The package of laws has been designed to make it easier and cheaper for leaseholders to buy their freehold, increasing the standard lease extension terms to 990 years for both houses and flats.

This Act also removes barriers for leaseholders to challenge landlords’ unreasonable charges at a tribunal.

The sale of new leasehold homes, other than in exceptional circumstances, has also been banned under the Act. This has also included the requirement for new leaseholders to have owned their property for two years before buying or extending the lease to be scrapped.

New powers will also grant freehold homeowners on private and mixed tenure estates the same rights of redress as leaseholder and equivalent rights to transparency over their estate charges.

Currently, leaseholders in some buildings are barred from taking over the management of the site or buying its freehold if over 25% of the floor space is commercial. The new law increases this limit to 50%.

However the law, which first began its parliamentary journey in November 2023, has disappointed many in its final form.

Criticism has been levelled at the rushed nature of the bill with several key elements dropped - such as a ban on the creation of new leasehold houses, and the removal of marriage value where leases have less than 80 years to run.

Mark Chick, director of the Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners (ALEP), described the legislation as “piecemeal” and urged policymakers to provide greater clarity.

“We do have some concerns that by pushing this bill through, quite literally as the last piece of business in this parliamentary session that there may be unintended consequences lurking,” said Chick, likening this to the Building Safety Act 2022.

He added: “Whilst the government has achieved its stated objective of putting this legislation on the statute books, there is still uncertainty over the outcome of the consultation on ground rents.

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“Any proposals in this direction are likely to have to wait, given that we are now heading into the ‘restricted period’ (formerly known as ‘purdah’) in the run up to the general election. Given this, we do not anticipate significant moves to deal with the necessary secondary legislation until after the election. We await further clarification and very much hope that this is forthcoming in the very near future.”

Other parties were more critical.

A spokesperson for The Residential Freehold Association, commented: “The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill is a defective and poorly evidenced piece of legislation which has ignored the outcomes of consultation with industry and leaseholders alike.
 
“The government has pushed this Bill through without proper scrutiny and as a result there is work to be done to ensure there are no unintended consequences that will negatively impact leaseholders.”

Ian Fletcher, director of policy (real estate) of the British Property Federation, has said the act is possibly one of the “least celebrated laws ever”.

“It has left few freeholders or leaseholders satisfied. It has not received proper scrutiny as many Peers in the House of Lords expressed passionately this afternoon,” says Fletcher.

“It infringes legitimate property interests significantly. It doesn’t tackle some of the primary problems leaseholders face. A lot of promises have been made that have not been delivered, in some cases thankfully, because they would have caused so much damage to the leasehold system. There will be future leasehold reform, but hopefully it will be considered more comprehensively and more collegiately.”

Labour MP Matthew Pennycook, shadow minister for housing and planning, was also critical of the Act and said on X it would only provide “limited relief” to leaseholders.

As such, Pennycook said the issue would continue to be a target of reform under a Labour government if successful in the July general election.

He posted on X: “The Tories’ decision to cave in to vested interests and abandon the Renters Reform Bill leaves in tatters the promises they made to private tenants five years ago.

“Labour will pass renters reform legislation that levels decisively the playing field between landlords and tenants.”