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NLJ this week: Leaseholders stuck in limbo

21 November 2025
Issue: 8140 / Categories: Legal News , Leasehold , Property
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The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024—once heralded as a breakthrough—has instead plunged leaseholders into confusion, warns Shabnam Ali-Khan of Russell-Cooke in this week’s NLJ

The Act promised cheaper, simpler enfranchisement, yet key provisions—such as abolishing marriage value and capping ground rents—remain unimplemented or tied up in litigation. Leaseholders and advisers now face a volatile mix of political promises and legal uncertainty.

Ali-Khan argues that government must consult lawyers, surveyors and managing agents to avoid costly mistakes and market paralysis. She urges a pragmatic, evidence-based approach: publish timetables, sequence reform logically, and engage with professionals before mandating commonhold.

Without consultation, she warns, leasehold reform risks creating new problems faster than it solves old ones.

Issue: 8140 / Categories: Legal News , Leasehold , Property
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