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Welsh Government launches leasehold expert group
The Welsh Government has tasked a group of experts with finding ways to improve leasehold in Wales.
It will include representatives from the Chartered Institute of Housing, the Homebuilders Federation and the Federation of Private Residents Associations.
At a meeting next week, the ‘task and finish’ group will consider how the current leasehold system in Wales has failed leaseholders and how the problems can be fixed.
And it will discuss proposals for a voluntary code of practice for management agents, as well as ways for freehold homeowners on private estates to challenge estate charges.
The group is expected to provide a report to the Welsh Government in summer 2019.
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Rebecca Evans, housing and regeneration minister for the Welsh Government, said: “We have seen widespread criticism of poor practice in the use of leasehold in Wales.
“We will not support practices which have a negative impact on homeowners, and I have already taken action to prevent the use of leasehold in new build houses in Wales.
“In terms of where we go next, these are complex issues, and I have asked a wide range of interested parties to advise me so that I can take well-thought, through and appropriate steps to address the wide and varied concerns that have been raised with me.”
In March, the Welsh Government agreed a deal with major housebuilders which sees them no longer eligible for Help to Buy money if they sell houses as leasehold unless there is a “genuine reason” for doing so.
Leasehold practices in England and Wales have come under close scrutiny in the past year after it emerged that house buyers were being charged exorbitant ground rents.
People living in private blocks of flats with dangerous cladding have also been faced with huge bills to pay for its removal.
