The Government has taken its first step towards overhauling the leasehold system after Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook signed a regulation yesterday removing the requirement for a flat owner to be in situ for two years before being able to extend their lease.
Also, leaseholders of houses will now be able to extend their lease or buy their freehold.
“The work continues to switch on the measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act,” he said, which in November last year Pennycook would be implemented by the end of this month.
But his optimism is not shared by all within the property industry. Linz Darlington, MD of Lease Extension Specialists Homehold, says: “The Housing Minister has today signed the regulations implementing the first part of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 that affects lease extensions and freehold purchases.
“While this is a welcome development, removing the ownership condition is a drop in the ocean in terms of what is needed from leasehold system reform. It is a small change which will benefit a small proportion of leaseholders.
“We estimate that hundreds of thousands of leaseholders are waiting for the more significant changes to the lease extension regime which have been promised to make it “cheaper and easier” for them to extend their leases.
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 received Royal Assent in May 2024 during the ‘wash up’ prior to the General Election – now eight months ago – but the Government intends to run even more consultations on some of the important provisions.
Further delay
“They don’t intend to run this consultation until the Summer, and this creates a further delay which is unwarranted and unwelcome,” says Darlington.
“For leaseholders waiting for leasehold reform, they have now had successive governments promise reforms which always seem tantalisingly close, but never actually seem to arrive.
“We need the Labour Government to bring forward the consultation and commit to swiftly implementing the legislation.”