Leasehold & Freehold Reform Act 2024 Becomes Law – How Does This Benefit Leaseholders?

• Simplifying and decreasing charges for lease extensions or freehold purchases, providing leaseholders with better security and affordability.
• Extending standard lease terms to 990 years for both houses and flats, hugely improving long-term housing security.
• Instructing transparency in service charges, with standardised billing formats to facilitate scrutiny and challenge.
• Assisting leaseholders in challenging unreasonable charges enforced by landlords at Tribunal
• Making it more affordable for leaseholders to manage their buildings by allowing them to select their own managing agents.
• Stopping the need for leaseholders to cover freeholders’ costs when exercising enfranchisement rights.
• Expanding access to redress schemes, requiring freeholders who manage buildings directly to join a scheme, similar to the existing requirement for managing agents.
• Simplifying the process of buying or selling leasehold properties by capping the time and fees for home purchasing and selling information.
• Ensuring homeowners on private and mixed tenure estates have comprehensive rights of redress and better transparency surrounding their charges.

• Stopping the presumption that leaseholders must cover freeholders’ legal costs when contesting service charges, removing a significant deterrent to challenging poor practices.
• Stopping non-transparent and excessive building insurance commissions, replacing them with fair handling fees.
• Forbidding the deal of new leasehold properties, ensuring the majority of new houses in England and Wales are freehold.
• Stopping the obligation for new leaseholders to own their property for at least two years before extending their lease or buying the freehold.

• Making it simpler for leaseholders to take over the management of their property. The previous restriction, which barred leaseholders from managing sites or purchasing freeholds if over 25% of the floor space is commercial, has been amended to 50%, increasing the amount of property owners who are able to access Right to Manage or collective enfranchisement.

How can Nelsons help?

Ziaur Rahman is a Legal Director in our Corporate services team.

For further information or advice on Residential Estate and Block Management matters or any related topics, please call Ziaur or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online enquiry form.