Government reforms to make it easier for Leaseholders to buy their houses

The Government has announced that it will tackle the controversial issue of people who have bought their houses with leasehold title. 

Under the current law, many people face paying high ground rents, which are often increased with little or no benefit to the leaseholder. Furthermore, leaseholders of houses can only extend their lease once for 50 years with a ground rent, whereas leaseholders of flats can extend as often as they like at a zero rent for 90 years.

The government has said that it will introduce a new law which will enable house and flat leaseholders to extend their lease by up to 990 years at zero ground rent. This could save some leaseholders tens of thousands of pounds. 

An online calculator will be introduced to make it simpler for leaseholders to find out how much it will costs to extend their leases or buy their freeholds.

Whilst we await the details of the scheme, the proposals have been welcomed by the Law Commission.