The government has back-tracked on the bar on Help To Buy for commonhold properties and will now allow purchases of this form of tenure, which prevails in the world outside England and Wales.
The news will come as a pleasant surprise for small house builder (and former leaseholder) Stewart Moxon, of Hopton Build.
He trying to selling five two-bedroom apartments at Liversedge, near Huddersfield, as commonhold units rather than leasehold, which he regards as a widely abused form of residential tenure.
But in November was told by the Government’s Help To Buy team, which has doled out £8.3 billion, with more to come – that commonhold properties were ineligible under scheme.
Well, now they are.
Homes England told LKP:
“There are some areas of commonhold such as service charges and insolvency that are unclear and carry financial risks, but these may be resolved in the Law Commission’s commonhold review.
“In the meantime, we will update our solicitor forms to include a legal undertaking requirement to explain the clauses and impact of any commonhold tenure, and for borrowers to declare that they understand the terms of the tenure.”
Related posts:
‘The time is right for commonhold,’ announces Law Commission. (Pity the government doesn’t agree …)
For God’s sake! Now it emerges £8.3 billion Help To Buy scheme – that turned house builder executives into multi-millionaires – is not available on commonhold properties!
Commonhold is back! House builder offers flats without leasehold tenancies
Baroness Gardner urges government to back commonhold
Housebuilders WILL benefit from commonhold, Hopton Build developer tells Law Commission
Tchenguiz group says profiting from Grenfell cladding scandal would be ‘abhorrent’ and won’t happen
Great news. Well done LKP!
Well done LKP! Getting there!
The Dam has burst. Well done LKP.
One less reason to sell on a leasehold basis.
How brilliant! Well done LKP! What great news this is and a massive step forward to abolishion of leasehold tenure!
Brilliant! Thank you. We are indebted to you for bringing this to the government’s attention and driving it through to conclusion. Probably too late for the current Hopton Build commonhold development but a great asset for the future of commonhold and another nail in the coffin for leasehold.
Well done LKP is this the beginning of the end or just the end of the beginning???
It was more oversight than conspiracy, and so is a relatively small matter, but welcome.
Was it more oversight than conspiracy, and a relatively small matter, I don’t think so.
The government has for many years used this excuse, it has become a standard excuse, and they say then “We Will Learn From This” but they don’t?
With so much coverage around Leasehold Reform and the changing of Housing Personal when one seems to help, oversights should be avoided as they happen so often, it could be a conspiracy???