28 March 2019
Alan Langleben Memorial Essay Competition winner announced
PLA member Philip Sheppard has won first prize in the Alan Langleben Memorial Essay Competition with his entry on the assured tenancy regime relating to long leaseholds and, in addition to winning £1,000 cash, had his essay published in the Estates Gazette.
The question posed for the essay was “What is the most unjust and/or unfair decision/statute/doctrine or principle in Property Law?”
Long Leaseholds and the Assured Tenancy Trap
Philip Sheppard
Introduction
Leasehold dwellings comprise nearly a fifth of England’s housing stock and more than forty percent of new homes are of leasehold tenure. The average long leasehold home currently costs around £260,000. They are capital investments and long-term homes.
Parliament, courts and regulators have between them seen fit to establish safeguards to protect long residential leaseholds from being seized or snuffed out too easily by landlords or creditors.
Unfortunately, these measures are undermined by a loophole in the Assured Tenancy regime, which leaves long leaseholds vulnerable to peremptory termination, without remedy or relief for the dispossessed occupier.
The two runners up were Ian Whitehead and Lucie Barnes.
Read Ian Whitehead’s essay, “A dim view of damages in rights of light claims: the argument for a cap”, here.
Read Lucie Barnes’ essay, “All’s fair in law and flexible tenancies”, here