2 year ownership requirement removed for lease extensions

The provisions which removed the previous requirement for a tenant to have owned their leasehold flat for two years before they could apply to their Landlord for a lease extension, have now come into force, on 31st January 2025.

This two year ownership rule previously caused problems for both sellers and buyers of flats, resulting in complicated additional technical arrangements on a sale, which required the seller of a flat to serve the notice requesting a lease extension, just before completion of the sale to the buyer, and then assigning the benefit of the notice to the buyer as part of the completion process.

Thankfully, all this is now unnecessary, and a buyer of a flat can now start the lease extension process themselves, as soon as they are registered as owner of their flat at the Land Registry.

The previous government passed the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 just before an election was called in 2024, but left the precise implementation dates of various parts of the new legislation, to the current government.

There will be a series of further implementation dates for different parts of the legislation which will benefit tenants – so stay tuned for further updates shortly!

Please contact our property disputes team if you have any questions or are interested in extending your lease.