London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

'Massive toll' of living in a leasehold property

'Massive toll' of living in a leasehold property

Housing Secretary Michael Gove wants to reform what he calls the "fundamentally unfair" leasehold system in England, promising legislation in this parliament. Leaseholders in Leeds told me about some of the problems they face - and what changes they want to see.

In the living room of his light and airy ground-floor apartment, Alan Mills offers coffee and biscuits to a group of his neighbours.

They have met to discuss a situation they are all facing as leaseholders of properties on a new development on the outskirts of Leeds.

When they bought their homes, they expected to pay maintenance charges for the upkeep of the building and communal areas, and rent for the ground their properties are on - which as leaseholders they do not own.

But at the start of this year, Mr Mills and some of his neighbours received bills they were not expecting.

"When I actually saw the bill was for the amount of money, nearly £900, I think my jaw dropped," Mr Mills said.

Helpfavour Limited had recently bought the freehold of their properties. The company had reviewed the ground rent and increased it based on inflation, backdating the extra for six years to 2017.

Alan Mills described the increase in his ground rent as "soul destroying"


For Mr Mills it meant an increase from £350 to £470 a year in ground rent. But, with the backdated payments he was originally asked for his £175 regular half-yearly payment plus £779 of arrears that he was not expecting.

"I just thought how can they charge this amount of money, asking for arrears?" Mr Mills said.

"Even asking for money when I was not in the property.

"It was soul destroying. Soul destroying."

Helpfavour Limited said it is within its rights to raise and backdate the ground rent, as rent reviews are in the terms of the leases that the residents voluntarily signed up to - and that the firm did not draw up.

Leaseholders would have had legal representation at the time of signing their leases, and should have been advised about rent reviews, Helpfavour said.

The company has now agreed that leaseholders do not need to pay backdated ground rent for the period before they purchased their properties - meaning some bills are hundreds of pounds less than originally presented. Helpfavour has also offered an interest-free payment plan.


Unsure future


The experience has left its mark on Alison Wilson, who bought her home on the estate last year.

"Who knows what the future holds?" she said.

"If we needed to sell the property for whatever reason…I do worry I'm not going to be able to sell it.

"Someone's going to come along and love where we live because it is a beautiful place, but they are going to look at the costings and think I can't afford the service charge and the ground rent.

"I've got three children, and that is extra money that we can not really afford to be paying at this time."

The government introduced legislation last year which effectively abolished ground rents, but it only applies to new leases granted after June 2022.


'Unfair system'


Now ministers are looking at much wider reforms.

Michael Gove has said he wants to move away from what he called the "fundamentally unfair system" of leasehold.

It is also looking at a commonhold system as an alternative - which would mean occupants jointly own and take responsibility for their buildings without an expiring lease.

Mr Gove said: "I know that so many people across the country, having saved for years to purchase their dream property, find themselves hampered by the fundamentally unfair leasehold system.

"Which is why we want to put people firmly in control of their own home, and deliver true homeownership through commonhold.

"We are determined to protect and empower existing leaseholders to challenge unreasonable costs and we have already made improvements to the market - ending ground rents for most new residential leases, and announcing plans to make it easier and cheaper for leaseholders to extend their lease or buy their freehold.

"But there is so much more to do to bring about the change required, so the government will bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this Parliament."

Most leaseholders live in flats in cities


Around 20% of homes in England are leasehold properties, many of them flats in cities.

Emilie Boswell bought her flat in Leeds five years ago, thrilled to get a foot on the property ladder.

But, as was the case for many leaseholders, the Grenfell Tower tragedy exposed problems with the system.

Her building needed remedial safety work, and at first she was given a bill for more than £100,000 for her share of the cost which she says was completely unaffordable.

Now the government is covering that from the Building Safety Fund, but work on Ms Wilson's property is yet to start while negotiations continue between the owners of the building and the estate.

In the meantime, Ms Boswell is paying more in service charges - up from £293 a quarter in 2018 to £887 a quarter now - which she says covers higher insurance costs.

