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Rise in number of leasehold purchases going abortive

Journalist: Chris Barry, Newspage contributor

ended 15. May 2025

When purchasing in a high-rise building, buyers need to establish if the building meets the size criteria and also whether the lease is a qualifying lease. This is so that any remedial works to make the building safe will be partly covered by the landlord or developer. 

The issue we are seeing right now…

  • Time delays: It can take many weeks to actually establish if the lease being bought does actually qualify for financial support. By the time this information is recieved in the form of the leaseholder and landlords certificate, the client has had their offer accepted, started the legal process, instructed searches, completed ID and AML etc.
  • Cost: Clients are paying for legals, mortgage advice, searches and surveys, only to find they could be hit with a huge bill to remediate the building to the current standards. 
  • Confusion: This can be an especially difficult hurdle when every other lease in the building might be covered under the act. 

Have you experienced this and how much of an issue can it be? Any insights, send them across. Deadline is tomorrow at 09:00.

1 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Chris Barry
Director at Thomas Legal
This is yet another example of how a piece of government legislation with seemingly the right intentions is introduced quickly, without thinking through the real impact to all. It makes no sense whatsoever that the criteria of the lease is based on the owner from Feb 2022. All leases should receive financial support if they have been paying their ground rent and service charges and the building has not been properly maintained. Landlords and developers have been profiting for years in some cases and they should pay out to make the building safe where the leaseholder owns more than 3 properties or not