Buy to let landlords hope to benefit from a government watchdog ordering two of Britain’s biggest house builders to delete unfair ground rents from leasehold agreements.

The Competition and Mergers Authority (CMA) has told Countryside Properties and Taylor Wimpey that terms that doubles ground rents on new build homes every 10 to 15 years break consumer protection laws. The CMA says the contracts means homeowners can struggle to sell homes and impact their rights over their properties.

The letter from the CMA demands both builders must remove any unfair ground rent terms and that they must ensure all future ground rent contracts are fair to homeowners. The action follows a CMA investigation looking into leasehold contracts that started in September 2020.