Freehold: Mortgages and Sales
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing the requirement for leaseholders to require a landlord certificate from freeholders when (a) remortgaging and (b) selling a property.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook
A landlord certificate demonstrates, among other things, whether a leaseholder is exempt from paying for all costs associated with non-cladding defects. As such, the majority of leaseholders (defined as qualifying under the Building Safety Act) and potential purchasers will benefit from the provision of a landlord certificate.
If a mortgage lender requests a copy of the landlord certificate for a mortgage or remortgage, whether they do so is their commercial decision and subject to their individual lending criteria. A certificate should be produced within four weeks of a leaseholder request, and this should not hold up a mortgage transaction.
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