Marriage value abolition is in the Act, has no commencement order, and is subject to a rates consultation that closed on 23 September 2026, secondary legislation expected during 2027, and five freeholder groups with permission to appeal. Meanwhile every lease that drops below eighty years starts paying it. Right to Manage, by contrast, got materially easier in March 2025 — and that one you can do today.
Almost all the coverage of leasehold reform is about valuation, and almost none of it is in force. Meanwhile the changes that did commence are the ones giving leaseholders control of their building — and they are being used far less than they should be, because nobody wrote about them.
If you sit above eighty years, waiting is a defensible gamble: you are not paying marriage value, the premium rises slowly, and reform would help you modestly. If you are below eighty, waiting is expensive in a way that compounds — you pay marriage value now and more of it every year, against a reform with no commencement date, a rates consultation still being analysed and an appeal outstanding. Nobody can tell you when it lands, and anybody who gives you a date is guessing. What we can do is put a number on both sides of the decision, which is what the tool below does. Then it is your call rather than ours.
The only question that matters, and the one nobody will answer with a number. We will estimate the premium now, what it becomes if you wait, how much of it is marriage value that reform would remove, and which routes your building actually qualifies for. It is an illustration rather than a valuation — but it is enough to know whether to move.
The unexpired term drives almost everything. Move the slider and the whole picture changes.
An illustration using conventional assumptions, not a valuation. Real premiums turn on the relativity evidence, the deferment and capitalisation rates argued on the day, and the negotiation. A formal valuation is the first thing we would commission, and it usually pays for itself.
These are frequently confused, including by people selling them. They solve different problems, they have different thresholds, and doing the wrong one first can make the right one harder.
A statutory claim adding 90 years to your existing term at a peppercorn ground rent. It is an individual right — you do not need your neighbours — and since 31 January 2025 you can serve the day you complete a purchase.
Needs: you, and a valuation. Nobody else.Buying the freehold together. You then control the building and can grant yourselves 999-year leases at peppercorn rents, which is usually cheaper per flat than everybody extending separately.
Needs: half the flats participating, two-thirds on long leases, and no more than 25% commercial.Taking over management without buying anything. You choose the agent, set the budget and run the contracts. It does not extend anyone’s lease and it does not affect the ground rent — but it is much cheaper and much faster than buying.
Needs: half the flats, two-thirds on long leases, and no more than 50% commercial since March 2025.Freehold ownership of your flat with shared ownership of the common parts, and no lease at all. The draft Bill of January 2026 would make it the default for new flats and create a workable conversion route. Neither exists yet.
Needs: legislation that has not been passed. Not a plan for this year.Because it is where the money and the momentum are. Right to Manage costs a fraction of buying a freehold, needs no valuation, no longer carries the freeholder’s legal costs, and delivers the thing most leaseholders are actually angry about — the service charge and who spends it. It also produces the one thing collective enfranchisement always struggles to find: a group of neighbours who have already agreed on something, already have a company, and already know who is in and who is out. A building that has run an RTM successfully is a far easier building to enfranchise two years later. A building that has never agreed on anything rarely gets to fifty per cent on a freehold purchase at the first attempt.
Our fee for running the process, quoted before we start. The solicitor and the valuer are separate and you see their quotes directly — we do not mark them up and we take nothing from either.
Legal and valuation fees are payable separately and directly — typically £1,200–£2,500 for a solicitor and £700–£1,500 for a valuer on a single lease extension, more on a collective claim. We take no referral fee or commission from any solicitor, valuer or freeholder, and we will confirm that in writing. On a statutory lease extension you also pay the freeholder’s reasonable valuation and legal costs; on a Right to Manage claim you no longer do, which is why it is much the cheapest route to control. If your lease is long and your building is well run, we will tell you to do nothing and there will be no fee.
The unexpired years and a rough flat value is enough for us to tell you whether you should be acting this year or not. If you are comfortably above eighty years we will say so and leave you alone.
Four questions. We will come back with which routes your building qualifies for, a realistic premium range and what we think you should do first.
It changes what we can do and how quickly.
Choose as many as apply.
An address is most useful, a postcode district is fine to start.
No charge for the conversation. If your lease is long and the building is well run, we will tell you to do nothing.
