Leasehold extension costs to be (mostly) abolished

Many SE23 residents, myself included, call blocks of flats home. Those lucky enough to “own” them will almost certainly “own” the flats under the leasehold system. Anyone who’s challenged leasehold charges knows the basis on which I surround certain words with quotation marks!

Some good news today though: the right to extend to 999 years looks to become enshrined in law, and the accompanying “marriage value” cost appears to be reformed - if not abolished entirely. This is the major contributing cost to lease extensions. Ground rent will also be set to zero at the point of lease extension, and any new leases. Again, welcome news.

Read more here on the Beeb:

There are two separate issues here - costs to extend leases and services charges.

The extension issue is long overdue to be tackled.

Service charges are needed to maintain the fabric of the building. They need to be fair and reasonable but they are necessary.

This is great news if enacted! The current system is little short of feudalism.

Oh that’s great, just as I was looking to extend my lease. I’ll wait to see if these get enacted!

Can anyone find any clear dates on when the lease reforms will happen? I can’t find anything solid