Leasehold reform: which parts of the 2024 Act are in force and what is still waiting

Correct as at 24 October 2026.

How the 2024 Act is brought into force

Commencement is governed by section 124 of the Act. Under section 124(1), Part 9 (general provisions, sections 120 to 125) came into force on the day the Act was passed. Under section 124(2), four provisions came into force “at the end of the period of two months beginning with the day on which this Act is passed”: sections 113, 117, 118 and 119. The revised text of the Act on legislation.gov.uk records those four sections as in force from 24 July 2024. Under section 124(3), every other provision comes into force “on such day or days as the Secretary of State may by regulations appoint”.

As at 24 October 2026, legislation.gov.uk lists three sets of commencement regulations made under section 124(3): the Commencement No. 1 Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/1018), the Commencement No. 2 and Transitional Provision Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/57) and the Commencement No. 3 Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/131). No commencement regulations have been made since 6 February 2025.

What is in force and what is not

None of the Act’s 13 schedules is in force.

Enfranchisement: the two-year rule

Section 27, in force from 31 January 2025, removed the requirement for a leaseholder to have held the lease for two years before claiming a lease extension or the freehold. It amends section 1 of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 for houses and omits section 39(2) of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, described in the Act as the “requirement to have been a qualifying tenant for last two years”, for flats. Regulation 3 modifies the prescribed notice forms under the Leasehold Reform (Notices) Regulations 1997 so that they do not refer to the qualifying period until the schedules to those forms are replaced. The rest of Part 2, including the new valuation method in section 37 and the cost rules in sections 38 and 39, is not in force.

Right to manage

Since 3 March 2025, further changes have applied to right to manage claims under Chapter 1 of Part 2 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002. Section 49 raised the non-residential limit in paragraph 1(1) of Schedule 6 to the 2002 Act from “25 per cent.” to “50%”. Section 50 inserted a new section 87A, under which an RTM company and its members “are not liable for any costs incurred by any other person in consequence of a claim notice given by the company”, except as that section sets out. Section 50 also removed the “reasonable fee” payable for information requested under section 82; the RTM company is instead liable for the reasonable costs of complying. Section 51 gave the power to order compliance under section 107 to the appropriate tribunal instead of the county court, and section 52 bars first-instance High Court applications in tribunal matters under the right to manage provisions. Section 64 was brought into force only so far as it inserts section 20J of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 in relation to right to manage. That provision stops a landlord recovering its non-litigation costs of a claim through the variable service charge paid by non-participating tenants.

Building safety and rentcharges

Part 8 amends Part 5 of the Building Safety Act 2022. Since 31 October 2024, section 114 has defined “relevant steps” for a relevant defect, meaning steps to prevent or reduce the likelihood of fire or collapse, reduce the severity of an incident or reduce harm. Section 115 allows a remediation order to require relevant steps as well as remediation, and applies to proceedings already pending on commencement. Section 116 extends remediation contribution orders to costs including expert reports and temporary accommodation for decants. Since 24 July 2024, section 117 has let resident management companies and RTM companies recover, through the service charge, legal costs of applying for remediation contribution orders. Section 118 repealed section 125 of the 2022 Act (meeting remediation costs of an insolvent landlord). Section 119 requires insolvency practitioners appointed in relation to a responsible person for a higher-risk or relevant building to notify the local authority and the fire and rescue authority (and, for a higher-risk building, the regulator) within 14 days of appointment.

Section 113 affects freehold homeowners who pay regulated rentcharges. Since 24 July 2024, a rent owner cannot take action to recover arrears unless it has served a demand for payment setting out the information listed in section 120B(2) and 30 days have passed since service, under the new section 120B of the Law of Property Act 1925.

The High Court challenge

On 24 October 2025, in R (Arc Time Freehold Income Authorised Fund and others) v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2025] EWHC 2751 (Admin), a Divisional Court of Holgate LJ and Foxton J dismissed six claims for judicial review brought by landlords, among them Cadogan Group Limited, Grosvenor Limited and John Lyon’s Charity. The claimants argued that enfranchisement reforms in the Act, not yet in force, breached Article 1 of the First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights. The challenged measures were capping the ground rent used in the price calculation at 0.1% of the freehold vacant possession value, abolishing marriage value and removing the tenant’s obligation to pay the landlord’s non-litigation costs. According to the court’s summary, it rejected the challenge to each of the three measures; on marriage value, it concluded that the reform “fairly balanced the competing interests”. A separate challenge on intermediate leases was stayed; the summary records that “The Government accepts that the LRFA 2024 needs to be amended and this will require primary legislation.”

Government plans for the uncommenced provisions

The following are stated government plans, not law. In its response of 15 July 2026 on implementing Part 4 in England, the government said it plans to give private landlords 12 months’ notice of the annual report, service charge demand form and accounts requirements, and social landlords 24 months’ notice. It said it plans to commence the future demand notice and the right to obtain information “as soon as possible in 2027”, and intends “to provide for a three-month period between the making of the litigation costs regulations and their coming into force”.

On valuation, the government consulted on prescribing the deferment and capitalisation rates under the Act from 15 July 2026 to 21 October 2026 (leasehold enfranchisement valuation rates), and separately on process costs exceptions until 23 September 2026. In a speech on 29 April 2026, housing minister Matthew Pennycook said the 2024 Act “contains a small number of specific flaws” and that it was the government’s intention “to rectify these through the substantive Commonhold and Leasehold Bill”.

The draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill

The government published the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill on 27 January 2026. According to the government, it would cap ground rents in existing leases “at £250 a year, changing to a peppercorn after 40 years”, abolish forfeiture and replace it with a new lease enforcement scheme, ban the use of leasehold for most new flats, make conversion to commonhold easier, and repeal enforcement powers for estate rentcharges. The King’s Speech on 13 May 2026 committed to legislation “to reform the leasehold system, including the capping of ground rents [Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill]”. The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee published its pre-legislative scrutiny report (HC 40) on 27 May 2026. From 2 July to 27 August 2026 the government consulted on whether “quid pro quo” leases should be treated differently under the cap.

As at 24 October 2026, the bill had not been introduced: a search of the UK Parliament Bills database for “commonhold” returns no bill. When the draft was published, the government said that, “Subject to parliamentary timings, the ground rent cap could come into force in late 2028.”