News for residential leaseholders

There was good news for residential leaseholders this week; whilst much of the leasehold reforms seem set to take an age to come to fruition, the government has in the past few days signed an amendment which removes the two year ownership requirement.

Leaseholders of flats will no longer have to wait until they’ve owned the property for two years before they can start the legal process to force their landlord to extend the lease. A longer lease protects a leaseholders investment and gives them greater security. This may also save some leaseholders money, as (until the reforms come into law, at least) the cost to extend a lease increases, as the term of years left to run decreases. A lease with 75 years left to run may well be less expensive to extend than a lease with 72 or 73 years.

The positive news flows through to those who own a leasehold house, as they can apply to purchase the freehold of the property as soon as they’ve bought the house, if they wish.

Whilst it waits to be seen how quickly the government will introduce the more far reaching and long awaited reforms, the abolition of the two year rule comes into effect at the end of this month (January 2025).

Crombie Wilkinson has a specialist leasehold team of lawyers who deal with lease extensions for both landlords and leaseholders. Contact Adele Holliday on 01653 600070, Gemma Patchett-Thomas on 01904 624185, or Kerry Cudworth on 01757 708957.