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I just want to address two points raised in this article.

The Law Society recommends that estate agents provide prospective home buyers with 'standardised written information' "about the tenure, service charges, consent regime, lease length and the impact of ground rent provisions". However, estate agents are not legally qualified to interpret leases and they do not manage the residential blocks where the flats are situated. Bearing in mind the length of a typical conveyancer's report on a leasehold title, how would such 'standard' information in any way be useful to prospective purchasers?

As for the recommendation that "If the ground rent provisions are complex, valuation advice should be included"; is the developer's valuer really going to agree to prospective buyers and their mortgagees relying on their valuation? A competent buyers' conveyancer will always recommend that the client obtains an independent valuation. In any event, mortgage lenders always insist on a separate valuation being undertaken for their benefit.

Finally, a standard estate agent's leasehold pack might lead to duplication of effort and even contradictions between the agent's information and the replies to enquiries from the management company/ the terms of the lease.

The above proposals need rethinking.