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Owners of leasehold houses can insure their property at a broker of their choice by serving a S164 notice every year to inform the freeholder. This avoids having to insure their property through an insurer, chosen by the freeholder. https://www.lease-advice.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/4/files/2018/04/uksi_20043097_en.pdf

I suggest you study First Tier Tribunal decision for MAN/00CA/OAF/2020/0020 ( dated 8 Mar 2021 ). Address of house at 9 Montague Road , Liverpool. Lease 999 years from 29 Sept 1992 and Ground rent = £9.60 p.a Price to pay under 1967 Act for freehold = £150 plus £400 for professional fees.

From 30 June 2022, anyone buying a home on a new long lease will now be freed from these annual costs, helping homeowners manage their bills as they face cost of living increases. Landlords will be banned from charging ground rent to future leaseholders, under a new law that will lead to fairer, more transparent homeownership for thousands of homebuyers, helping to level up opportunities for more people. In preparation, many landlords have already reduced ground rent to zero for home buyers starting a new lease with them. Anyone preparing to sign a new lease on a home in the next two months should speak to their landlord to ensure their ground rent rate reflects the upcoming changes. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/future-homebuyers-to-be-freed-from-expensive-ground-rent-bills-on-30-june

1. The regulated lease is defined in the Act as one which meets all the following conditions: A Regulated Lease must be a long lease of a single dwelling. At its simplest this means long leases and not tenancies. 2. A prohibited rent is one that exceeds the permitted rent. The general rule for a permitted rent is a peppercorn rent which means an annual rent of one peppercorn, having no financial value. 3. A Regulated Lease includes a lease granted by virtue of a variation which gives rise to a deemed surrender and regrant. This is the case even if no premium is payable for the variation. 4. A variation of a lease which affects the term or alters the demise is, by operation of law, a deemed surrender and regrant. How the deed is named is immaterial. We often see ‘deeds of variation which seek to change the term of the lease or demise granted, but these are in fact deeds of surrender and regrant and so, for the purposes of the Act, would be Regulated Leases caught by the Act. These could however, also be replacement leases (see section below). Copied from : www.irwinmitchell.com/news-and-insights/newsandmedia/2022/february/understanding-the-leasehold-reform-act-2022

The current free guide to compulsory purchase of freehold title for a leasehold house ( enfranchisement ) can be downloaded from : https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/houses-qualification-valuation/ Section 3.1 states : The house must be a building which is reasonably considered a house, divided vertically from any adjoining house. It does not matter if the building has been divided into flats as long as you have the lease of the whole house. Certain buildings which contain business premises can qualify as a house within this definition. For example, the lease of a building which is a shop with a flat above may qualify for enfranchisement. The future leasehold reforms in 2023 by Parliament, may reduce the cost of enfranchisement ( e.g abolish marriage value )

you can conduct internet search for flats for sale or rent at Regents Court , Hills borough .

It seems that ground rent for an existing lease can continue to be demanded to the end of the lease period. But beyond expiry date , the lease agreement, if continued, must be under a peppercorn ground rent. So my question is withdrawn.

The Leasehold Reform ( Ground Rent) Act 2022 was granted Royal Assent on 22 Feb 2022 ? and should become law within 6 months. The wording of the Act is difficult to follow and it may be easier to understand the explanatory notes ( which are not part of the bill ) . see website below : https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/58-02/0164/en/210164enlp.pdf Item 1 states : Through this Bill the Government aims to make leasehold ownership fairer and more affordable for leaseholders by ensuring that freeholders/landlords will no longer be able to make financial demands for ground rent. Item 2 states : This Bill seeks to achieve the above by restricting ground rents on newly established leases of houses and flats to a token one peppercorn per year, effectively restricting ground rents to zero financial value. Item 18 states : For qualifying tenants of flats, the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 sets out the right to a new lease for the remainder of the existing term plus a further 90 years, commonly referred to as a lease extension. A premium is payable, but the new lease must contain a peppercorn ground rent. Question : This Act applies to new leases only Can the existing lease be legally extended without becoming a new lease.?

Latest news at 14 March 2022 : https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/leasehold-reform-in-england-and-wales/ Future legislation will: Reform the process of enfranchisement valuation used to calculate the cost of extending a lease or buying the freehold. Abolish marriage value. Cap the treatment of ground rents at 0.1% of the freehold value and prescribe rates for the calculations at market value. An online calculator will simplify and standardise the process of enfranchisement. Keep existing discounts for improvements made by leaseholders and security of tenure. Introduce a separate valuation method for low-value properties. Give leaseholders of flats and houses the same right to extend their lease agreements “as often as they wish, at zero ground rent, for a term of 990 years”. Allow for redevelopment breaks during the last 12 months of the original lease, or the last five years of each period of 90 years of the extension to continue, “subject to existing safeguards and compensation”. Enable leaseholders, where they already have a long lease, to buy out the ground rent without having to extend the lease term.

The proof of last ground rent payment has been paid , can be on verified and the date is on your bank account statement .

