The sometimes fraught relationship between leaseholders and their freeholders is going to be investigated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
The enquiry will look at the way freeholders charge for the management and maintenance of leasehold homes in England and Wales. The OFT will look at the behaviour of council and housing association freeholders as well as private ones. The enquiry will report by the end of 2014. The OFT estimates that there are about five million people in England and Wales living in flats they own as leaseholders. That is where the flat is owned by someone with a lease, but the ownership of the building, whether a block of flats or a converted house, is in the hands of a separate freeholder. The leaseholders typically pay an annual service charge to their freeholder for the upkeep of the building.