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<p>The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for homeowners
and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service. Where people
pay estate rentcharges it is not appropriate that these homeowners have limited rights
to challenge these costs.</p><p>That is why the Government intends to legislate to
ensure that the charges that resident freeholders may pay towards the maintenance
of communal area are fairer and more transparent.</p><p>To this effect, we will legislate
to give freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates equivalent rights to leaseholders
to challenge the reasonableness of estate rentcharges, as well as a right to apply
to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a new manager to manage the provision of services.</p><p>In
addition, we will ensure that where a freeholder pays a rentcharge, the rentcharge
owner is not able to take possession or grant a lease on the property where the rentcharge
remains unpaid for a short period of time. We will translate these measures into law
when parliamentary time allows.</p><p>We will also consider the option of introducing
a Right to Manage for residential freeholders once we have considered the Law Commission's
report and recommendations on changes to the Right to Manage for leaseholders.</p>
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