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CML post Brexit figures already indicate a slowdown in housing market. Perhaps it’s not surprising that so called ‘problematic properties’ i.e. those with more unusual characteristics are more difficult to sell. Specialist website www. flying - freehold .com has reported a ten-fold increase in enquires concerning flying freehold this August. This includes calls from a number of sellers who expressed surprise that their lawyer had not given them any context enabling them to understand the extent to which lenders as a whole react to such properties. Potential for claims? Time will tell. In January this year Lexsure reported that during 2015 changes to the CML Handbook focused on problematic properties such as flying freeholds, properties with absentee freeholders as well as properties with short leases. Examples of recent queries to Lexsure  in the last few days include : I am buying two adjoining cottages which have a shared archway that runs under the rooms above. S...

New Life Mortgages is the latest of a number of lenders who have changed their CML Handbook requirement relating to unexpired lease terms (section 5.14.1). The new requirement reads : "Leasehold remaining term plus the age of the youngest borrower at completion must be at least 185 years". A novel approach. Interested to see if others follow the same logic.

Property lawyers in England and Wales are sitting on a potential time-bomb as one and a half million leaseholders face an increased risk of their property plummeting in value, or even becoming unmortgageable. What has changed? A number of lenders have recently increased their minimum unexpired lease term requirements to 85 years. The consequences of failing to warn clients about lenders’ trends and the dangers of having a lease of less than 85 years are potentially very serious. Many leasehold owners with less than 85 years remaining may find it nigh on impossible to sell on. Changes in lender attitude to leasehold properties and in particular amendments to section 5.14.1 of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) handbook may well trigger a wave of negligence claims between in the next few years. In the last six months of 2015, 17 lenders - more than 12% of all mainstream lenders - amended their minimum lease term requirements upwards. Ten lenders made a change from 70 to 85 years...