’ has presented conveyancers with challenges to which, evidence suggests, they have failed to rise. This is, however, changing.
In 1995 23% of new-build registrations were leaseholds, by 2016 that figure had risen to 46%. In the same period the percentage of new-build houses sold as leaseholds had more than doubled, from 7% to 15% (worth £1.79bn in 2016). More than a fifth of all properties and more than 1,000,000 houses are
