Collective Enfranchisement - Your To Do List
Before you have your first meeting about your right to enfranchise, make sure you have enough copies of this handy guide to collective enfranchisement for each tenant who might attend. It will help you to know the stages of enfranchisement, and the time limits for each task.
Statutory time limits and procedures when carrying out enfranchisment:
1) The enfranchising leaseholders provide an Information Notice. This is just a discretionary step and it's up to you whether to do so or not.
2) The freeholder has to reply to this Information Notice within 28 days.
3) The first mandatory issue in enfranchisement is for the leaseholders to choose a nominee purchaser. This is normally a company consisting of the enfranchising tenants and, if forming such a company, register at Companies House.
4) Once you have got all the information you need and taken advice from an experienced collective enfranchisement solicitor, you are ready to serve the initial notice. The 'valuation date' will be fixed as the date of service of the Notice.
5) If the landlord would like more information, he has to ask for it within 21 days after he received the Initial Notice.
6) The nominee purchaser must respond to this request within 21 days.
7) In this collective enfranchisement process, the landlord must serve a Counter Notice by the date specified in the Notice. Remember that this date has to be a minimum of two months from the date on which the Initial Notice was served.
If the landlord doesn't serve the Counter Notice, the nominee purchaser has to apply to Court for a vesting order. Failure in doing this results in the Initial Notice being deemed withdrawn.
8) If the counter notice disputes qualification, the nominee purchaser must apply to the Court. This must be within two months of the Counter Notice, for declaration that the Initial Notice is valid.
If terms cannot be agreed, either party may apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. The time for this must be at least two months from, and within six months of, the date of the Counter Notice.
9) The LVT's determination becomes final 21 days after it is sent out by them. If you are going to appeal to the Lands Tribunal this has to be done within this period.
10) In enfranchisement, the freeholder must provide a draft contract within 21 days of the LVT's final determination.
11) The parties involved in collective enfranchisement are expected to enter into the contract within two months after the LVT's final decision. This is called the 'appropriate period'.
12) If the correct time frame passes and contracts have not been exchanged, the enfranchising tenants must go to court within the next 2 months to seek a vesting order.
Keep this list to hand, get a good lawyer on board who is experienced in handling enfranchisement and keep your cool.
About the Author
Tim Bishop is senior partner at Bonallack & Bishop, a firm of experienced collective enfranchisement solicitors (http://www.enfranchisementsolicitors.co.uk ) who can advise you on your right to enfranchise. He has grown the firm by 1000% in 13 years, and intends to expand further. Tim is responsible for all major decisions, seeing himself as a businessman who owns a law firm.
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