{"id":23256,"date":"2025-11-03T08:44:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T08:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.riaabarkergillette.com\/uk\/?p=23256"},"modified":"2025-11-24T16:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:15:07","slug":"shifting-the-balance-how-the-leaseholder-landlord-relationship-has-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.riaabarkergillette.com\/uk\/shifting-the-balance-how-the-leaseholder-landlord-relationship-has-changed\/","title":{"rendered":"Shifting the balance: How the leaseholder-landlord relationship has changed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Back in 2017, the Conservative government pledged to \u2018Improve consumer choice and fairness in leasehold.\u2019 But making a commitment and delivering on it are two very different things – as Stuart Jacobs explains in this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many landlords will feel that the 2024 Act is simply \u2018another bat to beat them with\u2019. However, it does contain some interesting and important provisions intended to recast the landlord-leaseholder relationship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill was introduced to Parliament in November 2023. Yet by the time of last year\u2019s general election, it still lacked the muscle to make it a truly effective piece of legislation. Michael Gove \u2013 then Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities \u2013 fast-tracked the Bill so that it became law in the last few hours of the Conservative administration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gove recognised that for the Act to be effective, secondary legislation or regulations would be needed, some of which would be difficult to put into practice. The Act was intended to strengthen leaseholders\u2019 rights and, in doing so, would in some cases inevitably weaken those of landlords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten key ways it goes about achieving this<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1. Makes it cheaper and easier for leaseholders in houses and flats to extend their lease or freehold. It also includes the requirement to pay marriage value \u2013 perhaps the Act\u2019s most controversial provision. While the new government has sensibly initiated a further consultation to determine how best to implement this change, the likely enormous loss to landlords is already the subject of a challenge in the courts. This could go to the European Court of Human Rights and take many years to resolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Increases the standard Lease Extension term to 999 years reducing ground rent to a peppercorn (zero f inancial value) upon payment of a premium. This is not a particularly controversial measure because leaseholders had been able to complete the same exercise but on the basis of a 90-year Lease Extension since the early 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Loosens the qualifying criteria so as to give more leaseholders the right to extend leases or buy their freehold. These measures have already been implemented by the removal of the two-year qualifying period required before leaseholders could apply for Lease Extensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Bans the granting of new leasehold houses (with some exceptions). Again, this is not a controversial measure, and it has already been implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Improves the transparency of: <\/p>\n\n\n\n