The Law Commission Proposals On Commonhold

Commonhold was a new form of housing ownership introduced in 2004 by the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002. It was intended to challenge leasehold but has failed spectacularly to take off. In the meantime, the leasehold system itself has come under further criticism and scrutiny by the Government, leading to the issue of three Law Commission reports on the future of residential leasehold last month. Our summary of the overall approach can be found here and links to more detailed notes on Enfranchisement here and Right to Manage here.

In respect of commonhold, the Law Commission has been tasked to "re-invigorate commonhold as a workable alternative to leasehold, for both existing and new homes". There are two principal barriers to the more widespread adoption of commonhold. The most fundamental obstacle is that commonhold in its current form does not work. It has a high barrier for conversion, is insufficiently flexible to allow the development of