"It is having a massive, massive toll mentally and financially on me," she said.

"I saw the flat as being for while I was in my twenties, working in the city centre….but five years on I've got a dog, I'd love to have a garden.

"I feel like I've outgrown the flat, and I'm very aware now is the time I would be moving out, and instead I'm going to have to wait for these works to be completed before I can even consider selling.

"I've no idea how long I'm going to be stuck in this flat for now. There's no way I would've bought this flat if I'd have known the years of financial and emotional stress that it would cause. I know that I will never buy a leasehold again."

Ms Boswell says has 'outgrown' her flat


Talk of reforming the leasehold system is not new - the Law Commission produced a series of reports with wide-ranging recommendations about how it might be done in 2020.

Senior Conservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on leasehold, says reform is long overdue.

"This sort of system and the potential for exploitation doesn't exist elsewhere," he said.

"It should not exist here.

"I think except for really exceptional circumstances, no new leasehold properties should be created. When the property has been developed, the freehold should be owned by the people in the property, a commonhold in effect."

That is Michael Gove's stated ambition, promising to bring forward new legislation in this parliament.

But reforming any aspect of the property market can be fraught with difficulty, and the key question is whether this government has the will, the political capital - and the time - to take it on.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
After 200,000 Orders in 2 Minutes: Xiaomi Accelerates Marketing in Europe
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
Trump Called Viktor Orbán: "Why Are You Using the Veto"
Horror in the Skies: Plane Engine Exploded, Passengers Sent Farewell Messages
MSNBC Rebrands as MS NOW Amid Comcast’s Cable Spin-Off
AI in Policing: Draft One Helps Speed Up Reports but Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns
Shame in Norway: Crown Princess’s Son Accused of Four Rapes
Apple Begins Simultaneous iPhone 17 Production in India and China
A Robot to Give Birth: The Chinese Announcement That Shakes the World
Finnish MP Dies by Suicide in Parliament Building
Outrage in the Tennis World After Jannik Sinner’s Withdrawal Storm
William and Kate Are Moving House – and the New Neighbors Were Evicted
Class Action Lawsuit Against Volkswagen: Steering Wheel Switches Cause Accidents
Taylor Swift on the Way to the Super Bowl? All the Clues Stirring Up Fans
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Apple Expands Social Media Presence in China With RedNote Account Ahead of iPhone 17 Launch
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Cambridge Dictionary Adds 'Skibidi,' 'Delulu,' and 'Tradwife' Amid Surge of Online Slang
Bill Barr Testifies No Evidence Implicated Trump in Epstein Case; DOJ Set to Release Records
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
The CEO Who Replaced 80% of Employees for the AI Revolution: "I Would Do It Again"
Emails Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Character.ai Bets on Future of AI Companionship
China Ramps Up Tax Crackdown on Overseas Investments
Japanese Office Furniture Maker Expands into Bomb Shelter Market
Intel Shares Surge on Possible U.S. Government Investment
Hurricane Erin Threatens U.S. East Coast with Dangerous Surf
EU Blocks Trade Statement Over Digital Rule Dispute
EU Sends Record Aid as Spain Battles Wildfires
JPMorgan Plans New Canary Wharf Tower
Zelenskyy and his allies say they will press Trump on security guarantees
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Escalating Clashes in Serbia as Anti-Government Protests Spread Nationwide
The Drought in Britain and the Strange Request from the Government to Delete Old Emails
Category 5 Hurricane in the Caribbean: 'Catastrophic Storm' with Winds of 255 km/h
"No, Thanks": The Mathematical Genius Who Turned Down 1.5 Billion Dollars from Zuckerberg
The surprising hero, the ugly incident, and the criticism despite victory: "Liverpool’s defense exposed in full"
Digital Humans Move Beyond Sci-Fi: From Virtual DJs to AI Customer Agents
YouTube will start using AI to guess your age. If it’s wrong, you’ll have to prove it
×