‘Burdensome approaches’ to regulate landlords would be ineffective

The government will not force landlords of leasehold properties to belong to a redress scheme, despite growing pressure from conveyancers pushing for reform of leasehold legislation.

The Conveyancing Association wants to see existing and incoming leaseholders made to join a redress system with effective consumer rights, such as any one of the existing three property ombudsman schemes.

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town raised the issue of redress schemes for landlords of leasehold properties in a Department for Communities and Local Government debate last week. She asked if the government was planning to extend the requirements of the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007 and the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 to require landlords of leasehold properties to belong to a redress scheme. But minister Lord Bourne said that the government "is not persuaded that more burdensome approaches to regulate landlords would be effective".

Bourne said leaseholders in dispute with a landlord can apply to the first-tier tribunal (property chamber) in England and the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal in Wales to seek redress.

He added: “The government is extending leaseholders’ access to redress by including provisions in the Housing and Planning Act 2016 that will address an irregularity concerning the inability of courts and tribunals to restrict recovery of a landlord’s legal costs from leaseholders as administrative charges, where they consider a restriction on recovery to be just and equitable. The Government plans to introduce related secondary legislation by summer 2017.”

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