The advice by LEASE for serving a notice by the leaseholder: https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/i-am-a-leaseholder-of-a-house-and-my-lease-requires-me-to-arrange-insurance-with-an-insurer-nominated-or-approved-by-my-landlord-is-there-any-way-of-choosing-my-own-insurer/

The Government has plans for leasehold reform including purchase of freehold title during 2022-2023 . With 145 years remaining on the lease , you can afford to wait. But you make an offer based on Jeffrey's estimate of £500 fair price for the freehold title and check if there is any interest to sell..

The latest news is a consultation closing on 22 Feb 2022 from Housing Minister : We are consulting on a number of Law Commission recommendations that would broaden access to enfranchisement (buying the freehold) and the ‘right to manage’ a building. The proposals would increase the ‘non-residential limit’ from 25% to 50%, allowing leaseholders in buildings with up to 50% non-residential floorspace to buy their freehold or claim a right to manage. We are also considering recommendations that allow leaseholders to require that a landlord take on leases for any non-participating units following a collective enfranchisement; the introduction of a non-residential limit for individual freehold acquisitions; and changes to voting rights in right to manage companies. On Commonhold, we are considering how shared ownership products could work in commonhold settings; and the provision of information for buying and selling a commonhold property. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-the-leasehold-and-commonhold-systems-in-england-and-wales

This extract was posted on the leaseholdknowledge website : An investor who bought a Taylor Wimpey re-sale flat in London with doubling ground rent – and paid the Vincent Tchenguiz organisation £5,000 to vary the lease to rise with RPI – is to be included in the Taylor Wimpey settlement agreed with the Competition and Markets Authority. Taylor Wimpey’s decision is an about-turn for the company that had been telling owners of re-sale properties with the toxic lease terms it created that there were on their own. The reverse ferret by Taylor Wimpey came about after one of the buyers contacted the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, which suggested a meeting between the company and the MP co-chairs of the APPG on leasehold and commonhold reform. Sir Peter Bottomley MP, APPG co-chair, has indicated that the meeting between Taylor Wimpey and the APPG should nonetheless still go ahead “before the next stage of parliamentary action”. Justin Madders MP, also co-chair, echoed this in order to establish “all the different categories and what TW’s offer covers”. A neighbour in the same block, also a buy-to-let investor who had paid £5,000 to Tchenguiz’s freehold owner company Theowald Limited to vary the lease to RPI, was given the brush-off by Taylor Wimpey:

The Bill The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill, together with its Explanatory Notes, Impact Assessment and an overview of its parliamentary progress, is available on the Parliament website: Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [HL]. The Bill received its first reading in the House of Commons on 15 September 2021. Second reading is scheduled for 29 November 2021. The Bill applies to England and Wales. Its provisions, once in force, will restrict ground rents on newly created long residential leases (with some exceptions) to a token one peppercorn per year. This effectively restricts ground rents to zero financial value. The intention is to make leasehold ownership fairer and more affordable for leaseholders. The Bill places a duty on local weights and measures authorities (trading standards authorities) in England and Wales to enforce the Bill. A breach of the ground rent restriction will be a civil offence for which enforcement authorities can impose a financial penalty of between £500 and £30,000. The money raised through financial penalties may be kept by authorities to fund their enforcement activities. They will also have the power to order the repayment of any unlawfully charged ground rent, plus interest, to leaseholders. The Bill also prohibits the charging of administration charges in relation to peppercorn rents and makes provision for leaseholders to recover unlawfully charged ground rents through the First-tier Tribunal in England or the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal in Wales. If enacted, the main provisions of the Act will come into force on a date to be specified by the relevant Secretary of State. But for retirement home leases (a lease relating to a dwelling that can only be occupied by people aged 55 or over), the Act’s provisions must commence no earlier than 1 April 2023. This is intended to give the retirement sector, where ground rents are often used to help fund the additional costs of providing communal spaces and facilities, additional time to transition. Issues raised during consideration in the House of Lords The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill, HL Bill 1 of 2021-22 was introduced in the House of Lords on 12 May 2021. Transcripts of the House of Lords stages are available on the Parliament’s Bill webpage: Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [HL]. The Bill was widely welcomed as a positive first step in leasehold reform. Nevertheless, several issues and concerns were raised during the Bill’s passage through the Lords, including the following : the Bill will only apply to new leases and will not assist existing leaseholders faced with high and escalating ground rents; the lack of a firm timetable for the more substantive second part of leasehold reform legislation; concern that unscrupulous landlords may pressurise leaseholders to agree voluntary lease extensions, as a means to continue their ground rent arrangements; concern that trading standards authorities face budgetary pressures and may not have capacity to enforce the new legislation; the broad definition of ‘ground rent’ in the Bill; and the Bill’s commencement date and the transition period for leases of retirement homes.

Make a complaint to CMA to let them know about Persimmons 's new freehold covenants.

