Leaseholder FAQ: Common Questions Answered

In everyday terms, a freeholder owns a property and the land it stands on outright, with no time limit. Strictly speaking, English law does not recognise absolute private ownership of land: all land is ultimately held of the Crown, which retains the ultimate, or allodial, title (see the next question, and the Land Registration Act 2002, which still treats the Crown’s own land separately as land not held for any estate). What a freeholder actually owns is the most complete estate the law grants, an estate in fee simple absolute in possession, which for practical purposes amounts to permanent ownership. A leaseholder, by contrast, owns only a lease: the right to occupy a property for a fixed number of years set out in that lease, without owning the freehold or the land. Most flats in England are held on a leasehold basis. See gov.uk: Leasehold property.

Not in the way most people imagine. English land law still rests on a feudal principle: all land is ultimately held of the Crown. The Crown holds the radical, or allodial, title, which means the only land truly owned outright, owing nothing to anyone above it, is the Crown’s own land. Everyone else, including every freeholder, technically owns an estate in the land rather than the land itself. A freehold is an estate in fee simple absolute in possession, the largest and most permanent estate the law recognises, which is why in everyday life we treat freeholders as outright owners. The feudal duties that once came with holding land were swept away by the Tenures Abolition Act 1660, and the modern system of estates was set out in the Law of Property Act 1925, but the underlying rule that land is held of the Crown was never abolished. The Crown’s own land is dealt with separately under the Land Registration Act 2002.

Yes. Under section 19 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, service charges are only payable to the extent that they are reasonably incurred. Under section 27A, you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) for a binding decision on whether a charge is reasonable and payable.

Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires your landlord to formally consult leaseholders before carrying out qualifying works that would cost any one leaseholder more than £250, or before entering a long-term agreement (longer than 12 months) costing any one leaseholder more than £100 a year. If the landlord fails to consult properly, the amount it can recover is capped at those figures unless a tribunal grants dispensation.

Yes. Under section 20B of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, if costs were incurred more than 18 months before they are demanded, you may not have to pay them, unless within that 18 months you were notified in writing that the costs had been incurred and that you would later be required to contribute.

Ground rent is a periodic sum a leaseholder pays the freeholder under the terms of the lease. The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 restricted ground rent on most new long residential leases in England and Wales to a peppercorn, meaning effectively nothing, from 30 June 2022. Many older leases still carry a ground rent.

The Right to Manage, created by the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, lets leaseholders of a qualifying block take over management of their building from the freeholder. You do not have to prove the landlord has done anything wrong, and you do not pay the freeholder for the right. It is exercised through an RTM company. See LEASE for the qualifying rules.

Often, yes. Leaseholders of flats have long-standing statutory rights to extend their lease and, acting together, to buy the freehold of their building (collective enfranchisement). The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 is designed to make these rights cheaper and simpler, though several of its provisions require further regulations before they take effect. Free guidance is available from LEASE.

Commonhold is an alternative to leasehold. It lets you own your flat outright with no lease and no expiry date, while the building as a whole is run jointly by the flat owners through a commonhold association. There is no freeholder and no ground rent. It remains rare in practice, but the government has said it intends to make commonhold the standard way of owning new flats. See gov.uk: Commonhold property.

It depends who they are. Complaints about social housing landlords, including councils and housing associations, go to the Housing Ombudsman. Complaints about a council’s wider conduct can go to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. Disputes specifically about whether service charges are reasonable are decided not by an ombudsman but by the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber).

If your landlord is a public authority such as a council, yes. A Freedom of Information request is a written request for recorded information, and the authority must normally respond within 20 working days. Leaseholders use FOI to obtain repair records, inspection reports, cost breakdowns and contractor details. Our FOI guide explains how to make a valid request and what to do if it is ignored.

No. The First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) is designed to be used without a lawyer, and as a rule each side pays its own costs whatever the outcome. Many leaseholders represent themselves. For complex or high-value cases, independent legal advice can still be worth getting.

A managing agent runs the day-to-day management of a building: arranging repairs and insurance and collecting service charges. They are appointed by, and act on behalf of, the freeholder or landlord rather than the leaseholders. That is why their spending and decisions can be questioned through the tribunal and complaints routes above.