Written evidence submitted by Mr K Sayed [CLR 078]

I am a leaseholder and I am submitting this response to strongly highlight where the Government has failed to go far enough to protect leaseholders, and where the draft Bill leaves us vulnerable to ongoing exploitation. My perspective reflects my personal experience and the wider issues faced by ordinary leaseholders.

1. Ground Rent Cap
The proposed £250 cap, moving to a peppercorn after 40 years, is utterly insufficient. Many of us are already living with exploitative ground rents far exceeding this amount, and a slow transition leaves leaseholders exposed. The Government should move immediately to a peppercorn rent for all leases, as is already effectively the case for new leaseholders. Anything less is simply a token gesture that fails to “bring the feudal leasehold system to an end.”

2. Forfeiture Protections
The Bill’s proposals to limit forfeiture are welcome in principle, but they do not go far enough. Leaseholders should be fully protected from losing their homes over minor unpaid charges. Even small bills sometimes a few hundred pounds can currently trigger the threat of losing your property. This imbalance of power remains grossly unfair and must be corrected.

3. Service Charges and Loopholes
I am deeply concerned that companies like Berkley Homes will simply find other ways to recover money, particularly through service charges. These charges are already opaque, overly complex, and often riddled with errors, despite claims of transparency. Without strict regulation and enforcement, leaseholders will continue to face punitive costs unrelated to any real maintenance or improvement. The Bill should include clear, enforceable rules to make service charges fully transparent and accountable.

4. Timescales and Implementation
The current timelines are unrealistic. Leaseholders cannot wait decades for meaningful reform. The Bill should introduce immediate protections and a clear, legally binding timetable for the transition to peppercorn rents and commonhold, so leaseholders are not left in limbo. Delays only benefit developers and freeholders, not the people actually living in these homes.

5. Commonhold and Conversions
While the draft Bill recognises commonhold, the mechanisms for converting existing blocks are complicated and unlikely to be accessible for ordinary leaseholders without professional legal and financial support. The Government must make conversion realistic, affordable, and genuinely achievable. There must also be strong protections for leaseholders in buildings with safety defects, so they cannot be forced to assume financial responsibility for systemic failings.

6. Enfranchisement and Right to Manage
The Bill should implement the remaining Law Commission recommendations, particularly around enfranchisement and the right to manage. Leaseholders should not have to pay inflated ‘development value’ to buy their homes, and they should have practical rights to manage their blocks collectively.

7. Fleecehold Estates
The draft Bill offers little to protect freehold owners on private estates where costs are inflated through so-called ‘fleecehold’ mechanisms. The Government must extend protections to all homeowners and ensure any form of unfair cost is genuinely eliminated, not merely capped.

The draft Bill is a start, but it is nowhere near sufficient. Leaseholders remain at the mercy of developers and freeholders, with complex, opaque service charges, limited protection against forfeiture, and slow, inadequate reforms to ground rent. The Government must:

• Move immediately to peppercorn ground rents for all leases.
• Strengthen protections against forfeiture for small unpaid charges.
• Fully regulate and enforce transparency in service charges.
• Make conversion to commonhold genuinely achievable.
• Implement all remaining Law Commission recommendations on enfranchisement and the right to manage.
• Extend protections to owners on private estates subject to ‘fleecehold’ practices.

Anything less continues the current system of exploitation, which the Government claims to end but is clearly not addressing in practice. Leaseholders deserve immediate, strong, and enforceable rights.

February 2026