{"id":19554,"date":"2018-03-22T10:14:18","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T09:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/newsletter\/?page_id=19554"},"modified":"2021-01-14T10:57:32","modified_gmt":"2021-01-14T10:57:32","slug":"add-value-home-3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/newsletter\/?page_id=19554","title":{"rendered":"Why aren’t more homes being bought under commonhold law?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Apartments
Apartments in Plymouth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2016, 98% of flats were purchased ‘leasehold’ – giving the purchaser ownership of the property for a fixed number of years during which they pay ground rent to the landlord (or freeholder).<\/p>\n

Ground rent covers repairs to common areas, such as communal entrances or hallways, foundations, lifts and roofs.<\/p>\n

Leaseholders often complain that they are overcharged for ground rent, and it can be expensive to extend. Leaseholds invest substantial sums of money in their homes but have little security or control over the running of their homes compared to other owner occupiers.<\/p>\n

Mortgage lenders will not lend on short leaseholds and leasehold property can be difficult to re-sell.<\/p>\n

Latterly much has been published about inflated leasehold prices and leaseholds that have been sold on – or small print that has allowed unscrupulous, greedy landlords to apply massive increases.<\/p>\n

So why are so few flats sold as ‘commonhold’?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2002, the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act introduced commonholds. Although commonhold is well established in other countries, since it was introduced in England and Wales only twenty commonhold developments have been built.<\/p>\n

There are many benefits:<\/p>\n