© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
Enfranchisement is an area which is a minefield for all practitioners, be it solicitors or surveyors. As practitioners in this field, we acknowledge the pitfalls in the area of enfranchisement and the fact that the same errors are still being made by some professionals who are simply not up to date with the case law.
There have been many articles dealing with the pitfalls associated with enfranchisement and issues regarding the validity of notices. A large proportion of the points taken on the validity of notices concern the actions or advice of a professional, be it a surveyor or a solicitor which might, subject to the court’s decision, be deemed to be prima facie negligent.
Points are continuing to be taken in the courts by landlords and tenants alike. In a case where a landlord has failed to serve a counter-notice, challenging the validity of the initial notice may be the only way of protecting the landlord from an otherwise very unfavourable situation.
The Court of Appeal confirmed[1] that where a landlord fails to serve a counter-notice, the landlord can no longer impose any rights or restrictions on the transfer that were not stated in the initial notice.
In that case, the consequences for the landlord were catastrophic. In the lower court, however, there were two issues to be determined as the landlord was also challenging the validity of the notice, but the lower court found that the initial notice was valid and leave was not given to pursue this point on appeal.
The area of enfranchisement is such that some solicitors and conveyancers in particular consider it to be just an extension of their practice and perhaps not too dissimilar to the equally onerous Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, but the area also crosses into the realms of litigation as an initial notice is essentially an originating process which, if challenged, will result in litigation before the county court.
If you are a solicitor who would not consider yourself a specialist in enfranchisement, do not try to learn on the job. Purchase a copy of Hague on Leasehold Enfranchisement and before you draft a notice, read it every spare minute, prepare checklists and look at all the case law involving those solicitors and surveyors who were not so well prepared and who kept litigation lawyers busy regarding inaccuracies, omissions, plans, appurtenant property, qualifying tenants, price, signatures and dates for reply to name but a few.