I was delighted to be asked to speak by News on the Block at their Leasehold 2019 event on the subject of Commonhold.

This is of course highly topical following on from the Law Commission’s Consultation – ‘reinvigorating Commonhold: the alternative to leasehold home ownership’ which closed on 10th March 2018.

There are a number of issues with Commonhold which will need to be addressed if it is to work and these are quite technical in nature. Of these the largest in my view is the position concerning insolvency. However, there are other concerns around how estate costs are split in larger developments and also how provisions in the Commonhold commmunity statement can be amended.

A description of some of the key issues appear in the selected slides below.

Whilst Commonhold has been on the statute books since July 2004, there are more books written about it than actual developments.

What the Law Commission Consultation seeks to address is are these known issues, which if solved may encourage the use of Commonhold as a new species of land tenure and a viable alternative to leasehold for flats and other shared management structures.

Mark Chick