6. Leasehold Law

The Landlord and Tenant Acts are monumental rule books. They are not laws in the sense that most of us see the law - the moral sense, of distinguishing right from wrong.

Here are two examples from among many. In the Government notes issued with the 2002 rule book called ‘Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act ’ (CLRA)

Section 115: Non Residential Premises

‘Section 115 amends section 4(1) of the 1993 Act to enable premises where the proportion of the internal floor area used for non-residential purposes is up to 25% to qualify for the right. This replaces the present limit of 10%’

Question: Who chose the 10% figure and who changed it to 25% and on what basis?

Section 151: Consultation about Service Charges:

‘A qualifying long term agreement is an agreement entered into by or on behalf of the Landlord or a superior landlord for a term of more than twelve months’

Question: In what real way might an eleven month agreement differ from twelve, and not need a consultation?

The very best information on the present rules are the rules themselves published by the Stationery Office (0845 7 023474) or www.tso.co.uk and the ‘Explanatory Notes’ published with it.

Ongoing changes in the rules are documented in ‘Woodfall’s ‘Law of Landlord and Tenant’. Used by legal professionals and usually found on open shelves in reference libraries. Costs several hundred pounds to buy.

Each new instalment of the rules (or ‘change in the law’) encourages an avalanche of information. It is impossible to absorb all this, and the stranglehold of the professionals is reinforced. We need one Act of Parliament which consolidates all the rules. This has been requested and refused.

Now systematic information processing is impossible.