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Leaseholders
ALEP provides access to information on leasehold law and your rights as a leaseholder. The Association represents trusted and vetted practitioners who are experienced in the residential leasehold sector and will provide you with all the services you need to tackle any leasehold enfranchisement issues.
Successive governments have implemented legislation including:
- The 1967 Leasehold Reform Act;
- The 1987 Landlord and Tenant Act;
- The 1993 Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act;
- The 2002 Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act; and, most recently
- The Leasehold Reform Act (Amendment) 2014.
Please note that as a professional membership association, it is not possible for ALEP to provide advice or costs directly. Please direct all enquiries to our members via the Search Practitioners button.
What Exactly is a Lease?
Most flats and some houses in England and Wales are owned under long leases, with long in this instance meaning longer than 21 years.
Because of a legal difficulty in making obligations run with successive owners of the property, the lease is considered a useful device in that every time the property is bought and sold, all of the existing obligations in the leasehold contract are then transferred to the new owner.
In shared property the leasehold contract sets out what parts of the building belong to the leaseholder (usually, but not always, these are the internal parts of the property itself). Normally the structural elements and exterior belong to the freeholder or freehold company.
Generally speaking, the parts of the building outside the property itself, including the ground beneath it and the space above, belong to the freeholder or freehold company. The one disadvantage of this system is that a lease is a ‘time limited’ interest in land. Therefore, as time goes on, the length of the lease (and the capital value) diminishes.
Find a Practitioner
ALEP was set up in 2007 in response to concerns raised by owners of leasehold properties who wanted reassurance that the people they were dealing with were reputable. Freeholders also require this reassurance.
- Where you see the ALEP logo you can be sure of a consistently high level of service.
- They must also commit to high professional standards, integrity and quality customer service.
- You can be confident that any firm that is a member of ALEP will be experienced and competent.