Members of the Law Reform Committee are currently part of the Sounding Board set up by the Department for Local Government and the Regions which is considering possible reforms to the law on alienation of leases. The Board's work has yet to be published. If you have any queries/ comments please direct these to Jacqui Joyce.

Following the consultation undertaken by the Government, it formed a Sounding Board to advise and discuss detailed issues arising from its proposals for reform. A member of the Law Reform committee was invited to be a member of that Sounding Board, the work of which continues.

The Government has since finalised the draft Statutory Instrument by which the reforms will be implemented and, on the 22nd July 2002, laid it and an explanatory note before Parliament for scrutiny by the appropriate committees. The first round of scrutiny was completed in early 2003.

View the draft Statutory Instrument and Explanatory Note.

If you have any queries about them, please address them to the Property and Land Team at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, but we would be interested to have a note of them.

The PLA has been and continues to work with Central London County Court (CLCC) to produce the post-action protocol for cases under Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.

View the latest version of the Post-Action Protocol and note.

The protocol is being piloted in CLCC and the pilot period commenced on the 1st July 2002 and was due to last for a year. It is considered that this will allow cases operating under the protocol to work their way through to trial and the impact of the protocol can then be scrutinised. The CLCC have recently decided to extend the pilot for another year as few cases are coming through..

The protocol is being reviewed during the pilot period.

If you have conduct of LTA 54 cases in CLCC, please use the protocol. Even if you prefer not to, you should expect the court to.

The protocol has been developed as a result of the significant concern and criticism of the manner in which LTA 54 cases are dealt with by Part 56 CPR and of the differing approaches of both practitioners and courts. Its objective is to achieve some consistency in the manner such cases are dealt with.

In drafting it, we have worked hard to ensure that it is fair to both landlords and tenants. Obviously, it contains provisions (eg. concerning listing arrangements) which specifically cater for CLCC procedures.

Since the protocol is being piloted and may be subject to some fine-tuning, we would welcome your comments, particularly when you have made use of it. If you have any comments, please send them to Alan Langleben at alanl@rochmanlandau.co.uk.

Although the protocol is only being piloted in CLCC, there is no reason why you should not propose its use in cases in other courts.

A member of the LRC sits on the CLCC's Business User Group which deals with the business of the Court and comments/concerns of practitioners who use it. If you have any queries/ comments please direct these to Alan Langleben

A consultation paper on "Restrictions on the use of forfeiture for long residential leases and related prescribed form and summaries" in October 2002. The committee provided a response and to review it click here .

If you have any comments on this area please contact Kerry Glanville at k.glanville@pglaw.co.uk.

In the Summer of 2000, the Committee wrote to the then Vice Chancellor Lord Justice Scott in relation to the particular problems which had arisen for members in relation to the workings of CPR and Part II of the 1954 Act. The Committee also drafted a proposed practice direction.

In July 2000, the Lord Chancellor's Department issued a Consultation Paper entitled Access to Justice, Housing and Land: Proposed New Procedures. The Committee issued a Response on behalf of members and sent it, together with its above proposed practice direction relating to the 1954 Act, to the Lord Chancellor's Department. The process resulted in Parts 55 & 56 CPR.

When it was given a limited an opportunity to do so, the Committee sought to contribute to the practice direction to Part 56 (which was constrained by the wording of Part 56 CPR).

View a copy of the explanatory letter, Response and Draft Practice Direction.

Professor J Beatson QC of Cambridge University issued a consultation paper as part of a review of the law relating to enforcement of civil court judgments and in particular the activities of bailiffs executing a judgment debt and in relation to distress. The Committee, having sought the views of members, issued a Response on behalf of the Association.

A significant amount of work has been done on the Dilapidations Protocol. View the Protocol and accompanying note.

We continue to monitor the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill which was introduced to Parliament in the Queen's Speech in Autumn 2006 and contains the proposals in relation to abolition of distress and its replacement with a statutory scheme for Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery. If you have any queries/ comments please direct these to Jacqui Joyce.

The Law Commission has stated it intends to review the law on easements and will welcome involvement from the Committee.

In May 2001, the Lord Chancellor's Department issued a consultation paper entitled "Enforcement Review Consultation Paper 5: Distress for Rent". The PLA's response was lodged in July. Overlapping with the first consultation paper, the LCD issued a further paper entitled "Towards Effective Enforcement: A Single Piece of Bailiff Law and a Regulatory Structure for Enforcement". The paper covered some of the issues on which we had already commented. However, the LCD indicated they wanted a separate response to the later paper.

Members of the Committee were involved in advising the Law Commission in relation to its review of the Law of Forfeiture. A draft Bill has been given to Ministers (Autumn 2006) and we continue to monitor developments. If you have any queries/ comments please direct these to Jacqui Joyce.

In October 2001, the LCD issued a Consultation Paper on a proposed General Pre-Action Protocol designed to cover all cases not covered by a specific protocol. View the PLA response to the Consultation Paper. Following the consultation, the Government has reported that it does not intend to proceed with the concept.

The LCD has recently issued a document summarising the response to the Counsultation Paper. It has decided not to pursue the concept. It will consider other ways of achieving its main objective, i.e. to avoid a prolification of protocols.

The DCLG has asked if there are any other areas of property law that it should be considering for reform. If you have any suggestion for any areas which you consider could be improved/clarified then please email Jacqui Joyce.

Following the publication of its Scoping Paper in March 2001 (on which the PLA commented), the Law Commission has issued a Consultation Paper on its proposals for the reform of Housing Law. For example, it proposes reducing the large number of ways in which residential property can be occupied (eg assured tenancies, secure tenancies etc.) to two types of agreement. View the PLA response to the Consultation Paper.

The Law Commission produced a paper on this (see their webpage via our Links page) which sets out proposals for streamlining the various procedures. We are undertaking a watching brief on this at the moment.

The draft bill for Commonhold and Leasehold reform was published in Autumn 2000 together with a lengthy consultation paper. We responded to that consultation paper insofar as it relates to property litigators, but have not commented on matters of policy or proposed policy as we felt that this would be inappropriate.

View a copy of the explanatory letter and Response.

The LRC has been approached by the Disputes Resolution Section of the RICS in relation to its revision of the PACT scheme. More details to follow in due course. If you have any queries/ comments please direct these to Jacqui Joyce.