Following CMA action, leaseholders with Taylor Wimpey will no longer be subjected to ground rents that double every 10 years. From: Competition and Markets Authority Published 22 December 2021 Taylor Wimpey to strike out terms that mean ground rents double every 10 years in latest CMA victory for leaseholders. Affected leaseholders’ ground rents will no longer increase and will remain at the amount charged when they first bought their home. Investigation into Barratt Developments ongoing. Taylor Wimpey – one of the UK’s leading housing developers – has voluntarily given formal commitments to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to remove terms from leasehold contracts that cause ground rents to double in price. The effect of these increases, which kick in every 10 years, is that people often struggle to sell or obtain a mortgage on their home. Their property rights can also be at risk if they fall behind on their rent. Taylor Wimpey will also remove terms which had originally been ground rent doubling clauses but were converted so that the ground rent increased in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI). The CMA believes that the original doubling clauses were unfair terms and should therefore have been fully removed, not replaced with another term that increases the ground rent. The move comes after the CMA launched enforcement action against 4 housing developers in September 2020. These were Countryside and Taylor Wimpey, for using possibly unfair contract terms, and Barratt Developments and Persimmon Homes over the possible mis-selling of leasehold homes. As part of this action, the CMA has already helped thousands of leaseholders by securing commitments from Countryside and Persimmon, as well as from an investor in freeholds, Aviva. Due to the CMA’s action, affected Taylor Wimpey leaseholders will now see their ground rents remain at the original amount – i.e. when the property was first sold – and they will not increase over time. Taylor Wimpey has also confirmed to the CMA that it has stopped selling leasehold properties with doubling ground rent clauses.

Latest news on Leasehold Reform 2021-2022 Published 23 Sept 2021. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9236/ Historically, ground rents were set at a ‘peppercorn’ or nominal level. However, in recent years a practice has emerged of selling properties on long leases with higher ground rents at the start and shorter ground rent review periods. As a result, long leaseholders can quite quickly face onerous and unsustainable ground rents. High and escalating ground rents can make it difficult for leaseholders to sell or re-mortgage their property.

The government has published a plan for growth, in which it specifically states that “levelling up means tackling these disparities”. At the same time, Johnson has insisted that “[we can’t] make the poor parts of the country richer by making the rich parts poorer”. Therefore, although levelling up is first and foremost about reducing inequality between places (“levelling”), it seeks to do this while improving outcomes in all places (“levelling up”).

Most landlords are not convinced that Michael Gove is the right person to lead the newly named Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, but hope he’ll treat them fairly. A new survey from online lettings company LettingaProperty.com found that just 10% of landlords agree with his appointment as Housing Minister, compared to 23% who disagree with it and 67% who are ambivalent. There is also scepticism over whether Gove will prove to be landlord-friendly; of those surveyed, just 11% feel he will, while 36% feel he won’t, and the remaining 52% are unsure. A desire to be treated fairly topped their list of priorities, followed by a desire to see Gove deal with rogue landlords, while bringing back mortgage interest relief and avoiding red tape were also uppermost in many landlords’ minds. Copied from Report by Nigel Lewis

Name of MHCLG was changed to Department for Levelling Up , Housing and Communities on 21 Sept 2021.. The government made one of its most curious and ‘Orwellian’ U-turns over the weekend after renaming the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. This leaves the organisation with not only the most tongue-twisting acronym in government – the DLUHC – but also sees it struck down from a ministry to a department, and its long-standing focus on housing demoted. The renaming, which was announced on Sunday, follows a previous re-naming in 2018 by Theresa May, from the Department for Communities and Local Government to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. ( posted on negotiator website.)

There is a free guide to statutory 90 years leasehold extension for flats to download from LEASE ( www.lease-advice.org ). Also there is a guide to download for cost of statutory extension. The Government Housing Minister proposes to introduce legislation to make leasehold extension cheaper next year and you can google search for announcements.

Companies pay 19% corporation tax on annual profits . Mortgage Loans is usually at higher interest rate for companies but is fully allowable operating expense against the rental income. Companies required to prepare and file annual accounts to Companies House as well as submit tax return to Tax Office. Accountant charge for preparing accounts. Persons pay 20% and 40% tax on any annual rental income above the personal allowance of £12,500. Liable for capital gains tax after sale of property. Mortgage interest rates are lower than for companies. Loan interest is not an allowable expense against rental income but 20% of interest may be offset against the annual tax.

Based on a few previous judgement by FTT for cost to buy the freehold title for a leasehold house under 999 year leases , is around 18 x annual ground rent. So for £2 p.a ground rent , the cost would be £36 + conveyancing costs. But I suspect they won't sell or reply. You may obtain information of previous FTT judgements from Residential Prop Tribunal Service ( Northern Region) , 1st Fl, Picaddily Exchange , Manchester M1 4AH.

The Sunday Times 24 Jan 2021 carried a report about cladding problem affecting tower block on Metis ? and the flat owner was being required to pay £100K to fix the problem . Is £100K to repair more than the market value of the flat ? If every flat in the tower block has the same cost , it may be better to replace the building rather than fix the problem .