Housing: Leaseholders

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Thursday 25th June 2015 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to review the procedures by which resident leaseholders in blocks of flats agree to a Right to Manage or a change to commonhold tenure.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as recorded in the register, and as a leaseholder for many years. My continuing interest in this subject will not surprise Members, as I have been concerned about progress in these leasehold matters for a long time and have taken an active part in most new property legislation since I took my seat in the House years ago.

Some of the key issues are simplification of the law, regulation of managing bodies, transparency in the complaint processes, closing loopholes, protecting leaseholders’ rights, standards of service and value for money. I raised these same issues in a debate in March 2012—three years ago. Progress has been made only on regulation of managing bodies—managing agents must now be members of the Association of Residential Managing Agents—and in the complaint process; there is now access to a redress scheme. While I regret the loss of the process whereby ordinary individuals had access to less expensive means of raising issues through the leasehold valuation tribunals, brought in under the Housing Act 1980 and price pegged in the later 1985 Act, in which I was involved, their replacement by the First-tier Tribunal Property Chamber from 1 July 2013 is a change consistent with consolidation, which is my aim. The substantive law should now follow to create an efficient and coherent system.

It is estimated by the Federation of Private Residents’ Associations—the FRPA—that there are more than 4 million leaseholders in private blocks, retirement homes and local authority and housing association properties. I commend their latest leaflet, Empowering Leaseholders, to all, as it sets out the problems and needs very clearly.

I am delighted that the Minister is speaking on this subject today as he is a Scottish law officer. I look forward to hearing my noble and learned friend Lord Keen’s maiden speech, which I can add my appreciation for only now because I am not allowed to say anything after he has made it. Property law is, in my opinion, much better in Scotland than in England. People seem to have a better understanding of their property positions and rights, and conveyancers honour the long-established system of letters of obligation. The Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 abolished the feudalism feu whereby blocks had a head lessee owner—would that we could produce a similar situation in England.

For years I have been trying to get answers from the Ministry of Justice on property law. Whenever I have tabled a Question—even when a former Lord Chancellor advised me on the wording to attract a reply from the Ministry of Justice—the replies have always been from the Minister for Housing, whose view on these matters seems to overlook, or fail to appreciate, the unsatisfactory legal situation in which many leaseholders find themselves caught.

Property law has been covered piecemeal for years and I have participated in the work done on Act after Act, each one amending a previous Act, so that any solicitor working in this field now has to refer to many Acts. This is a time-consuming and costly process and we need a consolidation Act to make it simpler for people to understand and to avoid many hours of expensive legal work. I quote the FRPA reference to the,

“glaring need to consolidate all … landlord & tenant legislation”.

In reply to an earlier discussion of this point, the then Minister replying agreed that laws should be able to be understood by ordinary people, rather than only the professionally qualified, who will of course always be needed for their expertise on complicated points.

The 2002 commonhold Act allows leaseholders to agree to convert their blocks to this tenure, but only if there is 100% agreement. In reply to my many questions on this point in your Lordships’ House, it has been admitted repeatedly that 100% is impossible to achieve. The same applies in too many cases where 50% of leaseholders in a block must agree if they want right to manage. This should not be impossible to achieve but it is still very difficult, particularly in London, as there is such a high proportion of foreign owners who simply do not reply to any correspondence on these matters. They expect the standards of the blocks to be maintained but are either unwilling or unable to play any part in ensuring that a block is efficiently managed and money wisely spent.

Not long before the general election, I was present in the other place at a very well-attended meeting chaired by Sir Peter Bottomley. The difficulty of getting any response from some of the leaseholders in a block was raised. A verbal reply from a civil servant present was to the effect that they were considering whether it would be appropriate to treat the non-replies as having been “deemed” to support the majority view. This seems to be an idea that could provide the solution that would benefit those who are presently so frustrated when all attempts fail to get any response.

Dr Lu Xu, senior lecturer in property law at Lancaster University, in a report due to be published shortly on a study funded by the British Academy, has been in contact with more than half of the existing 16 commonhold schemes. That is all there are—16 of these schemes. There are up to 100,000 new leaseholds being created every year. There is little appreciation or understanding of the commonhold system. His findings are that commonhold has never had any support from government. The lack of willingness on the part of mortgage lenders is also a very serious problem at present, particularly for those who already own commonhold property.

The Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 introduced to the statute book the system of real burdens, a more practical system developed by the court and conveyancers in Scotland so that the owner of a flat could be legally obliged to pay for the repairs and maintenance of parts such as the roof of the building. English law apparently does not allow such onerous obligation on property ownership unless there is legislative intervention. Scotland has been very effective in introducing important property law statutes in the 21st century. In 1994, Lord Templeman observed in this House that nothing had been done to legislate on the recommendation of Lord Wilberforce’s committee, which reported on this issue in 1965. I am not good at maths but even I can work out that that is 50 years ago.

In 2011, the Law Commission produced another recommendation and draft Bill for land obligations. The government response in 2012-13 was that they intended to respond in 2014. However, despite

“good progress … in analysing the recommendations”,

they never had time to respond in the last parliamentary Session. We now have a new Parliament and so the time for the overdue consolidation of housing and property law should come.

Commonhold took more than 20 years of consultation and deliberation to reach the statute book. This Parliament can address any flaws in the present legislation so that it can reach its potential as part of the consolidation process. As I said, land obligation has been a legislative proposal for 50 years, in spite of being promoted by successive Law Commission reports. This Parliament should carefully consider its merits and make something happen. We need a consolidation Act for property in England and Wales.