Leasehold and freehold sales information
To sell a leasehold property or a property on a managed estate, a leaseholder or homeowner requires certain information about their property (e.g. level of ground rent and service charges, legal obligations or the level of estate management charges) and must request this from their landlord or estate manager. Currently, there is no statutory requirement for landlords or estate managers to respond to such information requests within a set time limit or provide the information at a reasonable cost. Some landlords and estate managers therefore take weeks or months to provide information; holding up the sales process and causing sales to fall through. Others set significant fees for providing this information, leaving leaseholders and homeowners with little option but to pay if they want to sell their home. The process is governed by custom and the market, and despite extensive engagement with industry, action to improve best practice on this matter has not been forthcoming and the Government believes it must therefore intervene to regulate.
	Around 1 in 3 of all sales fall through after the offer has been placed. Fall-throughs can result in thousands of pounds of losses in each case and cumulatively cost consumers £400m per year. Approximately 260,000 leasehold transactions take place annually. In over half of cases, leasehold information is not received by the leaseholder until more than 30 days after payment is made.
	The Act seeks to support leaseholders and homeowners by removing unnecessary delays to the homebuying and selling process by setting a maximum time and fee for the provision of information required by a leaseholder from their freeholder or by a homeowner from their estate manager.