Editing Commonhold

{{Short description|Property ownership arrangement in England and Wales}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Commonhold''' is a system of property ownership in [[England and Wales]]. It involves the indefinite [[Freehold (law)|freehold]] tenure of part of a multi-occupancy building (typically a [[Apartment|flat]]) with shared ownership of and responsibility for common areas and services. It has features similar to the [[strata title]] system in [[Australia]], and [[condominium]] systems in the [[United States]]. Following a consultation by the [[Law Commission (England and Wales)|Law Commission]],<ref name="CriticalAppraisal">{{Cite book |last=van der Merwe |first=Cornie |title=Modern Studies in Property Law Volume 3 |last2=Smith |first2=Peter |publisher=Hart |year=2005 |isbn=9781841135588 |editor-last=Cooke |editor-first=Elizabeth |chapter=Commonhold—A Critical Appraisal}}</ref> it was introduced by the [[Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002]] as an alternative to [[leasehold]], and was the first new type of legal estate to be introduced in [[English law]] since 1925.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3675612.stm |title=Commonhold property ownership explained |newspaper=[[BBC News Online]] |first=Paul |last=Neville |date=3 October 2005}}</ref>
==Origin of the word==
‘Commonhold’ is a term found only in the law of England and Wales. It was adopted in the Report: '''''Commonhold: Freehold Flat and Freehold Ownership of other Interdependent Buildings: Report of a Working Group''''' (1982) Cm 179, the working group generally called the "Aldridge Committee". This was an ad hoc committee chaired by [[Law Commission (England and Wales)|Law Commissioner]] Trevor Aldridge, which was appointed in May 1986 to consider the problems raised by combined ownership of land. It reported in July 1987.<ref name=propterm>{{cite journal |last1= Roberts|first1= Nicholas |last2= |first2= |date=2002 |title= Commonhold: A new property term – but no property in a term! |url= |journal= The Conveyancer and Property Lawyer |volume=66 |issue=July/Aug |publisher=Sweet & Maxwell |pages=341-348 |doi= |access-date=|ISSN=0010-8200}}</ref>
 
Although the term was adopted by the Committee to describe the system it proposed, which drew heavily on the [[strata title]] system then in use in Australia, it had in fact been coined in 1978 by Sir [[Brandon Rhys-Williams]], Conservative MP for [[Kensington South (UK Parliament constituency)|South Kensington]] from 1968 until 1974 and for [[Kensington (UK Parliament constituency)|Kensington]] from 1974 until his death in May 1988. He had in 1978 introduced his “Co-ownership of Flats Bill” as a [[Ten Minute Rule]] Bill. This would have enabled leaseholders of flats to purchase the freehold of their block at a fair market value; this would then be held by a Commonhold Company in which the participating leaseholders would be shareholders. He produced similar Bills in five succeeding sessions of Parliament, from 1978/79 to 1983/84.<ref name=propterm/>
“Commonhold” was later adopted by the Aldridge Committee to describe their strata-title system, though the system envisaged by Rhys-Williams is virtually identical to the situation – often encountered in practice – where the flats in a block remain leasehold but the leaseholders own their freehold through the medium of a Residents’ Management Company, of which they are members. The Aldridge Committee claimed to have been unaware of its previous use by Rhys-Williams.<ref name="hansard">{{cite web|url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1987-10-28/debates/3d3bd074-4111-4161-96ff-68fcd8f98c7c/Commonhold|title=Commonhold|work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]] |date=1987-10-28 |access-date=2025-02-22}}</ref>

==Nature of commonhold==

An important difference between commonholds and leaseholds (leases) is that a commonhold is indefinite in time, unlike a leasehold which is only granted for a fixed period of time (the term). As a consequence, a commonhold title is not a [[Depreciation|depreciating]] asset, whereas leaseholds lose value as the end of their term (''[[term of years]]'' or in extraneous documents sometimes ''existence'') approaches.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/new_homes/article6286224.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090517035225/http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/new_homes/article6286224.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 May 2009 |title=Brief encounter: commonhold property |date=15 May 2009 |newspaper=[[The Times]] |first=Mark |last=Loveday}}</ref>
==Lack of adoption==

In the years since the 2002 Act became law, only a handful of commonholds have been registered, whilst hundreds of thousands of long leases have been granted during the same period. As of 3 June 2009, there were 12 commonhold residential developments comprising 97 units (homes) in England and one commonhold residential development comprising 30 units (homes) in Wales.<ref>[[House of Commons of the United Kingdom]], {{UK Parliament |speaker=[[Michael Wills]] | date=9 June 2009 | place=Written Questions | url=https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2009-06-09c.278364.h |column=792W |title=Commonhold }}</ref> By 2020, this number had not risen significantly—with under 20 developments using commonhold.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Commonhold |url=https://lawcom.gov.uk/project/commonhold/ |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=Law Commission |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Condominium]]
* [[Strata title]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Property law]]
[[Category:English law]]
[[Category:Condominium]]
[[Category:English property law]]


{{UK-law-stub}}