Michael Gove has pledged to bring forward laws to scrap most “feudal” leaseholds in England this year.
The legislation will make it much easier for leaseholders in flats to take over their buildings and bring them into common ownership to avoid extortionate management fees and ground rents.
Ministers are also preparing to ditch rules that bar flat owners from buying the freehold to their property if a small part of their building is given over to commercial use, such as shops.
Gove told Sky News: “We want to introduce legislation in the final parliamentary session — later this calendar year — in order to change the leasehold system… In crude terms if you buy a flat, that should be yours. You shouldn’t be on the hook for charges which managing agents and other people can land you with.”
