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First let’s get the law right. The law is the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 (2002 Act).

Secondly let’s get to the nub of the problem-pure greed.

Developers as a species are quite unique in their behaviour, with many of them engaged in behaviour of the most rapacious kind. They are both part of the problem and part of the solution.

Morally there can be no justification for a developer to get what amounts in effect to a second bite of the cherry, having made huge profits from the development of a scarce commodity.

Leaseholds have their origins in mediaeval law, and have evolved over the centuries. There is nothing inherently wrong with them; it’s the fact that this type of structure is being abused by greedy developers which is the problem.

Sadly the issue has been made worse by the fact, that the media and the public often wants conveyancing done on the cheap, which attitude collides with a concept which is often complex to draft, and difficult to explain, especially by poorly trained conveyancers,

In 2017 the UK needs to be innovative, and needs to get to grips with the idea of “Strata Title”, a concept found in many other jurisdictions such as Australia and Malaysia. Solicitors need to cut themselves loose from the idea of only dealing with ownership of dwellings connected to the occupation and ownership of land, and start to think in terms of ownership of layers of air space or “strata”.

The 2002 Act has been widely acknowledged as a complete failure, having been promoted by the wrong department of government.

The Law Society via its technical committees has a golden opportunity, to take the lead in shaping a modern concept for the ownership for flats in 2017.

Developers need to be encouraged to embrace legal structures which are commercial but fair in terms of preventing the abuses which have been suffered by an unsuspecting public.