The Onward March of Leasehold Enfranchisement

Abstract

The Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, which was introduced into the House of Commons on 22 October 1992 as the Housing and Urban Development Bill, finally reached the statute book on 20 July 1993.1 Part I of the Act, which is the subject of this note, came into force on 1 November 1993.2 Although popularly characterised as a radical measure, it is actually the latest stage in a process of reform which began in 1967 when the controversial Leasehold Reform Act3 first gave many occupiers of houses who hold under a long lease granted for a 'low (ground) rent,' a right to acquire compulsorily the freehold reversion to their property. This process is referred to as leasehold enfranchisement. As an alternative to enfranchisement, the 1967 Act also made provision for a qualifying tenant to extend his or her lease by claiming a new 50 year term at a ground rent for the site without the buildings. Part I of the 1993 Act extends the scope of the 1967 Act to the more expensive properties which until now had been excluded from its ambit. It also extends the principle of leasehold enfranchisement to flats which, for unconvincing reasons, had not been dealt with in 1967. The extension is by way of a new right of collective enfranchisement exercisable by tenants of flats over the freehold of the block of flats in which they live. The Act also confers on some tenants, who for some reason cannot or do not want to enfranchise collectively, the individual right to acquire a new long lease of the flat in substitution for the existing lease. Just as the 1967 Act proved to be controversial, not least in so far as it dealt with the price to be paid on enfranchisement, the most recent measure was also not without its vociferous critics. Foremost amongst the Act's opponents was the Duke of Westminster who, in a much publicised gesture, resigned from the Conservative Party. The criticisms of the Duke and other landlord opponents of the measure were voiced in both Houses of Parliament by Conservative Members who between them forced the Government to concede over three hundred amendments to the Bill