The Law Commission is to review residential leasehold, electronic signatures and the impact of driverless cars as part of its 13th Programme of Law Reform.
They are two of the 14 new projects across all areas of law selected from an initial list of 220, with the Commission saying it has “focused on reforms which will reduce unfairness for the citizen and those which will help to enhance the UK’s competitiveness internationally following our exit from the European Union”.
Law Commission chair and Court of Appeal judge Sir David Bean said: “Our 13th Programme of Law Reform attracted unprecedented interest across a broad range of areas.
“The Commission has now refined these ideas into what I believe is a highly relevant and important series of law reform projects.
“We want to help tackle injustices by making the law simpler, clearer and fit for the future.
“We will also be making sure the law supports cutting edge technical innovation such as automated vehicles and smart contracts.
“Although we are operating in uncertain times, I am confident that our independence and ability to build consensus will help ensure that Parliament can take forward law reform in these areas.”
Areas of particularly interest for property professionals in what the Commission claims is its “most innovative programme yet” include automated vehicles, electronic signatures, registered land and chancel repair liability, residential leasehold, smart contracts, and unfair terms in residential leasehold.
Bryan Johnston, partner at Dentons and vice-chair of the Property Litigation Association welcomed the announcement, but expressed disappointment that the opportunity had been missed to tackle areas of significant concern to the property industry, particularly commercial leasehold reform.
Of the areas that will be addressed, he said: ”The devil will of course be in the detail, which remains to be published.”
But he added: “What is notable by its absence from the Programme is commercial leasehold reform.
“Industry has been crying out for reform of the Landlord and Tenant Covenants Act 1995 for a long time in order to facilitate repeat guarantees and intra-group assignments.
“The Property Litigation Association has proposed simple workable reform that would deal with all of the issues arising from the Act as highlighted by recent cases that have shone a light on the Act’s commercial inadequacies.
“Similarly, reform of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 has not made the cut.
“Despite the Commission seeking government support for commercial leasehold reform, there was insufficient political will to take this forward.
“A real opportunity has therefore been missed to tackle areas of significant concern to our industry. It is unfortunate that this is the case as the reforms proposed are necessary, are uncontroversial, would be easy to implement and enjoy broad support across industry.
“We must therefore await the next Programme of reform but in the meantime look forward to working with the Commission in respect of the projects within the 13th Programme that impact on the property industry.”
However, Professor James Driscoll said that this is “the most important piece of work to affect an important part of the property market for several years”.
He pointed out that the Commission’s residential leasehold project will start by addressing three issues identified as priority areas by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG):
■ commonhold, including a review of why it has failed and what reforms are necessary to the law to enable it to operate successfully;
■ enfranchisement, including ways to simplify the procedure and make the valuation fairer and more transparent; and
■ regulation of managing agents.
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