Leasehold Reform (Amendment) Bill

Baroness Browning Excerpts

Friday 7th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Browning (Con)]

My Lords, I refer noble Lords to my entry in the Register of Lords’ Interests as a leaseholder. I congratulate my noble friend on bringing this much-needed legislation forward. It is particularly needed for those people who are responsible for assisting elderly relatives to dispose of property, often because the relatives are going into residential care and the assets need to be sold to pay for that. Once a lease drops much below 70 years, it becomes increasingly difficult for people to whom the relevant property is sold to remortgage or get a mortgage. The necessity of extending the lease is particularly important for those elderly people at that stage in their lives. Many elderly people in that situation would benefit from the proposals in the Bill.

However, I do have a reservation. Where the Court of Protection is involved, people have power of attorney or solicitors have been instructed to act on behalf of a client, it seems to me that there is a clear ability to hand on the right to sign on behalf of the leaseholder. However, has my noble friend given any thought to the question of who assesses capacity in the case of mental incapacity? The House is currently giving post-legislative scrutiny to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and I am pleased to be on the relevant committee. One of the weaknesses that evidence brought before that committee has demonstrated is that, other than among medical and social care professionals, there is very little knowledge of the need to assess capacity: who can do it and how you then act accordingly. I suggest that people such as bankers, solicitors and others are not terribly clear about their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act and ask my noble friend to take a look at that.