Leasehold and Freehold Reform: What Solicitors Need to Know in 2026

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 received royal assent on 24 May 2024, promising the biggest shake-up of English and Welsh leasehold law in a generation. Over two years on, the picture for conveyancing and enfranchisement solicitors is a patchwork one: a handful of provisions are genuinely live and changing how completions and Right to Manage claims are run day to day, while the headline reforms — the abolition of marriage value, 990-year lease extensions and the ban on new leasehold houses — remain enacted in principle but not yet commenced. Advising clients accurately in 2026 means being precise about that distinction, not treating the Act as a single event that "happened" in 2024.

What the Act set out to do

The Act's stated aims, as set out by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, were to make it cheaper and easier for leaseholders to extend their lease or buy their freehold, to remove the financial incentive landlords have to run down a lease, and to improve transparency around the charges leaseholders pay. In outline, the reform package covers:

• Extending the standard statutory lease extension term for flats and houses to 990 years, in place of the current 90-year (flats) or 50-year (houses) top-up
• Removing "marriage value" from the valuation of lease extensions and freehold purchases where the unexpired term is below 80 years, under a new standard valuation methodology
• Scrapping the two-year ownership qualifying period before a leaseholder can bring an enfranchisement or lease extension claim
• Banning the grant of new long residential leases of houses, subject to limited exceptions
• Widening and simplifying access to the Right to Manage (RTM)
• Reforming ground rent, service charge demands, buildings insurance commissions and estate management charges to require far greater transparency
• Strengthening building safety cost-protection measures that amend the Building Safety Act 2022

What is actually in force in 2026

As of September 2026, only a small number of commencement regulations have been made under the Act. The provisions solicitors can rely on today are:

Everything else in the Act — the ban on new leasehold houses, 990-year extensions, the abolition of marriage value, the new valuation rates, service charge and estate management transparency, and the buildings insurance commission ban — is enacted but not yet commenced. No commencement order has been made for these sections, meaning the old law still applies to them in practice.

What is still awaiting secondary legislation

Marriage value abolition and 990-year extensions

This is the reform conveyancers and enfranchisement specialists are asked about most, and it is not yet in force. The Act creates a new standard valuation methodology that removes marriage value, but that methodology cannot operate until the Secretary of State prescribes the deferment and capitalisation rates used in the calculation. The government opened a technical consultation on those rates (alongside a related consultation on recoverable process costs) which closes on 23 September 2026. Until rates are prescribed and a further commencement order made, premiums for lease extensions and freehold purchases with an unexpired term under 80 years must still be calculated using the existing marriage value methodology, and the statutory extension term remains 90 years (flats) or 50 years (houses) rather than 990 years.

Service charge, estate management and insurance transparency

The government published its response to the service charge and estate management consultations on 15 July 2026, confirming it intends to proceed with standardised demand forms, mandatory annual reports, tribunal/court approval before litigation costs can be passed on, and clearer buildings insurance commission disclosure. These will be delivered through a batch of statutory instruments rather than a single order, and ministers have indicated implementation "as soon as possible from 2027" rather than in 2026. Estate management charge reform (covering freehold estates with private roads and communal facilities) and the new leasehold and estate management redress scheme requirements are on a similar footing — drafted, but with no commencement date yet.

The ban on new leasehold houses

Despite being one of the most widely reported parts of the Act, the prohibition on granting new long leases of houses (subject to exceptions such as shared ownership leases and certain retirement or National Trust arrangements) has not been commenced. Developers can, as a matter of law, still grant long leases of houses in 2026 pending a commencement order.

Ground rent

Ground rent reform has effectively moved onto a separate track. Rather than commencing the Act's ground rent regulation-making power, the government published the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill in January 2026, which proposes capping ground rent on existing leases granted before 30 June 2022 at £250 a year for a transitional period before reducing it to a peppercorn, alongside a much broader shift to commonhold as the default tenure for new flats. That Bill is still at the pre-legislative scrutiny stage, and a cap of this kind is not expected to take practical effect before 2028 at the earliest.

Practical implications for conveyancing and enfranchisement solicitors

Timing advice on lease extension and enfranchisement claims. Because the two-year qualifying period has gone but the new valuation method has not arrived, clients now face a genuine strategic choice: serve a section 42 notice now, under the current (often more expensive, marriage-value-inclusive) valuation basis, or wait for the new methodology and prescribed rates to commence. There is no default right answer — it depends on the unexpired term, the likely deferment/capitalisation rates once set, and how much value is riding on marriage value specifically. Firms should be setting out this trade-off in writing to every leasehold client considering a claim, rather than assuming "wait for the Act" is automatically the cheaper route.

Due diligence on new-build leasehold houses. Until the leasehold houses ban is actually commenced, developers remain legally entitled to grant long leases of houses, so conveyancers acting on new-build purchases still need to check title and tenure carefully rather than assume the point is now moot. This sits alongside the wider due diligence obligations conveyancers already carry on new-build and high-risk transactions.

RTM claims. The March 2025 changes are live now: the higher 50% non-residential threshold and the removal of the "pay the freeholder's costs" rule make RTM viable for a wider range of blocks, and disputes now start in the First-tier Tribunal. This is a genuinely useful, in-force tool to raise with management company and residents' association clients today.

Service charge and estate management charge advice. Although the transparency package is not yet in force, landlords, managing agents and their solicitors should be preparing for standardised demands, annual reporting and tighter cost-recovery rules that are coming from 2027. Advising freeholder and management company clients now on record-keeping and demand practice will reduce the compliance scramble later, and ties into the broader relationship between leasehold and landlord-and-tenant obligations covered in our landlord and tenant housing law update.

Firm-wide compliance. Getting commencement dates right in client advice, precedent letters and file notes is also a conduct and quality issue, not just a technical one — firms should check their leasehold precedents and risk assessments reflect the current, phased state of the law.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 fully in force?

No. Only a limited set of provisions have been commenced — principally the removal of the two-year qualifying period (from 31 January 2025) and the Right to Manage reforms (from 3 March 2025), plus some earlier building safety and rentcharge amendments. The headline reforms, including marriage value abolition, 990-year lease extensions, the leasehold houses ban and service charge transparency, still require secondary legislation.

Can my client still claim a lease extension without waiting two years?

Yes. Since 31 January 2025, a leaseholder can serve a notice claiming a lease extension or freehold purchase from the day they complete their purchase, without the previous two-year ownership requirement.

Should clients wait for marriage value abolition before extending their lease?

It depends on the individual case. The new valuation method and 990-year term cannot take effect until the government prescribes deferment and capitalisation rates, following a consultation closing on 23 September 2026, and a further commencement order is made. Clients with a short unexpired term facing steep marriage value costs may benefit from waiting, but there is no guarantee on timing, and the prescribed rates could still produce a higher premium in some cases than expected. This needs case-by-case valuation advice, not a blanket recommendation.

When will the ban on new leasehold houses take effect?

No commencement date has been set as of September 2026. The ban is enacted but not yet in force, so long leases of houses can still lawfully be granted, subject to the exceptions in the Act, until a commencement order is made.

The pace and shape of this reform will keep shifting through 2026 and into 2027 as further statutory instruments and a possible Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill move forward, so staying current is not optional for anyone advising on residential leasehold property. Learnsignal's CPD courses for legal professionals are updated as commencement dates change, helping solicitors keep their leasehold and conveyancing advice accurate and their CPD record up to date.