LEASEHOLD HOUSES
SIR,—May I add something to the valuable contribution of "H. T. S." in your issue of the 3rd instant? There are undoubtedly many abuses of the ground-rent system, when operated through 99-year leases, and I have myself met with examples of unconscionable extortion, but the cure for the evil is not so easy as your correspondent implies, unless we are prepared to expropliate the value of the ground-landlord's reversion. There is nothing inherently wrong in the leasehold system, which has many great advantages, but the parties are certainly on very unequal bargaining terms, particularly when a 99-year "term is drawing to a close. To remedy this, I would suggest that any leaseholder who is prepared to surrender the residue of his 99-year lease and take a new one for 999 years should be entitled to-do so (unless the landlord can show sufficient reason to the contrary) at a revised ground-rent to be fixed by an in- dependent surveyor from a panel sponsored by the Government. Your correspondent's proposal to allow the tenant to continue at the same ground-rent would in many cases be unfair and punitive, but if the new ground-rent were fixed by an independent valuer grave injustice to either side would be avoided.—Yours faithfully. J. ENTWISTLE. 15, West Beach Lytham.
Previous page
