O'Neill Patient on government's leasehold reforms reminding brokers to seek specialist partners

07 January 2021

Jonathan Frankel is a specialist in leasehold enfranchisement law, who heads up a growing division dedicated to resolving the issue at Cavendish Legal Group, part of top 100 law firm O’Neill Patient.

He said: “This will be extremely welcome news for millions of people who have felt trapped due to the way leasehold agreements were weighted too heavily in favour of the freehold owner.

“These reforms give those people the opportunity to effectively extend their lease forever, going from 50 or 90 years up to 990. This was the recommendation of the Law Commission which we have always supported.

“Not only will it provide security for the homeowner, but also ensures they will be able to maximise the value of the property when it comes to selling, as it will be a lot more appealing with a longer lease term.

“It’s likely this reform will open the floodgates and lead to thousands of homeowners wishing to extend their lease now that they can. However, it’s important to remember that this is still a fairly specialist area of property law and conveyancing.

“Brokers working with clients who are looking to extend their lease should be looking to work with conveyancers which have a track record in this area and understand the law around leasehold enfranchisement.

“At ONP, we are specialists in the area of leasehold enfranchisement, dealing with several thousand cases each year. We are expanding our dedicated department and introducing new technology to make the process quicker, more efficient and ultimately less costly.

“Without that expertise in place to ensure a smooth process to extend the lease or buy the freehold, homeowners could yet be left disappointed, which is not the purpose of these reforms.”