Reforming the Home Buying and Selling Process – Binding conditional contracts, Home Information Packs Mark II, digitisation and mandatory qualifications and code of conduct for Estate agents

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has recently published a roadmap setting out its proposals for reforming the residential home buying and selling process in England and Wales.

The stated aim is a familiar one: property transactions are often slow, expensive and uncertain. Buyers and sellers can spend considerable sums on surveys, legal fees and mortgage arrangements, only for a transaction to collapse shortly before exchange of contracts. The Government estimates that hundreds of thousands of transactions fall through each year, resulting in significant wasted costs and frustration.

Leasehold And Commonhold Reform – Government Statement Confirms Timing and further reforms

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 received royal assent in the wash up just prior to the election.
 
It included some of the changes around the rights of leaseholders of flats and houses to obtain extended leases and the freehold that The Law Commission had recommended, i.e. providing for leases to be extended by 990 rather than 90 years, doing away with the need to have owned for two years to qualify for an extended lease and bringing more buildings within the right to enfranchise or manage by increasing the threshold of non-residential parts from 25% to 50%.

Fire Safety Improvements – are landlords able to uprate the entrance doors to flats?

It may be necessary to uprate the front doors to flats from the access corridors, i.e. as a consequence of a fire risk assessment recommending such work.