Leaseholders group won't be left in the cold

The Federation of Private Residents Associations has called for a change to the Landlord and Tenant Act that would allow for ‘reasonable' insulation to be carried out to blocks of flats as part of the service charge.

Existing legislation on energy effi  ciency excludes many leaseholders because the grants are aimed at individuals that
purchase in their own names rather than through communal arrangements. It is therefore not practical for the leasehold owner of a flat to take most of the steps that a house owner can take to improve the energy efficiency of his or her home. Chairman of the Federation of Private Residents Associations, Bob Smytherman said: "The typical flat owner is likely to find that he is not able to install loft insulation or cavity wall insulation because the roof space and the cavities in the external walls belong to the ground landlord, and not to him or her. With a few simple changes to leasehold legislation we can make existing blocks of flats as energy efficient as those flats built today."