Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 — A Plain-English Summary of the Key Changes

What the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 Does

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (‘the 2024 Act’) received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024. It is the most significant piece of leasehold legislation since the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993. However, many of its provisions require secondary legislation (statutory instruments) to bring them into force, and the commencement position has been evolving since Royal Assent.

Key Provisions

Abolition of the Two-Year Qualifying Period

Previously, leaseholders had to own their property for two years before they could exercise the right to extend their lease or participate in collective enfranchisement (buying the freehold with other residents). The 2024 Act abolishes this two-year wait. Qualifying leaseholders can exercise their rights immediately on purchase.

This is significant for buyers of leasehold properties who wish to extend the lease or buy the freehold — they no longer need to wait two years before taking action.

Ground Rent Reform

The 2024 Act prevents the collection of ground rent on leases that are extended or granted under the Act. Ground rents on such leases are capped at a peppercorn (effectively zero). This extends the ground rent ban introduced by the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 (which applied to new residential leases) to cover extended leases.

Existing ground rents on leases not extended under the Act are unaffected.

Service Charge Transparency

The Act introduces enhanced rights for leaseholders to:

• Receive annual service charge accounts in a prescribed format
• Request information about how service charges are calculated
• Challenge unreasonable service charges through a strengthened tribunal route
• Access building insurance documents and challenge commissions paid to managing agents on insurance placements

Ban on Legal Cost Recovery in Service Charge Disputes

One of the more significant protections: freeholders can no longer routinely recover their legal costs from the service charge fund in disputes with leaseholders — unless a tribunal or court orders otherwise. This removes a major deterrent to leaseholders pursuing legitimate service charge challenges.

Changes to Enfranchisement Premium Calculation

The Act introduces changes to how the premium paid for a lease extension or collective enfranchisement is calculated. The most significant change is the **removal of marriage value** from the calculation for leases with more than 80 years remaining.

Marriage value is the additional value a landlord can extract by arguing that an extended lease would be worth more to the leaseholder than the sum of its parts. For leases below 80 years, it has historically been a major component of extension premiums, making extensions very expensive. The 2024 Act removes marriage value from calculations for leases above 80 years (where it was already zero), and the Government has indicated further reform for sub-80-year leases.

For many leaseholders, the changes to the premium calculation are expected to reduce the cost of extending, particularly where valuation assumptions previously inflated the premium.

New Rights to Information and Challenges

• Leaseholders gain new rights to challenge administration charges
• New rights to information from their freeholder about the building, management, and insurance
• Improved access to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) for disputes

What Is NOT Yet Commenced

Many provisions of the 2024 Act require secondary legislation (commencement orders and statutory instruments) before they take effect. As of early 2026, some provisions remain outstanding. Check the current status on legislation.gov.uk or with a specialist leasehold solicitor before relying on any specific provision.

The Commencement Issue

The phased commencement approach means that leaseholders should not assume all provisions of the Act are live. The abolition of the two-year qualifying period was among the earlier provisions to be commenced. Premium calculation reforms and service charge transparency measures have followed, but the timetable for secondary legislation has been subject to delays.

What Leaseholders Should Do

• Check your lease length now. If below 85 years, consider extending sooner rather than later — extension costs rise as the lease gets shorter, and the sub-80-year threshold triggers marriage value calculations (pending further reform).
• Verify whether the two-year qualifying period abolition is in force before exchanging on a leasehold property where you intend to extend immediately.
• Request a service charge pack from your managing agent and compare against the statutory prescribed format as it comes into force.
• Use Property Passport UK to record your lease details, including lease start date, lease length, ground rent schedule, and service charge history, so you have a clear record for any extension or enfranchisement negotiation.