Real Estate Bulletin - June 2025

Waller-Edwards – taking security over jointly-owned property

Banks and lenders may need to review loan approval processes following the Supreme Court's judgment in Waller-Edwards v One Savings Bank Plc [2025] UKSC 22.

We take a look at this case and its implications here.

Inquiry: Building Safety Regulator

The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee is seeking views on the Building Safety Regulator. We take a look at this development in more detail here.

Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 : Law Commission update on security of tenure consultation

On 4 June the Law Commission published an interim update following its November 2024 consultation on potential reforms to the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 and the security of tenure regime for commercial property.

Key provisional conclusions from the first consultation:

• the existing “contracting-out” model is the right model: The current regime appears here to stay. The consultation had looked at four different models: mandatory statutory security of tenure; no statutory security of tenure: a “contracting-in” regime and a “contracting-out” regime (being the current law). The update notes that the current contracting out model ‘received the broadest support among consultees’ and the arguments in favour of retaining it were powerful.
• the responses favoured keeping the current law in relation to the types of tenancy that can benefit from security of tenure under the 1954 Act and the commission provisionally agrees.
• The 1954 Act excludes tenancies of up to six months. The Commission has provisionally concluded that the six-month threshold should be increased, and, in its second consultation paper, expects to consult on increasing the threshold to two years.

A second consultation will now follow. This will focus on the technical detail of how the 1954 Act might be reformed, including potential reform to the contracting-out procedure.

New version of RICS service charge code

The RICS has launched a new edition of its service charges in commercial property standard. The RICS notes that the Service charges in commercial property, 2nd edition, ‘promotes best practice, uniformity, fairness and transparency in the management and administration of service charges in commercial property’.

The document is effective from 31 December 2025.

ECCTA identity verification reforms – time to prepare

New identity verification requirements introduced by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (as part of the package of reforms designed to promote transparency) begin to come into force this year and will require all English companies and limited liability partnerships (LLPs) to take action.

You can find out more here.

ESG View - June 2025

Read the latest version of ESG view here.