Before the next election, millions of households with leasehold properties might be given the ability to purchase their houses entirely.
After calling it “outdated,” Michael Gove is likely to present measures today to remove the “feudal” leasehold/freehold ownership structure used on more than 4.5 million homes.
He is anticipated to present proposed legislative reforms that would make it simpler for leaseholders to band together and acquire the freehold of the structure that houses their dwellings.
This includes apartments atop business buildings, which are presently off limits for purchase, according to The Times.
The Housing Secretary, Me Gove, told Sky News that, “roughly speaking,” if you purchase a property, it should be yours.
“You shouldn’t be responsible for gouging allegations that managing agents and other persons may bring against you.”
Around 4.6 million homes in the UK are leasehold, meaning that their owners purchase the right to inhabit them for a certain amount of time. Campaigners have fought for reform of the industry because they believe it exposes people to exploitation by property freeholders and developers.
Around 4.6 million homes in the UK are leasehold, meaning that their owners purchase the right to inhabit them for a certain amount of time. Campaigners have fought for reform of the industry because they believe it exposes people to exploitation by property freeholders and developers.
In allusion to banks’ misselling of payment protection insurance, groups have termed the practice the “PPI of the housebuilding sector.”
Despite the Government’s assurance that it would completely end the selling of new leasehold properties, homeowners are still awaiting legislative amendments.
The approach was first used during the nineteenth-century industrial revolution. Without affecting their overall ownership of the property, it safeguarded landowners who sought to benefit from the expanding urbanization by erecting residences on their fields.
After acknowledging yesterday that “faulty” government guidelines contributed to the Grenfell Tower catastrophe in 2017, Mr. Gove said that under his ideas, the expense of leaseholders’ pricey repairs, such as replacing dangerous cladding, would be transferred to landlords.
“Those who built structures that we now know to be harmful must pay the price of making those structures safe,” he added.
“We want to present legislation to alter the leasehold system during the last legislative sessions of this year.
The core issue is that leasehold is an unjust type of property ownership, even if it’s impossible to unravel the maze of contracts dating back hundreds of years due to their age. It is a discredited feudal system that must be eliminated.
Mr. Gove told the Sunday Times that the Grenfell catastrophe happened as a result of government “advice that was so defective and imprecise that it permitted unscrupulous individuals to exploit a dysfunctional system,” making a ministerial first acknowledgment.
He will declare today that builders will have a six-week window to sign a contract promising to rectify hazardous tower blocks, or they would be prohibited from constructing new residences.
Responsibility for the Grenfell catastrophe, according to Mr. Gove, was “collective” and included individuals in positions of authority “before the Conservatives came into office.”
According to him, there were many contributing elements to what occurred at Grenfell, but the government must share part of the blame, he said in an interview with Sky News.
“The accountability goes back to before the Conservatives took office in 2010, and I don’t believe in placing blame on specific people.”
“I believe that’s incorrect because many of us have a duty to state that the system of regulation that was in place was confusing and it was abused by those who were putting profit above life,”
It’s probable that the Grenfell Tower investigation, which will publish its findings later this year, will hold both the government and the developers accountable.
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