Government plans leasehold ban

With the news that Government is to outline plans to ban new leasehold flats and adopt commonhold, with a draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill to be published later this year, Scott Goldstein, Partner, Payne Hicks Beach, says:

"Commonhold has never caught on. Today’s announcement is the latest in a series of initiatives introduced since 2002 to try to spread the use of commonhold. The concern is to make sure that the system is ready to cope.

There must be robust financial controls in place to ensure commonhold blocks have the resources they need to manage their properties.

Finally, as commonhold blocks are always run by property owners, many more of us will be involved in property management.

The Government needs to provide easy to follow resources to educate and train all of us about the rights and responsibilities of commonhold."