Paul Rose speaker at Westminster Legal Policy Forum on the White Paper on Property Commonhold – Friday 6th February 2026

On Friday 6th February 2026 Paul Rose spoke at the Westminster Legal Policy Forum on the White Paper on Property Commonhold and Implications for Service Charges.

Paul explained that under Commonhold the unit holders have the ability to have a say on how service charges are set or to be able to contest service charges before the associated expenditure has been incurred and been charged. This puts commonhold at a significant advantage compared to leasehold in terms of minimising disputes over bills and removing the risk of unexpectedly high service charge bills.

Paul explained that, under Commonhold it was much easier for unit owners to amend the Commonhold rules which are the Commonhold community statements.

The White Paper anticipates disagreements and what is different with Commonhold are the ways in which the model has been designed to reduce the likelihood and impact of disagreements. Paul explained that the guidance note has hyperbole and that, in effect the unit owners have the discretion to amend the Commonhold Community Statements to allow for their choices in alternative dispute resolution.  

Under the Commonhold Community Statements, the parties are free to negotiate or mediate. The structures and processes of ADR can be considered by the commonhold association.

Paul pointed out that minority protection will apply within a Commonhold to ensure that in limited circumstances, the tribunal will be able to consider whether a minority owner has been unfairly impacted by a decision of a Commonhold Association.

Paul stressed the word consider, because there is a significant difference between consideration of a problem concerning a minority owner and enforcement of a minority owner’s rights.

Paul compared the wording to the minority shareholder provisions within other jurisdictions, including the corporate law of the state of Delaware USA. Paul further stated that, if an ADR solution was not possible, then unit holders will still be able to seek formal resolution by escalating the problem to the first tier tribunal.   

In this regard, Paul also commented that, in his view, the first tier tribunal could easily be inundated by cases thus highlighting the need for commonholders’ associations to set down firm ADR provisions in order to reduce the potential influx of cases to the first tier tribunal.

For enquiries on the appointment of Paul Rose as an Arbitrator, please contact the Clerk to ArbDB Chambers, Martin Poulter on 020 3514 9020 or email martin.poulter@arbdb.com.