London property

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#41
The UK Law Commission has started another public consultation on Commonhold closing around 10 March 2019.

https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/commonhold/

We explain how you can respond to our Consultation Paper below.

Our commonhold project looks at aspects of the law of commonhold which may be preventing its uptake.

Responses to our Call for Evidence highlighted a number of issues within the current law of commonhold which may be making commonhold unattractive to homeowners and across the wider property sector.
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#42
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/238071

If you are owner of property in UK  or  overseas agent in Singapore , you can be one of the 100,000  signatures required before 1 st Aug 2019 ,  to get this matter discussed in UK  Parliament .

The statistics  show that 5 persons in Hong Kong and  1 person in Singapore have already signed.
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#43
Now the petition has over 29,000 signatures but it looks unable to reach the target of 100,000 before 1st Aug 2019.
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#44
The UK Government - CMA have started their investigation into leasehold system.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-l...old-market
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#45
Petition closed on 1st August after getting 31,830 signatures which is far short of the 100,000 signatures required to get the petition ( abolish leasehold ) discussed in UK Parliament.
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#46
Looks like Boris has won a decisive result in the UK elections held on 12 Dec 2019.

The Conservatives have gained a substantial majority in Parliament and Corbyn is on the way out.
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#47
UK Leaseholds.

The CMA has found troubling evidence of potential mis-selling and unfair contract terms in the leasehold housing sector, and is set to launch enforcement action.

As part of a probe into the industry, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is concerned that leasehold homeowners have been unfairly treated and prospective buyers misled by housing developers.

These concerns include:

Ground rents: homeowners having to pay escalating ground rents, which in some cases can double every 10 years. This increase is often built into contracts, meaning people can often struggle to sell their homes and find themselves trapped.

Cost of the freehold: the CMA has seen evidence that people have been misled about the cost of converting their leasehold to freehold ownership. When buying their home, some people were told the freehold would cost only a small sum, but later down the line this price had increased by thousands of pounds with little to no warning.

Misleading information: not being told upfront that a property is leasehold and what that means. Some developers are failing to explain the differences between leasehold and freehold when directly asked, and some actually tell potential buyers that there is no difference. By the time people find out the realities of owning a leasehold, including the regular charges to be paid, they are often unable to pull out of the purchase, or would face significant difficulties if they tried to do so.

Unreasonable fees: being charged excessive and disproportionate fees for things like the routine maintenance of a building’s shared spaces or making home improvements. If people want to challenge such charges, the process is often difficult and costly, meaning few people decide to go through with it.

Andrea Coscelli, the CMA’s Chief Executive, said:

“We have found worrying evidence that people who buy leasehold properties are being misled and taken advantage of.

“Buying a home is one of the most important and expensive investments you can make, and once you’re living there you want to feel secure and happy. But for thousands of leasehold homeowners, this is not the case.

“We’ll be looking carefully at the problems we’ve found, which include escalating ground rents and misleading information, and will be taking our own enforcement action directly in the sector shortly.”

The CMA is now completing all the necessary legal work to launch direct enforcement action against companies it believes have broken consumer protection law. This could result in firms signing legal commitments to change how they do business. If they fail to make the required changes, the CMA could take action through the courts to make them comply with the law.

The evidence found by the CMA also supports the case for changes to the law in this area. The CMA will continue to work with the Government on its reform plans for the leasehold market, including supporting the move to ban the sale of new leasehold houses and reduce ground rents for new leases to zero.

As part of its work, the CMA is developing consumer advice for people who own, or are looking to buy, a leasehold property. This will offer tips on what they can do when faced with permission fees and service charges they consider unjustified.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-f...ld-selling
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#48
UK Government announcement on 7 Jan 2021 :

Millions of leaseholders will be given the right to extend their lease by a maximum term of 990 years at zero ground rent, the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has announced today (7 January 2021).

Today’s measures come as part of the biggest reforms to English property law for 40 years, fundamentally making home ownership fairer and more secure.

Under the current law many people face high ground rents, which combined with a mortgage, can make it feel like they are paying rent on a property they own.

Freeholders can increase the amount of ground rent with little or no benefit seen to those faced with extra charges. It can also lengthen and lead to increased costs when buying or selling the property.

Today’s changes will mean that any leaseholder who chooses to extend their lease on their home will no longer pay any ground rent to the freeholder, enabling those who dream of fully owning their home to do so without cumbersome bureaucracy and additional, unnecessary and unfair expenses

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/gover...heir-homes
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