Our service charge went up again this year. The managing agent took six weeks to answer a simple question. Then someone put "buy the freehold" in the group chat and half the building treated it like a threat.
It is a statutory right. We do not need the freeholder's permission, or to prove they have done anything wrong. What we do need is a building that qualifies, enough neighbours who will actually pay, and a clear head about timing.
Collective enfranchisement is how we buy the freehold together. Most of the advice online about waiting for the 2024 Act is out of date, and some of it is simply mixing up two different rights.
What we are actually buying
Under Chapter I of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, qualifying leaseholders can force the purchase of the freehold as a group. We usually do it through a company set up for the job. That company becomes the landlord.
The practical change is control. We decide who manages the building, what gets spent, and who insures it. We can also grant ourselves long lease extensions afterwards without paying a premium to somebody else.
It is not the Right to Manage. RTM (the right to take over management without buying the building) is cheaper and quicker, and it leaves the freeholder in place as owner. Buying the freehold costs more and takes longer, but it also deals with lease length and ground rent.
If control of the agent is the only problem, the Right to Manage may get us there faster. If we also want the leases sorted and the ground rent gone, we are in freehold-purchase territory.
Does our building qualify
Three tests in the 1993 Act decide it. The building must be self-contained, or a self-contained part of a larger one, meaning a vertical split that could be redeveloped on its own.
At least two flats must be held by qualifying tenants, meaning leases originally granted for more than 21 years. Those qualifying tenants must hold at least two thirds of the flats. We no longer have to wait two years after buying, because that rule ended on 31 January 2025.
The commercial floor test is the one that kills claims. If more than 25 per cent of the internal floor area is non-residential, we are out. Eight flats over two shops can fail on floor area even when the flats outnumber the shops.
Then we have to show up. Under section 13, the claim notice must come from qualifying tenants of at least half the flats. In a ten-flat block that is five of us, committed and paying, before anything is served.
Why the 2024 Act does not help us yet
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 looks generous on paper. It removes marriage value, the extra premium payable once a lease drops below 80 years. It also lifts the non-residential limit from 25 per cent to 50 per cent, which would bring many mixed-use blocks into scope, and it changes who pays the professional costs.
None of that is in force for a freehold purchase. The government is still consulting on the valuation rates (that consultation closes on 23 September 2026), and it has said secondary legislation plus a further Bill are needed first. There is still no commencement date.
This is where people get caught. Parts of the same Act did start. The Right to Manage changes, including the 50 per cent mixed-use limit for RTM claims, came in on 3 March 2025.
Accurate articles quoting 50 per cent are talking about management, not about buying the freehold. If we serve a claim notice tomorrow, the 1993 Act still applies. Marriage value is still payable and the shops test is still 25 per cent.
Our guide to the 2026 leasehold reforms sets out what has actually commenced. Collective enfranchisement still runs on the old tests until the rest of the Act is switched on.
Should we wait
It depends on the leases, not on the headlines.
If our leases are comfortably above 80 years, marriage value is not in the price anyway. Waiting then mainly helps if we have a lot of commercial space and need that 50 per cent cap. For a fully residential block with long leases, waiting buys us little.
If the leases are near or below 80 years, the sums change. Marriage value can add tens of thousands to the premium, and knocking it out is the biggest saving in the Act.
Against that, every year we wait the lease gets shorter and today's premium goes up. Waiting is a bet on a timetable nobody has signed. We would get two numbers from a surveyor, one under current rules and one without marriage value, then decide whether the gap is worth the delay.
What we would do in the next fortnight
Start with a headcount. How many flats, how many long leases, and can we realistically get half of them to participate and pay. If that number is a stretch in the group chat, the claim is already in trouble.
Then measure the commercial space. If we are anywhere near 25 per cent of internal floor area, we would pay a surveyor to measure it properly before we spend money on solicitors. That one figure has ended more claims than any argument about the law.
Get the two valuations. Talk to neighbours about the money before anyone instructs a solicitor. Claims fall over on who will pay far more often than they fall over on the statute.
Keeping a shared record of who has committed and paid is the same discipline running a building as a group needs from day one. That is why we built Freehold.Pro.
Do not serve a notice until those three things are on paper. A badly prepared claim is expensive to unwind, and the freeholder is not required to be kind about it.
Questions we keep getting
How many of us need to join the purchase
For collective enfranchisement, qualifying tenants of at least half the flats must join the claim under section 13 of the 1993 Act. In a ten-flat block that is five people. Separately, qualifying tenants must hold at least two thirds of the flats for the building to be eligible at all.
Has marriage value been abolished
Not yet. The 2024 Act provides for its removal, but those provisions are not in force. As of August 2026 the valuation changes still need the rates consultation, secondary legislation, and further primary legislation.
Can we buy if there are shops on the ground floor
Only if the non-residential parts are 25 per cent or less of the internal floor area. Above that, section 4 of the 1993 Act shuts us out. The 2024 Act raises this to 50 per cent, but that change is not yet in force for a freehold purchase.
Is buying the freehold better than the Right to Manage
They solve different problems. RTM gives us management control without buying anything, and it is cheaper and faster. Buying the freehold costs more, but it also lets us deal with lease lengths and ground rent, because we become the freeholder.