Leasehold property

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1. Overview

You only own a leasehold property for a fixed period of time.

You’ll have a legal agreement with the landlord (sometimes known as the ‘freeholder’) called a ‘lease’. This tells you how many years you’ll own the property.

Ownership of the property returns to the landlord when the lease comes to an end.

Most flats are leasehold. Houses can be leasehold too and usually are if they’re bought through a shared ownership scheme.

2. Leaseholder rights and responsibilities

Your responsibilities

Your lease will tell you what conditions you’ve agreed to, for example:

  • if you need permission to make alterations
  • how much you’ll have to pay to maintain the property
  • whether you or your landlord has responsibility for repairs and dealing with noisy neighbours

You might be taken to court and ordered to pay for any damage if you do not follow the conditions of the lease. The court may also take away your lease.

If you’re a leaseholder in England, check whether you’ll have to pay to replace cladding or to fix other safety problems with your building.

Your rights

You have the right to:

3. Service charges and other expenses

Service charges

Your lease sets out the way the service charge is organised and what can be charged. If you pay a service charge, you have the right to:

  • ask for a summary showing how the charge is worked out and what it’s spent on
  • see any paperwork supporting the summary, such as receipts

Your landlord must give you this information - it’s a criminal offence if they do not.

Ground rent

Ground rent is a payment to your landlord that might be included in your lease. Your landlord does not have to provide a service in return.

If your lease was granted before 30 June 2022

You do not have to pay ground rent unless your landlord has sent you a formal, written demand for it. They can take legal action if you do not pay after you’ve received the demand.

Your landlord can recover unpaid ground rent going back 6 years - they can ask you for the full amount in one go.

Your landlord can only increase the ground rent if you agree to the increase or the lease says this can happen.

If your lease was granted on or after 30 June 2022

You usually cannot be charged anything more than a ‘peppercorn’ ground rent after this date. The value of this is zero so you will not have to pay anything, but it forms a legally binding contract with your landlord.

You can read more about the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022.

If you bought a lease from another leaseholder on or after 30 June 2022

You will still have to pay ground rent to your landlord if this is in your lease. The changes only apply to new leases granted on or after 30 June 2022.

Building insurance

Your landlord will usually be responsible for insurance of the building (not the contents) - this will be part of your service charge.

You have a right to:

Reserve or sinking funds

You might have to pay into a fund to help cover any unexpected maintenance or repairs, like replacing the roof. There are rules about how landlords must manage these funds.

You will not usually be able to get back any money you pay into them, for example if you move house.

Consulting over charges

You have the right to be consulted about charges for running or maintaining the building if you have to pay more than:

  • £250 for planned work
  • £100 per year for work and services lasting more than 12 months

There are steps your landlord must follow when they consult you, known as a ‘Section 20’ consultation. There’s a limit on how much you have to pay if you have not been consulted properly - contact Leasehold Advisory Service for advice.

Disputing a charge

You may be able to apply to a tribunal if you pay a charge and you:

  • think it’s unreasonable
  • think the standard of work it relates to is unsatisfactory
  • do not think you should be paying it at all

Contact Leasehold Advisory Service for advice.

You cannot apply to the tribunal if:

  • you’ve agreed to pay the charge
  • the dispute is already being dealt with, for example by the court
  • you pay a fixed charge

Try mediation - you may also be able to change the management of your building instead.

Your landlord can take you to court if you stop paying a charge you’re responsible for.

More information

The Leasehold Advisory Service has more information on service charges and other issues.

4. Extending, changing or ending a lease

Extending the lease

You can ask the landlord to extend your lease at any time.

You might be able to extend your lease by:

The Leasehold Advisory Service’s (LAS) lease extension calculator gives you a guide to the costs of extending the lease of a flat.

Changing the lease

You can negotiate certain changes to the lease, sometimes known as ‘varying the lease’. Speak to your landlord first.

If you cannot agree, you may be able to apply to a tribunal - contact Leasehold Advisory Service for advice.

Ending the lease

It’s very rare that a landlord can end the lease and evict you. There are some circumstances and leases that let them do this, sometimes known as ‘forfeiture proceedings’. They need to send you a formal written notice and get the court’s permission.

You can usually end a lease by giving at least 1 month’s notice.

The LAS has information about ending a lease.

When the lease runs out

You do not have to leave the property when the lease expires. In law, a lease is a tenancy and the leaseholder is a tenant. The tenancy will continue on exactly the same terms unless you or the landlord decide to end it.

5. Buying the freehold

You can ask the landlord to sell you the freehold at any time.

There are different legal steps and rules depending on whether your home is a:

Right of first refusal

Landlords who want to sell the freehold of a building containing flats usually have to offer the leaseholders the first chance to buy it. This is known as your right of first refusal.

There are different rules and steps to buying the freehold of your home in Northern Ireland.

6. Right to Manage and management disputes

You may be able to change the management of your building if you’re unhappy with the way it’s being run and you live in a leasehold flat. You can either:

  • apply to a tribunal to ask them to appoint a new manager
  • take over the management responsibilities, known as your ‘Right to Manage’

Appoint a new manager

You must prove bad management if you want to appoint a new manager, for example:

  • you have to pay unreasonable service charges
  • the landlord has not complied with an approved code of management practice

Apply to a tribunal in England, or the Leasehold Valuation Tribunals in Wales.

You can only apply to the tribunal if you’ve sent the landlord a ‘Section 22 notice’ - this gives them a chance to fix the problems. Contact Leasehold Advisory Service for advice.

Right to Manage

The Right to Manage lets you and the other leaseholders take over certain management responsibilities from the landlord without having to prove bad management.

You’ll need to find out if you qualify - contact Leasehold Advisory Service for advice.

You and the other leaseholders can manage the building yourselves or pay a managing agent to do it.

7. Leasehold disputes

There is a different dispute process in Wales.

You might be able to negotiate a settlement using mediation. This is when an impartial professional (the mediator) helps both sides work out an agreement. It’s confidential and usually quicker and cheaper than going to court. Find a mediator.

You can also get free advice from the Leasehold Advisory Service (LAS) on issues like:

  • service charges
  • extending your lease
  • buying the freehold

Apply to a tribunal

You can apply to a tribunal if you’re in a dispute with your landlord about, for example:

Apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunals if you’re in Wales.