Our Leasehold Team Manager, Duncan Bird tells us about the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act (LAFRA 2024).
Hi Duncan. Can you tell us why LAFRA is so important for leaseholders?
LAFRA will make long-term changes to property law, empowering leaseholders in England and Wales, improving their consumer rights. The Act brings major changes to simplify the leasehold tenure and increase transparency.
We’ve had a lot of change in our sector recently. We’ve been looking how we work – our systems, procedures and processes – so that we can smoothy put the requirements of the Act into place.
What changes will LAFRA make?
The main changes include:
- Leaseholders can now extend their lease by 990 years, this is up from 90 years in flats, and 50 years in houses.
- For new lease, ground rent is reduced to a peppercorn – this means ground rent will effectively be £0, once a premium is paid. Leaseholders can enjoy secure, ground rent-free ownership of their properties for years to come.
- Removes the requirement for a new leaseholder to have owned their house or flat for two years before they can benefit from these changes.
- It makes buying or selling a leasehold property quicker and easier
- Require transparency over leaseholders’ service charges – so leaseholders receive better information and transparency over the costs.
- Right to Manage which allows leaseholders to take over the management of their building, making decisions about important issues, including maintenance, repairs, and service charges.
- There are stronger rules for fixing safety defects with developers and landlords needing to take more responsibility.
Does the legislation apply to existing leaseholders?
Yes. Much of the Act applies to existing leaseholders in England and Wales.
What this means for our Leasehold Customers
Customers stand to benefit from:
- Greater control over building management
- Fairer, clearer charges
- Better protections against unreasonable costs
- More transparency on how money is spent
- Long-term security through 990-year extensions
What are Karbon doing in response to this Act?
We’ve been monitoring the changes that are being proposed and preparing to respond once they go through. We’re also recently discussed the changes LAFRA will make with our Leaseholder Forum. Our Forum members were welcoming of the intentions of LAFRA and were positive about many of the aspects of the new legislation.
We’ve also started looking at standardising our service charge schedules and developed a ‘service charge dictionary’ to help explain what charges are for. The Leaseholder Forum have been asked to provide feedback on this as well.
We’ll keep you updated on what happens next – there are currently no dates for the latest round of reforms that are currently being consulted on.
In the meantime, we’re here to help you understand your rights, so if you have any questions please get in touch at leasehold@karbonhomes.co.uk.
Our Leasehold Team Manager, Duncan Bird tells us about the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act (LAFRA 2024).
Hi Duncan. Can you tell us why LAFRA is so important for leaseholders?
LAFRA will make long-term changes to property law, empowering leaseholders in England and Wales, improving their consumer rights. The Act brings major changes to simplify the leasehold tenure and increase transparency.
We’ve had a lot of change in our sector recently. We’ve been looking how we work – our systems, procedures and processes – so that we can smoothy put the requirements of the Act into place.
What changes will LAFRA make?
The main changes include:
Does the legislation apply to existing leaseholders?
Yes. Much of the Act applies to existing leaseholders in England and Wales.
What this means for our Leasehold Customers
Customers stand to benefit from:
What are Karbon doing in response to this Act?
We’ve been monitoring the changes that are being proposed and preparing to respond once they go through. We’re also recently discussed the changes LAFRA will make with our Leaseholder Forum. Our Forum members were welcoming of the intentions of LAFRA and were positive about many of the aspects of the new legislation.
We’ve also started looking at standardising our service charge schedules and developed a ‘service charge dictionary’ to help explain what charges are for. The Leaseholder Forum have been asked to provide feedback on this as well.
We’ll keep you updated on what happens next – there are currently no dates for the latest round of reforms that are currently being consulted on.
In the meantime, we’re here to help you understand your rights, so if you have any questions please get in touch at leasehold@karbonhomes.co.uk.
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