Leasehold Reform and Marriage Value

peadar

The first part of the Government's leasehold reform programe, the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, received Royal Assent on 8 February 2022. The remaining part promises inter alia substantial savings for leaseholders with fewer than 80 years left on their lease. 

Does anyone know for sure whether the new legislation will apply to existing leases and not just new leases? It is clearly implied in the wording of publicity material that it will be retrospective, but I have seen soilcitor chatter online that this is not the case. 

So in practice, if a leaseholder is approaching 80 years now, is extending the period before reaching the threshold now, likely to be cheaper than waiting for the new legislation then paying whatever the new lower rate for <80 years might be? The promise seems to be to abolish marriage value, which suggests that it won't matter which side of 80 years a leaseholder is on?

There is also mention of compensation to landlords - who will pay this?

I think the legislation will also cover sinking fund reform, will this include cumulative sinking funds payable upon sale and transfer of the lease?

princeofpounds

Short answer - we don't know. At the moment, most of it is just declarations of political intention. It's sitting on a civil servant's desk somewhere, being spell-checked or something.