News and Articles

Service charge consultation breakdown - free webinars

04/07/2025

The consultation on service charges promises a significant overhaul of the service charge regime for leaseholders. We will be running a free webinar via News on the Block at 11am on Thursday 10 July to talk through the consultation and next steps. Details of that webinar can be found here. We will also be running a free webinar via the National Leasehold Campaign Group for leaseholders, details of which can be found on the NLC website.

Service charge consultation

04/07/2025

The Government has today launched a ground-breaking consultation on service charge reforms for leaseholders. The consultation forms two parts. The first looks at detailed proposals for implementation of new leaseholder rights set out in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. The second looks at further possible reforms, including major works, managing agent reform, and further new leaseholder rights. The deadline for responding to the consultation is 26 September 2025, details of which can be found here.

Decent Homes Standards consultation

02/07/2025

The Government has today launched an important consultation on the proposed new decent homes standards for private rented properties. The Renters Rights Bill, currently going through the legislative process, proposes to ensure that all private-rented sector properties are brought within the scope of existing Decent Homes Standards. Those standards will also be improved. The consultation sets out the proposals in detail. It also contains questions on the impact of the reforms on leasehold properties, where there are often lease constraints on carrying out works to flats. The deadline for responding to the consultation is 10 September 2025, details of which can be found here.

Double winners at Apartment Adviser Awards!

27/06/2025

We are hugely excited to have won both “Conveyancer of the Year” Award and “Solicitors Firm of the Year” Award at the Apartment Adviser Awards this year. The ceremony was hosted in Park Lane by News on the Block, who did a marvellous job of organising the event.

Upcoming webinars

24/06/2025

As the reforms start to ramp up, we will be hosting a series of webinars in the upcoming months. This includes a dedicated updates session for leaseholders, a series for managing agents and personalised sessions for resident-owned or managed landlords. We will update this page soon with dates and booking information.

Renters Rights Bill

19/06/2025

The Government has confirmed that the penultimate stage, the Report Stage, in the House of Lords of the Renters Rights Bill will be heard on 01 July 2025. The Parliamentary summer recess commences on 24 July, so timings will be tight to finalise the Bill before the Houses rise for summer recess! The Bill can be tracked here.

Commonhold Westminster Policy Forum

18/06/2025

Mari was asked to speak at a conference dedicated to commonhold yesterday. Mari was invited to speak as a key note speaker, delivering a speech on some of the regulatory, governance and oversight issues with commonhold. The conference was very well attended, with many questions from the delegates. The conference details can be found here.

Pro Bono Legal News Wales Award

06/06/2025

We are absolutely thrilled to not only have been shortlisted, but then won “highly commended” in the Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year at the Legal News Wales Awards last night. Team Wales attended the glitzy ceremony in Cardiff, which was a very well attended event, with lawyers from all parts of Wales. The full article can be read here.

UKREiiF conference

20/05/2025

Matt Lewis will be speaking today at the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum, hosted in Leeds. The event will be attended by many industry professionals, where Matt will be speaking on “Modern block management in the face of accelerated change”. For more information and tickets, please see here.

English Housing Survey data on leaseholders

15/05/2025

The Government has released some updated statistics on leasehold ownership in England. This includes data on freehold or leasehold tenure, demographic and economic characteristics of owner occupier leaseholders and freeholders, together with average annual ground rent and service charges for owner occupier leaseholders. The data can be found here.

BSR Webinars

29/04/2025

Additional webinars have now been made available by the government on building safety. A full range of webinars, for both the industry and consumers can be found here.

Welcome to Emilie!

17/04/2025

We are delighted to welcome Emilie to the team! Emilie joins the team with a vast background in company incorporations and will join our busy team in Wales.

LFRA Impact Assessment

14/04/2025

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has today released an addendum to the LFRA Impact Assessment, setting out technical corrections. The Impact Assessment sets out the technical detail for the Government’s justifications for LFRA and can be found here.

Building safety help for RMCs and commonhold associations

02/04/2025

The Government has published a helpful new tool for resident management companies and commonhold associations to help them manage their obligations under the Building Safety Act 2022. The website also includes useful links to other websites where further information can also be found, such as on the Leasehold Advisory Service website. The link to this useful tool can be found here.

MBL Annual Enfranchisement Conference

31/03/2025

Today saw the annual virtual enfranchisement conference hosted by MBL Seminars. Mari was invited to speak at the conference on some of the challenges facing leaseholders when buying the freehold or acquiring right to manage. The conference was very well attended, with other topics including building safety and the ongoing reforms.

