Explanatory note

These Regulations amend the Leasehold Reform (Enfranchisement and Extension) Regulations 1967 which prescribe conditions governing the procedure to be followed in giving effect to a tenancy notice under Part 1 of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 (“the 1967 Act”), of the tenant’s desire to have the freehold or an extended lease of a house. The Regulations will apply to cases where an application for enfranchisement or lease extention of a house under the 1967 Act is made on or after the date the Regulations come into force.

The amendments are consequential to amendments made to section 1 of the 1967 Act by sections 138 to 140 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 (c. 15). Subject to two exceptions, these provisions abolished the residence test (which required the tenant to have occupied the property as his only or principal home for the last twelve months or for periods amounting to three years in the last ten years) for claims for enfranchisement or lease extension and replaced it with a requirement that the tenant has held the lease for two years.

The two exceptions to the abolition of the residence test are: (i) where the tenancy in question is a business tenancy, and (ii) where a flat forming part of the house is let to a tenant who qualifies to exercise the right to collectively enfranchise under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 (c. 28). In these cases the tenant making the application under Part 1 of the 1967 Act must have lived in the house as his only or principal home for the last two years or for periods amounting to two years in the last ten years.