The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill has received Royal Assent. The majority of the Act has not yet come into force and there will be Regulations published in due course which will confirm the date that the changes will be formally implemented.

Once the Act is implemented, ground rents in new residential long leases will be reduced to zero. This will also apply to retirement homes but those provisions are subject to a transitional period and will not be introduced earlier than 1 April 2023.

We have delved into the detail of Act and our summary can be found here. There were a number of small amendments made to the Bill prior to Royal Assent. The main change was to remove a landlord’s duty to inform a tenant who is seeking to extend it lease or renegotiate its lease of the provisions of the Act.  This duty would have applied during the period starting with the date the Bill became law and ending with the date that the provisions of the Act came into force, but it was removed because it was considered unworkable on a legal and practical basis.

We continue to track developments on our Essential Residential hub and timeline: “Changing landscapes in residential leasehold”.

For more information please contact Lauren Fraser, Laura Bushaway or your usual Charles Russell Speechlys contact.