“How to buy leasehold and avoid fleecehold”

20/03/2025

The Financial Times has published an article on the pitfalls of buying a flat, which we were asked to contribute towards. The article focused on some of the pitfalls and providers some advice for prospective buyers on what to look for. The full article can be found here.  

APPG on Commonhold and Leasehold Reform

04/03/2025

We are delighted to have been invited to today’s All Party Parliamentary Group (“APPG”) on Commonhold and Leasehold Reform. The Minister will be attending, together with various other notable speakers. The meeting fortuitously follows both the commencement of right to manage changes and the release of the Commonhold White Paper yesterday.

Commonhold White Paper - 03 March 2025

03/03/2025

Today heralds the release of the eagerly anticipated Commonhold White Paper, released by the Ministry of Housing. The paper sets out the Government’s intentions for multi-building tenure going forward, with proposals to effectively ban leasehold. This mirrors their sentiments set out in both the King’s Speech in 2024 and the Ministerial Statement on 21 November 2024.The Commonhold White Paper can be found here, with the press release found here.

Right to manage changes - 03 March 2025

10/02/2025

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 sets out two major changes to the statutory right to manage regime. Firstly, whereas under current laws, the leaseholders/Right to Manage Company pay the landlord’s costs for dealing with their right to manage application, this obligation will be removed. Landlords will pay their own costs, except in a very small number of circumstances. Secondly, leaseholders who reside in a building with a higher ratio of commercial units may now be able to acquire management, whereas they could not before. Currently, the building cannot have more than 25% non-residential floor space. The new legislation increases this from 25% to 50%. As part of this change, the prescribed Articles of Association have also been updated to reflect voting rights of landlords. These changes will take effect on 03 March 2025. The commencement provisions can be found here, with the new prescribed articles for England found here and for Wales found here.

Free right to manage webinar for leaseholders!

04/02/2025

We are delighted to announce the first of our webinars designed for leaseholders this year. In November 2024, the Housing Minister, Mr Pennycook MP, confirmed that the Government would commence the right to manage provisions set out in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 in Spring 2025.This will allow many more leaseholders to aquire right to manage and make significant costs changes, in favour of leaseholders.

Our first webinar of the year will be on the topic of right to manage, designed for leaseholders keen to explore right to manage. The session will include a look at the new qualifying criteria, procedure, timeframes, what “management functions” are acquired and common pitfalls, in readiness for introduction in Spring 2025.

The session will be held via Teams on Wednesday 26th February at 6pm. If you would like to join our session, please email advice@commonlease.co.uk. We will then send you a link nearer the time.

We will be running monthly webinars for leaseholders throughout the year. Watch this space for details of our March session!

Lease extension rule commences!

31/01/2025

The law previously provided that a qualifying leaseholder cannot apply for a statutory lease extension until they have owned their flat for a minimum of two years. In practice, this can often cause problems where the lease approaches two years, or a buyer insists on the seller applying for a lease extension before completing the purchase.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 includes a clause which removes the requirement to own the flat for two years first. The relevant clause in LFRA commences today, meaning that any qualifying leaseholder no longer has to wait two years before starting a statutory lease extension.

It is, and has always been, possible to apply to the relevant landlord for an informal lease extension. An informal lease extension does not have the constraints of a formal or statutory lease extension, but only works if the relevant landlord agrees to grant a lease extension. In these cases, there has never been a two-year rule, so the changes today will not impact informal arrangements.

The full commencement provision can be found here. The relevant clause in LFRA can be found here.   

Building Safety update for RMCs

09/01/2025

The Building Safety Regulator has today released a helpful website dedicated to resident management companies. Building safety can be tricky to manage, and where there is a resident management company, there can be additional consideration. The new website can be found here.

Happy New Year!

02/01/2025

A Happy New Year from all of us at CLE! This year promises to be fast-paced in the world of leasehold, commonhold and freehold reforms. We have lots of exciting plans, so watch this space!

Office closure

13/12/2024

We will be closing our office from 4pm on Monday 23 December, re-opening at 10am on Thursday 02 January. If you are an existing client, please contact advice@commonlease.co.uk in the event of an emergency. We thank you for your patience and understanding.   

National Leasehold Campaign webinar

28/11/2024

Following the Ministerial Statement on the Reforms, we are delighted to be working with the National Leasehold Campaign once again to host a webinar for leaseholders. This will be held at 6pm on Monday 02 December. The webinar will update leaseholders on the Ministerial Statement together with next steps. If you are a leaseholder and a member of the NLC, booking information is available on their webpage.