Mark Chick

This is the question that was asked at the ALEP Commonhold Lecture held in February this year. The outcome of the Government consultation on ‘Tackling Unfair Practices In The Leasehold Market’ states that the Government ‘wants to look at ways to re-invigorate Commonhold’.    This article looks at the background to Commonhold and what it is and considers why to date it has not been successful and looks briefly at the areas that may need to be addressed if it is to be made workable.   Background    The Comm

The subject of ground rent has now become a point of political interest and you may have seen some of the recent interest in this area. Who would have thought that ground rents would make it to the front page of the Times? Following on from Sajid Javid’s announcement that the government is going to look in more detail on the question of ground rent and leasehold houses and particularly banning the creation of ground rent for new leasehold houses, the whole question of ground rents more generally looks set

Serving notices has always been a tricky business. The emphasis on getting it right is ultimately a balancing act between what ‘black letter’ compliance might demand and that which the reasonable layperson might expect common sense commerciality to dictate. This case is interesting, as it really does seem to push the envelope of how wrong you can get it, but still get it right. That is not to say that it is proposition for the suggestion that all and any faults in a notice can be forgiven, but it does sho

So you want to buy the freehold to your building, but the landlord has gone missing – what can you do? There are a number of possibilities. They may have died – in which case there may be executors who can deal on behalf of their estate. It may be there is an intestacy (where there is no will), but even so, there may be personal representatives who can act in this case. INSOLVENCY ISSUES The freeholder may be insolvent – in which case, there may be an administrator at the liquidator (if it is a company) y