Professor Nick Hopkins & Thomas Nicholls outline the Law Commission’s radical plans for leasehold houses & enfranchisement law
- An overview of the Law Commission’s Leasehold enfranchisement paper, and the reforms it proposes in order to provide a better deal for leaseholders and simplify the enfranchisement regime.
On 19 July 2018, the Law Commission published the Leasehold enfranchisement: A summary of proposed solutions for leaseholders of houses paper. It outlines provisional solutions for reform of enfranchisement law relating specifically to houses. These suggestions will be fully developed in a full Consultation Paper in September, which will address enfranchisement of both houses and flats.
Leasehold houses are not a new phenomenon, but have become more common in recent years—there are now 1.4m, according to the government. But why are houses sold on a leasehold basis at all?
The justification for selling flats on a leasehold basis is apparent: leasehold facilitates the management of blocks despite positive covenants not running with land.
That is less readily applicable to houses, except to enforce positive covenants on an estate. Indeed, many argue that there is no reason for
