The Practical Lawyer

If the Ts are shareholders, then a residential management company can avoid LTA 1985 (which gives Ts the right to challenge the reasonableness of service charges).

Ts with long leases (over 21 years) have a collective right to buy the freehold under Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993. FA 2003 introduced a relief from SDLT when there is collective enfranchisement.

Since 2007, all deposits for rent of more than £25,000pa for assured shorthold tenancies must be protected by the money being placed in a tenancy deposit protection scheme.

The service charge consultation provisions in Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 require L to consult with long lessees before carrying out works above a certain value (£250 per T), or entering into long-term agreements for the provision of services.

Enfranchisement under LRA 1967 is available when T has a lease of a ‘house’ (ie ‘any building designed or adapted for living in and reasonably so-called’). Note that this is a two-fold test: (i) the building must be ‘designed or adapted for living in’, and (ii) is it ‘reasonably so called’ a ‘house’?