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A legal review of the current housing law, carried out following the Grenfell Tower tragedy which killed 71 people last June, has called for sweeping changes to improve safety standards and protect tenants.

The report urges a cultural change so that those responsible for the health and safety of occupiers become proactive in fulfilling those responsibilities, says Liz Brady (pictured), a property specialist at Kent law firm Furley Page.

Liz says Closing The Gaps: Health and Safety at Home, a report commissioned by housing charity Shelter, could help to shape future legislation alongside other high-profile investigations, such as the ongoing official Public Enquiry headed by Sir Martin Moore-Bick. Dame Judith Hackitt has also recently published her preliminary findings on building regulations and fire safety.

In recent weeks there has been a deal of press and public indignation over ground rents that can double or more overnight. It is an issue that may be harbouring an avalanche of negligence claims against solicitors, according to Joshua Munro, a barrister at Hailsham Chambers.

He writes: “Purchasers of long-leasehold interests in property may regard themselves as the ‘owners’ of the property. However, many thousands have discovered that they are subject to covenants in favour of freeholders.

“When the true position is found out as to increasing ground rent liabilities, it is very likely that the long-leasehold owners will want to make claims. The problems are often remediable, via leasehold enfranchaisement and acquisition of a share of freehold, or an extension of the long lease’s term with reduction of ground rent to a peppercorn.

Developers have been warned of the importance of ascertaining the details of rights of way and covenants before purchasing land for redevelopment.

Speaking at the “Real Estate Development – Buyer Beware” conference in Bristol last week, Ann Ebberson, partner at solicitors Rosling King, said that it was crucial that developers compare the land against the title and title plan, as some vital details are easy to miss.

Ebberson said: “I have seen a number of sites where the title plan boundary actually falls short of what is on the ground. In one of our most recent cases, the land owner very deliberately retained a strip of land at the front of the title, thus creating a rather nice ransom strip”

Rights of way

The most important things to consider, in terms of rights of way, are:

The Construction Industry Council (CIC) has published a new Users’ Guide to Adjudication, which replaces the previous guide from the Construction Umbrella Bodies Adjudication Task Group, produced in 2003.

Since its introduction in the late 1990s, adjudication has come to dominate alternative dispute resolution in the construction industry. Adjudication was envisaged as a process that construction companies could use with or without external professional assistance.

Over the years many novice users turned to the original Users’ Guide to Adjudication, to understand how adjudication works and to decide if it was a process that would help them.

The hope is that the new guide will assist both those who wish to take a dispute to adjudication and those who have received a notice of adjudication.