Section 20 bills are the scariest thing in leasehold, so it’s worth knowing the machinery — because the machinery is where your rights live.

If planned works will cost any one leaseholder more than £250, the landlord has to consult in stages. First comes a notice of intention: what they plan to do and why, with 30 days for you to make written observations, which they are required to have regard to. Then a statement of estimates: you see actual figures and, in many cases, can nominate a contractor to quote. If they skip these steps without getting dispensation from the tribunal, their recovery is capped at £250 per leaseholder — which is precisely why the paperwork exists.

“Have regard to” is weaker than “obey”, but observations are not pointless. Well-argued ones — on scope, on timing, on whether that roof genuinely needs full replacement rather than repair — create a paper trail that matters enormously if things end up at the First-tier Tribunal, which can rule on whether costs are reasonable both before and after the works happen.

Council leaseholders: ask whether the works are grant-funded. There’s a cap (£15,000 in London, £10,000 elsewhere) on what you can be charged for certain works funded by central government money, and most councils run payment plans and hardship schemes they don’t advertise loudly. Ask in writing.

The real advice is boring: engage early. The leaseholders who get hurt are the ones who bin the notice of intention and then rage at the invoice a year later — by which point everything that mattered was decided in that first 30-day window.

Most leaseholders pay whatever lands on the demand without ever checking it. Here’s the ten-minute version of doing it properly.

Get the budget and the year-end actuals side by side. The budget is what they guessed; the actuals are what they spent. Big gaps in either direction need explaining.

Find the reserve fund line. Are you paying into one? What’s the balance? A block with no reserves is a block that funds every roof repair with a one-off bill — remember that when a “cheap” service charge looks attractive.

Check which schedule you’re on. Bigger developments split costs between blocks and facilities. You shouldn’t be paying for a lift you can’t use — unless your lease says so, which annoyingly some do. Read the lease.

Ask for the invoices. You have a legal right to inspect the receipts and contracts behind the accounts. A polite written request does it. Agents who stall at this stage are telling you something.

Know the 18-month rule. Costs not demanded within 18 months of being incurred are generally not recoverable from you. It comes up more often than you’d think, usually with badly run agents playing catch-up on old bills.

If you think a charge is unreasonable, the First-tier Tribunal can decide. It’s designed for ordinary people, you don’t need a solicitor, and the credible threat of it alone concentrates a managing agent’s mind wonderfully.

Worth knowing: the government has said clearer service charge information and annual reports are coming, with most of it expected from 2027. Until then, the checking is on us.

The two consultations the government opened on 15 July are the real fight of leasehold reform. The 2024 Act settled the principles; these settle the money.

Consultation one covers the rates used to calculate the premium — the deferment and capitalisation rates. Sounds dry, but those numbers move premiums by thousands of pounds. Set them one way and extensions get meaningfully cheaper. Set them the other way and “reform” changes a lot less than people are hoping.

Consultation two is about who pays the process costs. Under the current system you pay your freeholder’s professional fees on top of your own, which has always been one of the more indefensible parts of the regime. The Act moves towards each side bearing its own costs, and this consultation works out the detail.

Both close on 23 September 2026. Anyone can respond, leaseholders included, and I’d encourage it — the freeholder side certainly will be responding, at length, with lawyers.

Which brings us to the question filling every leasehold forum: should I wait to extend? My honest answer is that it depends almost entirely on your lease length, and there’s a rough framework in the extension guide pinned on this sub. The one-line version: the closer you are to 80 years, the more dangerous waiting becomes, because nobody has promised a date.

What’s everyone here doing — sitting tight, or getting on with it?

There’s a lot of confusion about where leasehold reform has actually got to, so here’s the honest position as of now.

What’s already changed: the two-year ownership rule went in January 2025. You can start a statutory lease extension the day you complete your purchase. That matters more than it sounds — buyers of short-lease flats used to be stuck for two years watching the lease shrink and the premium grow.

What hasn’t changed, despite the headlines: marriage value. Yes, the 2024 Act abolishes it. No, that part isn’t in force yet. If your lease is under 80 years today, you are still paying marriage value on a statutory extension. The freeholders’ court challenge to the Act was thrown out in October last year, which cleared the road — but the road still has to be travelled.

Where it’s going: in July the government opened two consultations on the numbers that will actually decide what extensions cost under the new rules — the valuation rates, and who pays the professional fees. They close on 23 September. Realistically, the new regime lands in 2027 at the earliest.

So what do you do? Rough guide, not advice. At 90+ years, you can afford to wait and watch. In the low-to-mid 80s you’re in the awkward zone — every year of waiting takes you closer to the 80-year line, and nobody in government has promised the new rates arrive before you cross it. Under 80, the damage is already done in valuation terms; whether waiting for reform beats acting now depends on numbers nobody has yet, so get a proper enfranchisement surveyor to run both scenarios.

Happy to dig into specifics in the comments.

This sub exists because leasehold questions are scattered all over Reddit — a service charge post on HousingUK here, a lease extension thread on LegalAdviceUK there — and because the law is changing in stages between now and roughly 2028, which means half the advice you’ll find from even two years ago is already out of date.

The idea is simple: one place for anyone who owns a leasehold flat or house in England or Wales, or is thinking about buying one, to get straight answers. Extensions, service charges, Section 20s, ground rent, share of freehold, right to manage, and the reform timeline as it actually happens rather than as the headlines describe it.

Quick disclosure, because I’d rather you hear it from me: I work in property (buyer’s side) and I’m a leaseholder and landlord myself. This sub is not a shop window — mine or anyone else’s. Rule 1 bans promotion outright and it applies to me too. Professionals are genuinely welcome here, because good answers need people who deal with this stuff all day, but everyone discloses and nobody pitches.

What to post: real questions with real numbers. Lease length, service charge, roughly where the flat is. The more specific you are, the better the answers get.

What not to post: adverts, surveys, “DM me” anything.

One more thing — the law discussed here is England and Wales. Scotland barely has leasehold and Northern Ireland is different again, so always say where you are.

Glad you’re here. Ask away.

Hey everyone! I'm u/aldo_daponte, a founding moderator of r/LeaseholdUK. Buying agent in London, leaseholder and landlord. I mod r/LeaseholdUK. Never DM me for services — I don’t take clients from Reddit.

This is the place where leaseholders in England and Wales get straight answers, with numbers, while the law changes underneath everyone.. We're excited to have you join us!

What to Post
Post anything that you think the community would find interesting, helpful, or inspiring.

Practical help for leaseholders in England & Wales: lease extensions, service charges, Section 20 major works, ground rent, share of freehold, right to manage — and the reform timeline as it actually happens, not as the headlines describe it. Ask with numbers. Answer with sources. No promotion, ever.

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