Government Leasehold Reform Highlights Commonhold Revival

The UK government’s Draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, published in January 2025, reaffirms its commitment to overhaul leasehold arrangements. Commonhold is positioned as the likely default tenure for new flats, aiming to address longstanding issues with leasehold ownership. However, the Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners (ALEP) warns that success depends on more than legislation alone.

Training: The Critical Missing Element

Commonhold introduces a fundamentally different operating model compared to leasehold, requiring new documentation, governance, and management practices. ALEP highlights that fewer than 20 commonhold developments currently exist in England and Wales, meaning most professionals lack practical experience.

Mark Wilson, Director of Myleasehold and ALEP member, emphasises that without comprehensive training, early implementation will be “messy” and costly. These costs will not be absorbed by the system but passed on to consumers through higher fees, slower transactions, increased risk premiums, and avoidable disputes.

Who Must Be Prepared?

Effective commonhold management demands solicitors, valuers, conveyancers, managing agents, estate agents, lenders, insurers, and tribunal users all understand the new framework. Solicitors and conveyancers need confidence in interpreting the Commonhold Community Statement and related company documents to provide consistent advice and satisfy lender enquiries promptly.

Managing agents must grasp how budgeting, contributions, governance, and enforcement differ from leasehold service charge regimes to maintain owner trust. Estate agents play a crucial role as the first point of tenure explanation to buyers; failure to communicate commonhold clearly risks market discounting due to perceived complexity.

Valuers, lenders, and insurers also require aligned standards and language to support mortgage decisions and risk assessments effectively.

Implications of a Skills Shortfall

While commonhold may reduce transaction costs over time, ALEP cautions that initial phases will likely see increased solicitor workload and evolving lender requirements. Without trained professionals, three main issues arise:

• Transaction delays causing chain collapses and higher fall-through rates, increasing costs for consumers.
• Inconsistent advice leading to disputes over contributions, repairs, and enforcement, which in turn burdens tribunals and inflates management expenses.
• Heightened risk perception prompting lenders to tighten criteria or demand more due diligence, limiting consumer choice and raising costs.

These challenges underscore that legislation alone cannot guarantee smooth commonhold adoption.

Phased Implementation as a Protective Measure

ALEP advocates a phased, evidence-based approach to commonhold reform. New developments offer a simpler starting point than converting existing leasehold properties, which often involve complex mixed-use ownership, historic disputes, and fragmented interests.

Phasing allows the market to test and refine standard documents, build professional capacity, and ensure developers have a tenure model that is understandable, fundable, and manageable. Rushing implementation risks creating friction that could undermine efforts to accelerate housing supply.

Structured Training: What It Should Entail

ALEP estimates that scaling commonhold will require several days of structured training per practitioner, amounting to hundreds of hours across the profession. Professional bodies, including ALEP, can partner with government to deliver this training, leveraging their expertise in complex corporate structures, resident management companies, and service charge regimes.

ALEP is already providing training covering commonhold and related areas, with details available on their website. This proactive approach aims to build confidence and competence across the market ahead of wider reform.

Conclusion: Training as Essential Reform Infrastructure

Leasehold reform is necessary and achievable, but its success depends on market readiness. Ministers must recognise training as a core component of reform infrastructure—funding, planning, phasing, and measuring it to ensure consumers benefit from improved ownership structures.

Without this investment, a new form of unfairness may arise—not from the tenure itself, but from a shortage of qualified professionals able to guide homeowners through the transition.

Mark Wilson – Director, Myleasehold and a member of ALEP (Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners)

Suggested internal link anchors

• leasehold reform
• commonhold tenure
• managing agents
• property management
• leasehold disputes
• conveyancing process
• professional training for landlords
• housing supply challenges
• mortgage lending criteria
• service charge regime
• resident management companies
• leasehold enfranchisement

TLA update

TLA is launching a new Trusted Partners Hub in Q1 2026, featuring verified and approved service providers selected to support landlords, tenants, and property management businesses. We are inviting legal, trades, insurance, financial, mortgage, tenant screening, and other service providers to register their interest here: https://landlordassociation.org.uk/become-a-tla-service-partner/