Check it over. Tapping the button opens WhatsApp with this ready — nothing has been sent yet.
Send this on WhatsAppEvery one of these has a free tool on it. None of them asks for your details before it gives you an answer.
Benchmark the block line by line, retender the contracts, and use the costs that are simply not payable.
Service charge benchmarker with the legal leversfrom £1,750 →An outsourced building safety function for freeholders, RTM companies and managing agents.
Compliance calendar — every documented check a building needsfrom £2,400 a year →One verified record per property, shared selectively with tenants, agents, solicitors and lenders.
A live passport you can open and explorefrom £8 a month →It depends almost entirely on whether your lease is above or below eighty years, and anyone answering without asking that is not advising you. Above eighty you pay no marriage value, the premium rises gently, and waiting is a reasonable gamble. Below eighty you are paying marriage value today and more of it every year, against a reform that has no commencement order. The rates consultation ran from 15 July to 23 September 2026, secondary legislation is expected during 2026 with implementation anticipated in 2027, and five freeholder groups have permission to appeal the High Court’s dismissal of their challenge. So the saving is real but undated and not certain, while the cost of waiting is certain and compounding. Use the tool above: it puts a number on both sides and then it is your decision rather than ours.
No, and this is the most common thing people arrive believing. The 990-year term is in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 but it has not been commenced. A statutory extension completing today adds 90 years to your existing unexpired term at a peppercorn ground rent, exactly as it did before the Act. The same applies to marriage value abolition and the new valuation rates — in the Act, not in force. What has commenced is the removal of the two-year ownership rule on 31 January 2025 and the Right to Manage changes on 3 March 2025.
It depends which right you are exercising, and this is where a great deal of published advice is now wrong. For Right to Manage the non-residential limit rose from 25% to 50% on 3 March 2025, which brought a large number of buildings with ground-floor commercial into scope for the first time. For collective enfranchisement — buying the freehold — the limit is still 25%. The two changes are frequently reported together as though the 50% applied to both. If your building is between 25% and 50% commercial, you can take over the management but you cannot yet buy the freehold, and that materially changes what we would advise you to do first.
Because it costs a fraction, needs no valuation, and since March 2025 you no longer pay the freeholder’s legal costs — which was the single biggest reason claims used to collapse halfway. It also delivers the thing most leaseholders are actually angry about, which is the service charge and who decides how it is spent. What it does not do is extend anybody’s lease or remove the ground rent. Our usual advice to a building that has never organised itself is to do the management first: it is cheaper, it works, and it produces a group of neighbours who have already agreed on something and already have a company. Enfranchising afterwards is then far easier than starting cold.
Sometimes genuinely better, often materially worse, and you cannot tell without comparing it to the statutory figure. An informal deal can be quicker and cheaper because it avoids the process costs. It can also give you a shorter extension, retain or introduce a ground rent, add restrictive terms, and leave you with no statutory protection or tribunal route if it goes wrong. We would value the statutory claim first and use that as the benchmark. The one thing we would say firmly is not to agree anything informally before you know the statutory number — once you have, your negotiating position has gone.
Not yet, in any practical sense. The draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill was published on 27 January 2026 and pre-legislative scrutiny finished on 27 May 2026, with the select committee telling the government to go further and faster and recommending introduction in autumn 2026. There is no Act, no commencement and no workable conversion route for an existing block. It is a genuine direction of travel and worth understanding if you are buying a new-build flat, but it is not something you can plan this year’s decision around.
We run the process and the economics; the legal steps are done by a specialist enfranchisement solicitor and the valuation by a RICS valuer who does this work, both of whom we instruct and manage on your behalf. What we add is the part that usually fails: establishing which route the building actually qualifies for, getting the neighbours to fifty per cent and keeping them there, comparing an informal offer against the statutory figure, and running the timetable so nothing lapses. On a collective claim the legal work is rarely the reason it collapses — the organising is. If you already have a solicitor you are happy with, we will work alongside them.
Above it you have time and options. Below it you are paying marriage value on a reform with no commencement date, an unfinished consultation and an outstanding appeal. Knowing which side of it you are on, and what that costs, takes one conversation.
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