Leasehold, explained in plain English
Clear, practical guides to owning a leasehold flat or house in England and Wales, written without the jargon and without anyone trying to sell you anything.
If you own a leasehold property, or you’re about to buy one, the rules can feel like they were designed to be confusing. Service charges that climb every year. Ground rent you’re not sure you should still be paying. This site takes each leasehold topic on its own and explains what it actually means and, more importantly, what you can do about it.
Where would you like to start?
Leasehold basics
New to all this? Start here for what leasehold actually means and why the length of your lease matters more than almost anything else.
Leasehold basics →Lease extensions
What extending your lease costs, and why the 80-year mark is the one date you really need to watch.
Lease extensions →Service charges
What you’re actually paying for, and how to challenge a charge that isn’t reasonable.
Service charges →Ground rent
Whether you still have to pay it, and how the rules differ depending on when your lease was granted.
Ground rent →Buying your freehold
How leaseholders can club together to buy the freehold of their building, and who qualifies to do it.
Buying your freehold →Right to Manage
How to take over the running of your building from the freeholder, without buying the freehold or proving any wrongdoing.
Right to Manage →Building safety and cladding
Where you stand on remediation costs, and what the law now protects you from.
Building safety →Buying and selling
What to check before you buy a leasehold flat, and how to handle a sale when the lease is getting short.
Buying and selling →Leasehold reform
A plain-English tracker of what’s actually in force right now, and what’s still only been promised.
Leasehold reform →Why you can trust what you read here
This site is independent. It isn’t run by a freeholder or a managing agent, and it isn’t a law firm chasing your business, so the guidance here is written for you and nobody else.
Every guide is written and reviewed by Max van der Heiden, who is an entrepreneur, landlord and multiple property owner. We work from the original sources: the legislation itself, the official GOV.UK guidance, and tribunal decisions, all of which we link to so you can check anything yourself.
Leasehold law is moving quickly at the moment, so we review our guides whenever the rules change and show you the date each one was last checked. When we get something wrong, we correct it and say so.
The biggest changes to leasehold in decades are underway
Some reforms are already law. Others have been announced but aren’t in force yet, and a new Bill is making its way through Parliament. It’s easy to read something online that was true a year ago but isn’t any more. Our reform tracker keeps the full picture in one place, in plain English, and we update it as things change.
See what’s changing →However you got here, you’re in the right place
Maybe a letter landed on your doormat that you didn’t understand. Maybe you’re weighing up a flat and want to know what you’re getting into. Whatever brought you here, pick the topic that fits your situation and you’ll get a straight answer, not a runaround.
Browse all topics →