New LEASE chief executive: successful leasehold reform will require more clarity

The draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, if it is implemented, will remove the need for leaseholders to pay ‘marriage value’ – a fee reflecting the increase in the value of the property, as compensation to the freeholder.

It will also eliminate a requirement that leaseholders own the lease for two years before they can extend it. The legislation is also designed to increase the standard lease extension term to 990 years, up from 50 years for houses and 90 years for flats.

Dr Ahadi’s role will be key in communicating these changes to the residents of around five million leasehold homes in England and Wales, including 3.4 million flats in England.

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook told Inside Housing in an interview at the end of April that LEASE will have an important role to play in communicating the government’s reforms.

Mr Pennycook said: “I don’t think it’s come across in the coverage so far that it [the legislation] is such a monumental change and there’s a huge public education point to be made. I don’t think people understand how radically different commonhold is.”

Authoritative voice

As leaseholders wait for the new law to be implemented, Dr Ahadi has plenty else on his plate. The LEASE chief executive explains that his new role involves leading the government-funded organisation through the current phase of its transformation, including updating the online calculator.

The organisation is midway through modernising its services, with a focus on enhancing its digital and self-service offer. Alongside this, LEASE plans to strengthen its role as an authoritative source of leasehold and park homes data, and sector insights for government and the wider housing environment.

Dr Ahadi says it was the chance to lead on these changes that attracted him to the role.

“The fact that we’re going through a digital data transformation, it really appealed to me. I want to position LEASE as the go-to body and the main voice on leasehold topics and reform. And I really want to showcase what LEASE does in collaboration with the government and wider sector,” he explains.

Dr Ahadi was previously chief executive of LegaMart, a platform for connecting legal professionals, and has also served as director of strategy, futures and insight at The Law Society, where he led the organisation-wide strategy on digital transformation at the professional body for solicitors in England and Wales. He also sits on the board of Gateway Housing Association and is a member of the finance committee at the Association of Optometrists.

The new chief executive hopes he can lean on this experience from inside and outside the sector as he helps transform the digital experience of leaseholders who visit the organisation’s website, which is where LEASE gets 97% of its enquiries.

He adds: “We can see what they’re looking for, because we collect analytics and data about the types of pages they’re visiting. We also collect written [and telephone] feedback on issues being raised with us.

“That’s how we collect this insight and how we know what the top enquiries are. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, because it’s only recently that we’re investing in our data and our insight capability. So we’ve got lots of historic data, but one of the reasons I was brought into this role is because of my expertise.”

But the new legislation is clearly the biggest thing on the agenda for leasehold. One of the key changes in the bill is a shift from leasehold to commonhold for new developments; the bill was published in January, and is currently being scrutinised by MPs in the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee. The government will consider the committee’s recommendations before introducing the bill.

“We’ve got lots of historic data, but one of the reasons I was brought into this role is because of my expertise”

The final version will amend enfranchisement provisions in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 that make it cheaper and easier for leaseholders to extend their lease or buy their freehold.

As the draft bill set out, the legislation will create a new legal framework for commonhold, providing full freehold ownership for flats and a bespoke approach to communal living without control by third-party landlords, and making commonhold “workable” for more types of buildings.

Commonhold has been available for over 20 years, but there are fewer than 20 commonhold developments and only one leasehold has been converted to a commonhold.

“We need house builders to come with us,” Mr Pennycook said earlier this month, “alongside major funders like Barclays who are asking, ‘How do we get ahead of this?’ So we need to get industry onside, and that’s part of the wider education piece for everyone.”

Rising service charges are increasingly seen as a barrier to flat sales, and mortgage providers are unlikely to lend where this charge is more than 1% of the property’s value. Service charges are going up because of maintenance and building safety issues, which in turn drive up insurance premiums. There is also a lack of transparency about the costs being passed on by freeholders and managing agents.

Dr Ahadi says: “As a leaseholder you get a statement of your service charges, and sometimes that statement will probably be... not as transparent, and can be a bit vague, so you’re not really going to know what you’re paying.

“That’s obviously an issue. So we want greater transparency on that. And obviously service charges can be quite significant depending on the sort of property you have. It’s one of the big costs that you pay. Obviously, as a leaseholder, you want to make sure you’re getting value for money.”