Leasehold landlords do not have to belong to a redress scheme

The government has indicated that it does not plan to regulate landlords further by imposing on them the requirement to belong to a redress scheme.

In the House of Lords, Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town asked Her Majesty’s Government whether it plans to extend the requirements of the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007 and the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 to require landlords of leasehold properties to belong to a redress scheme.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth responded: “The Government is not persuaded that more burdensome approaches to regulate landlords would be effective. Leaseholders in dispute with their landlord can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) in England and the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal in Wales to seek redress.

“The Government is extending leaseholders’ access to redress by including provisions in the Housing and Planning Act 2016 that will address an irregularity concerning the inability of courts and tribunals to restrict recovery of a landlord’s legal costs from leaseholders as administrative charges, where they consider a restriction on recovery to be just and equitable. The Government plans to introduce related secondary legislation by summer 2017.”

The Conveyancing Association has pointed out that existing and incoming leaseholders do not have a redress system with effective consumer rights. It says: “We are campaigning to change negative leasehold management practices, to ensure a fair outcome for our clients and a quicker transaction process. Our positive and progressive leasehold campaign promotes an adequate redress scheme for clients and a faster release of leasehold information.”

If you have any queries relating to this article or regarding leasehold management please contact Daniel Tang on 0208 290 7373 or email dtang@judge-priestley.co.uk