This article supplied by www.newsontheblock.com

The House of Lords has dealt another blow to owners of residential or mixed use buildings following its decision today in the case of Les Aggio and Others v Howard de Walden Estates Limited and 26 Cadogan Square Limited v The Earl of Cadogan and Cadogan Estates Limited.

In May 2007, two of the largest family owned London estates, the Howard de Walden Estate and the Cadogan Estate, joined forces to secure a victory in the Court of Appeal preventing leasehold owners of buildings which include flats from claiming new leases of those flats under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993.

When the 1993 Act was first introduced, anyone seeking to extend his lease by 90 years had to be an individual who had owned and lived in the flat for a certain period of time.

That requirement to live in the flat was abolished in 2002 so that companies and property investors could also claim 90 year lease extensions.