Millions of families in leasehold homes set to get greater powers to buy them outright from absentee freeholders as Michael Gove vows to end ‘outdated and feudal system’ before the next election
- Mr Gove has said: ‘In crude terms, if you buy a flat that should be yours’
- He vowed that leaseholders will no longer have to pay to for costly repairs
- This comes as the minister admitted ‘faulty’ govt guidance over Grenfell disaster
Millions of families living in leasehold homes could be handed greater power to buy their property outright before the next election.
Michael Gove is today expected to outline plans to end the ‘feudal’ leasehold/freehold ownership system used on more than 4.5 million properties after branding it ‘outdated’.
He is expected to outline law changes that would make it easier for leaseholders to club together and buy out the freehold of the building their properties are in.
This includes flats situated above commercial units, which cannot currently be bought, the Times reported.
Me Gove, the Housing Secretary, told Sky News: ‘In crude terms, if you buy a flat that should be yours.
‘You shouldn’t be on the hook for charges that managing agents and other people can land you with which are gouging.’
About 4.6million UK households are leasehold, where homeowners buy the right to occupy them for a fixed period of time. Campaigners have pushed for reform of the sector, which they claim leaves them open to abuse by property freeholders and developers.
Michael Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary, has vowed that leaseholders will no longer be stuck with the burden of paying for costly repairs such as fixing unsafe cladding
About 4.6million UK households are leasehold, where homeowners buy the right to occupy them for a fixed period of time. Campaigners have pushed for reform of the sector, which they claim leaves them open to abuse by property freeholders and developers.
Groups have dubbed the practice the ‘PPI of the housebuilding industry’, in reference to banks’s mis-selling of payment protection insurance.
Though the Government has promised to abolish the sale of new leasehold homes altogether, homeowners are still waiting for law changes.
The practice dates back to the industrial revolution of the 19th century. It protected landowners who wanted profit from the booming growth of cities by building homes on their fields, without losing overall ownership of the land.
After yesterday admitting that ‘faulty’ government guidance was partly to blame for the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, Mr Gove vowed that under his plans leaseholders will no longer have to pay to for costly repairs such as fixing unsafe cladding, with the burden shifted to landlords.
‘The people responsible for erecting buildings which we now know are unsafe have to pay the costs of making sure those buildings are safe,’ he said.
‘We want to introduce legislation in the final parliamentary sessions of this calendar year to change the leasehold system.
‘It’s not easy in legal terms because you’ve got a tangle of deals going back hundreds of years – unstitching all of that is difficult – but the fundamental thing is that leasehold is an unfair form of property ownership. It is an outdated feudal system that needs to go.’
In an admission never previously made by a minister, Mr Gove told the Sunday Times that the Grenfell tragedy had occurred because government ‘guidance was so faulty and ambiguous that it allowed unscrupulous people to exploit a broken system’.
The Grenfell Tower fire occurred because government ‘guidance was so faulty and ambiguous that it allowed unscrupulous people to exploit a broken system’, says Mr Gove
Today he will announce that developers will have a six-week deadline to sign a contract committing them to fixing unsafe tower blocks, or else be banned from building new homes
Mr Gove said responsibility for the Grenfell tragedy was ‘collective’ and extended to those in power ‘before the Conservatives came into government’.
He told Sky News: ‘If you look at what happened at Grenfell there were lots of factors, but yes – government collectively has to take some responsibility.
‘The responsibility extends before the Conservatives came into government in 2010 and I’m not about attributing blame to individuals.
‘I think that’s wrong because there are a lot of us who have responsibility to say that the system of regulation that was in place was ambiguous and it was exploited by the people who were putting profit before lives.’
The Grenfell Tower inquiry, which will report its findings later this year, is likely to attribute blame to both the Government and developers.
READ MORE: Michael Gove admits ‘faulty and ambiguous’ guidance allowed Grenfell tragedy to happen as Housing Secretary sets deadline for developers to fix unsafe towers
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