On 23 June 2021, the Competition and Markets Authority (the ‘CMA’) announced that it had obtained undertakings from Persimmon PLC and Aviva in relation to actions taken concerning ground rents and the sale of freeholds to leasehold houses.
Both relate to issues raised by the so-called ‘leasehold scandal’ – which has led (among other things) to the draft legislation before parliament in the shape of the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill. The CMA announced its own investigation into the leasehold sector in September 2020.
The investigation has focused on companies which have acquired or sought to grant leases where ground rents double at intervals of less than 20 years and in the case of leasehold houses where misleading or incorrect information may have been given about the likely cost of buying the freehold at a later date.
This is a significant step towards the regulation of the market and whilst the undertakings are not admissions of illegal behaviour under the Enterprise Act 2002, they do show a big commitment to a ‘direction of travel’ from government towards clamping down on ‘abuses’ in the leasehold sector.
The undertakings
The undertakings that have been obtained are in the nature of a voluntary ‘settlement’ or open commitment which are likely to prevent further enforcement action – i.e. they are given without any admission that either company has breached the law, but in response to the CMA investigation and action taken they are open and enforceable promises to do certain things to ‘correct’ certain behaviours. The undertakings themselves do not prevent further investigation or enforcement being undertaken by the CMA but are likely to have addressed the issues raised by the regulator in its investigation.
These are the first two published undertakings and investigations continue into other players in this market including, Brigante, Adriatic Land and Abacus Land. The CMA is also investigating Taylor Wimpey and Barratt and Countryside, so we may expect further news on these investigations soon.
Aviva
The Aviva undertaking applies not only to existing leases within their portfolio where the ground rent doubles at intervals of less than 20 years, but also to those cases where variations have been made already to change these ‘onerous’ ground rent clauses to RPI (Retail Price Index) reviews at the same intervals.
Aviva give a commitment to change these RPI reviews to the original rent paid under the leases and to fix this for the remainder of the lease term with no variation. In addition, they offer to repay ground rent overpaid, not only by any current owner but also by any former owner in cases where they still own the freehold.
Persimmon
In the case of Persimmon there is a commitment to allow leaseholders to purchase the freehold of their leasehold house for the sum of £2,000 or any lesser figure that would apply under the 1967 enfranchisement legislation. In addition, Persimmon have agreed to increase the length of time for a buyer to get to an exchange of contracts under its ‘reservation agreements’ to 42 days in the case of leasehold properties to allow for proper advice to be taken by the buyer and avoid undue pressure in the sales process.
So, what will the rest of the sector do? – ground rents
There is a sharp contrast between the Aviva undertaking and the commitment given to parliament and the Select Committee on Leasehold Reform in June 2019. That document, signed by around 70 large freeholders (including Aviva) – the so called ‘pledge’ – was an open commitment to convert onerous ground rent clauses to RPI reviews. Following on from this, in many cases freeholders have already made offers to do this and many leaseholders have already varied their leases in this way.
The Aviva commitment goes further than this – offering to take away even RPI reviews and to return the ground rent level to the initial level in the lease for the remainder of the lease term.
The Aviva offer is also generous in that they are offering to repay ground rent paid over and above the initial ‘base level’ of the initial ground rent in any lease and to fix the rents in all leases affected to the original rent level.
I am not sure that other freeholders, particularly the 70 other signatories the ‘pledge’ are likely to want to move in this direction voluntarily.
However, if the CMA has the appetite pursue a number of other institutional landlords, which it does seems to have, then it would seem to be more likely than not that there will be further voluntary settlement and/or steps taken to amend leases in a similar way.
Smaller or non-institutional landlords are not going to find it so easy to be able to behave in this way and I would be very surprised if there is any voluntary movement from them.
So, what will the rest of the sector do? – leasehold houses
As to the sale of leasehold houses, the government has already made plain that it wants to see this practice discontinued and one of the key objectives of the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill is to remove ground rent for all new leases – and so, a key incentive towards granting leases of houses (except where necessary for title reasons) will be removed.
We can expect to see other developers follow suit and to give similar commitments to deal with freeholds in this way. I personally doubt whether many other developers will want to voluntarily fix a price to sell freeholds to leasehold houses for in the way that Persimmon has done and I would expect to see further intervention on this.
Will this shape the market for freeholds?
What is also interesting about the Aviva undertaking is that there is also a commitment to seek to make similar amendments to any leases that are brought into their portfolio.
This may begin to set a ‘tone’ for the market for freeholds where the leases have RPI, or less than 20-year doubling reviews – and no doubt this is the intention. If this position were to be adopted across the market these freehold reversions will be down valued to take account of the fact that the rents are likely to be treated as being fixed for the whole lease term.
The key question is then how such potential lease variations will now be ‘priced in.’
For the investor there is the risk that the right to continue to receive a ground rent income of this sort may be prejudiced by the need to repay. There will be a balancing decision for fund managers as to how to handle this. I anticipate that the overall values of the underlying assets will be written down to reflect this risk and that provision will be made for potential future repayment. I expect in the case of a number of larger institutions this has already been done.
What is the likely effect of this?
This can only be good news for leaseholders in the short term, although this may not be such good news for the long-term stable income/bond market.
One of the most likely indirect effects of this may well be that ‘capitalisation rate’ applied to ground rents in enfranchisement calculations will be subject to further decrease, based on market evidence and a change in how a buyer of freeholds will now look the likely income over time.
If this happens, the cost of compensating for the lost ground rent income will increase, so there may be an indirect increase in enfranchisement costs elsewhere.
Mark Chick is an enfranchisement law specialist with London firm Bishop & Sewell
One Response
So if a purchaser of a leasehold flat is represented by a solicitor and had the advice of a surveyor accepts the grant of a lease with an initial ground rent linked to the RPI that contract, several years later, is considered onerous. The amount of the rent in absolute terms is of course very modest, and its increase will always be less than what the government increase the state pension by each year. Yet the government will be prepared to go into battle in the European Court of Human Rights to have such rents paired back by a hundred or so pound a year, with the collateral damage being that other contracts written in the UK will not been seen by our neighbours in other countries as secure from future meddling.
The issue of 10 years doublers needs to be addressed, but I can’t help thinking that the government recognize the enormity of the problem of capping rents and have charged the CMA with the task of getting the rents which cause offence rectified. Once the 10 year doublers have been “dealt with” then we are left with those that double every 20 years or are linked to the RPI. These rents are hardly onerous. A first time buyer with an average mortgage of £150,000 would see their yearly mortgage payment rise by £432 if interest rates moved by just 1/2 of 1% – yet a ground rent of £325 on a flat worth £275,000 can raise issues and make it difficult to sell as mortgage finance is restricted
Calm measured debate as to what an onerous ground rent is and how it should be disclosed is required . If the NPV of the rent was shown next to the premium in Box LR7 and SDLT paid on the total 10 year doublers would never have appeared as the purchaser would be made aware of the problem as the NPV of the rent would be some £40,000 to £50,000
An analogy with the Consumer Credit Act 1974 needs to be made. The imposition of a ground rent should result in a reduction in the premium paid for the lease and the ground rent is in effect an interest payment on that discount. Under the 1974 Act the APR of the interest needs to be disclosed. With the ground rent the NPV of the rent using a defined discount rate set by the Government needs to be shown.
Whether this will work , I don’t know but nearly 20% of the population thought APR stood for April