Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to bring forward legislative proposals to give home owners the ability to apply to the Lands Chamber for the modification or discharge of positive covenants affecting their homes.

The Government is reviewing large parts of property law affecting homeowners as part of its leasehold and commonhold reform agenda. As part of this we are working with the Law Commission to understand the implications of their 2011 report on easements, covenants and profits à prendre, “Making Land Work.” The Making Land Work recommendations would provide a route for challenging future positive land obligations created under the new regime.

For owners of freehold properties who pay estate rentcharges, we will also introduce a right to challenge the reasonableness of those charges in the same way that leaseholders can challenge service charges, and remove the statutory right for owners of rentcharges to take possession or grant a lease of the property in the event of non-payment by the homeowner.

Our reform programme has recently moved forward significantly with the introduction of the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill on 12 May 2021, which we have said will be the first part of major two-part legislation in this Parliament.