Chapter 3: New leases for tenants of flats
30.This Chapter amends the provisions of the 1993 Act covering the right of individual leaseholders to buy a new lease. Many of the changes reflect those introduced by Chapter 2. The low rent test is abolished. Where marriage value exists, it is to be divided equally between the landlord and leaseholder, and no marriage value is payable where the unexpired term of the existing lease exceeds 80 years. The existing requirement that the leaseholder must have lived in the flat for the last three years (or periods totalling three years in the last ten) is replaced by a requirement to have held the lease for at least two years. Where deceased leaseholders would have been eligible to buy a new lease immediately before they died, their personal representatives will qualify for a period of two years after the date of granting probate or letters of administration.
