A leading property management specialist believes the government risks ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’ if it replaces leasehold with Commonhold.

Principle Estate Management’s Brett Williams, who has more than 35 years’ experience in the sector, is urging the new Prime Minister to take a step back and instead focus on improving outcomes for residents, not simply replacing one legal structure with another.

He believes No10’s attention should be on improving the system, regulating where necessary, removing bad practices and raising standards, rather than assuming a new tenure model will solve fundamentally human problems.

“I always say when discussing leasehold v Commonhold that we do not ban cars because there are occasional accidents. Instead, we make them safer, improve the roads, strengthen enforcement and hold the bad actors accountable” explains Williams, who is a Fellow of The Property Institute (TPI) and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS).

“In my experience, the biggest problems are not created by leasehold itself. Instead, it is created by poor behaviour, poor governance and poor decision-making by a minority of people across every stakeholder group – whether that is managing agents, developers, freeholders, residents’ associations or residents themselves.

“Changing tenure alone will not eliminate these problems and it is unrealistic to believe Commonhold will magically remove disputes, conflicts between neighbours or management challenges.”

He continues: “Properties in Scotland, currently under legislation similar to Commonhold, are no better managed than in England and Wales. No ownership model is perfect because no system can remove the human element.”

He says that like many professionals in the property space, he remains unconvinced that the significant public and private costs associated with replacing leasehold with Commonhold will deliver a corresponding improvement in resident satisfaction.

“Lifts will still need maintenance, roofs will still need repairing, gardens will still need maintaining and insurance will still need arranging,” added Brett.

“Disputes between neighbours will still arise, people will still behave like people and challenges will continue to exist irrespective of the tenure eventually chosen.

“As both a professional and a taxpayer, I question whether the time, money and legislative effort required for wholesale tenure replacement could be better spent improving the existing system.”

He concludes: “Instead, I ask our new Prime Minister, our new Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the reappointed Minister of State to enhance the status quo by improving regulation, best practice and outcomes for residents.”