If you have read that leasehold reform has "happened", that marriage value is abolished, that lease extensions now run for 990 years, or that ground rents are capped at £250, you have read about provisions that are not yet law in operation. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024, and it does contain all of those changes. But an Act of Parliament and the law in force are two different things, and for this Act the gap between them is worth tens of thousands of pounds to anyone with a short lease. As at 21 August 2026, exactly three commencement regulations have been made under the Act. They bring the building-safety amendments, the abolition of the two-year ownership rule and the right to manage reforms into force. They do not touch marriage value, the 990-year term, the new valuation rates or the costs reforms, all of which remain on the statute book waiting for a start date that has never been set.
Every row of the table below cites the commencement regulation that brought the provision into force, or records that no such regulation exists, because the commencement SI register at legislation.gov.uk is the only evidence that settles the question. The Act's own text will not tell you, and neither will press coverage or a summary written in 2024. You can run the whole check yourself in minutes, so you never have to take anyone's word for it, including ours.
The in-force table, provision by provision
Last verified: 21 August 2026. The prescribed-rates consultation closes on 23 September 2026. If you are reading this after that date, re-run the check yourself using the method in the next section before relying on any row. The table covers all nine Parts of the Act, grouped by status rather than by Part number, so that the live provisions sit together at the top.
| Provision | Status | Since / evidence | What it means for you today |
|---|---|---|---|
| In force | |||
| Two-year ownership rule abolished (s.27) | IN FORCE | 31 Jan 2025, SI 2025/57 reg 2 | A buyer can start an extension or enfranchisement claim on completion day |
| Right to manage: non-residential limit raised from 25% to 50% (s.49) | IN FORCE | 3 Mar 2025, SI 2025/131 reg 2 | More mixed-use blocks qualify for RTM |
| Right to manage: freeholder's costs no longer payable (s.50) | IN FORCE | 3 Mar 2025, SI 2025/131 reg 2 | A clean RTM claim carries no freeholder-costs bill |
| Right to manage: tribunal first instance, obligations enforcement (ss.51-52, plus s.64 only as regards RTM) | IN FORCE | 3 Mar 2025, SI 2025/131 reg 2 | RTM disputes start in the tribunal at first instance |
| Building-safety amendments (ss.114-116; s.120 in part, Building Safety Act 2022 definition only) | IN FORCE | 31 Oct 2024, SI 2024/1018 reg 2 | The strengthened remediation-order machinery is live |
| Not in force | |||
| Ban on granting new leasehold houses (Part 1, ss.1-26) | NOT IN FORCE | No commencement SI; s.1 carries the note "not in force at Royal Assent, see s. 124(3)" | New long leases of houses can still be granted and assigned; the ban is enacted and waiting |
| Marriage value abolition (s.36 + Sch 4) | NOT IN FORCE | No commencement SI exists (register exhausted 21 Aug 2026); the 1993 Act Sch 13 repeal is annotated "yet to be applied" | Marriage value remains payable in full on every sub-80-year claim today |
| 990-year lease extensions (s.33) | NOT IN FORCE | No commencement SI | An extension completed today is your existing term plus 90 years at a peppercorn |
| Prescribed deferment and capitalisation rates (s.37 + Sch 4) | NOT IN FORCE | Requires secondary legislation; consultation closes 23 Sep 2026 | The post-Sportelli 5% deferment rate remains the working figure; new rates could move premiums either way |
| Extension and enfranchisement costs reform, repealing the 1993 Act s.60 (ss.38-39) | NOT IN FORCE | No commencement SI; the 1993 Act s.60 repeal is annotated "changes yet to be applied" | You still pay the freeholder's reasonable non-litigation costs on a s.42 claim |
| Service charges, administration charges and transparency (Part 4, ss.53-58) | NOT IN FORCE | No commencement SI; SI 2024/1018 commenced nothing from Part 4 | The Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the 2003 consultation regulations remain the operative regime |
| Insurance cost limitation and insurance information duty (LFRA 2024 ss.59-60, inserting LTA 1985 ss.20G to 20I) | NOT IN FORCE | No commencement SI; s.59 carries the note "not in force at Royal Assent, see s. 124(3)" | Insurance commission stays recoverable so far as the lease and the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 allow |
| Regulation of estate management, the estate-charge package (Part 5, ss.72-99) | NOT IN FORCE | No commencement SI; s.72 carries the note "not in force at Royal Assent, see s. 124(3)" | Estate charge payers on managed estates rely on their existing deed and the general law |
| Leasehold and estate management redress schemes (Part 6, ss.100-111) | NOT IN FORCE | No commencement SI; s.100 is marked prospective on legislation.gov.uk | No new statutory redress route yet; existing ombudsman and tribunal routes are unchanged |
| Rentcharges (Part 7, ss.112-113) | NOT IN FORCE | No commencement SI; s.112 carries the note "not in force at Royal Assent, see s. 124(3)" | The Rentcharges Act 1977 position is unchanged |
| Not in this Act at all | |||
| £250 ground rent cap | DRAFT ONLY | Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill (King's Speech, May 2026) | A Bill, not law; often misattributed to LFRA 2024 |
One numbering trap is worth flagging, because it catches professionals as well as leaseholders. Section 60 of the 2024 Act is the insurance information duty and is uncommenced. Section 60 of the 1993 Act is the leaseholder's liability for the freeholder's costs, is live, and is the provision the 2024 Act would repeal through sections 38 and 39. When a summary says "section 60 has gone", ask which Act.
Three states, then: in force, not in force, and not even in this Act. That last row matters because the £250 ground rent cap is routinely reported as part of the 2024 reforms when it belongs to a separate draft Bill that has not been passed. Our Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill page tracks that Bill, and our ground rent rules guide covers what governs ground rents today.
Two rows deserve a note because their absence from the news cycle is the opposite of their importance. The ban on new leasehold houses in Part 1 drew more coverage than any other provision of the Act and it has never been commenced, so a developer can still grant a long lease of a new house today. And the estate management package in Part 5, the one that would give owners on privately managed new-build estates the challenge rights that leaseholders already have over service charges, is uncommenced in its entirety. Neither is a technicality: they are the two reforms most often described in the past tense.
How to check for yourself: an Act is not the law in force
The confusion around this Act comes from one mechanism, and once you see it you can verify any provision in a few minutes. Section 124 of LFRA 2024 is the commencement section. Apart from a short list of provisions that started automatically, it says the Act's substantive parts come into force "on such day as the Secretary of State may by regulations appoint". Parliament passed the Act; the government decides, provision by provision, when each part starts. Until a commencement regulation names a section, that section sits on the statute book with no legal effect, however definitive the Act's own wording sounds.
The check has three steps:
- Find the commencement regulations. Search legislation.gov.uk for "Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (Commencement". Each commencement SI is numbered in sequence. As at 21 August 2026 the register contains exactly three: SI 2024/1018 (Commencement No. 1), SI 2025/57 (Commencement No. 2) and SI 2025/131 (Commencement No. 3). There is no Commencement No. 4.
- Read regulation 2 of each. Commencement SIs are short. Regulation 2 lists the sections commenced and the date. If the section you care about is not listed in any of them, it is not in force.
- Cross-check the amended Act. Open the provision that LFRA 2024 would change, for example section 60 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, on legislation.gov.uk. Prospective changes appear under "Changes and effects yet to be applied". If the repeal or amendment is still listed there, it has not happened.
Run those three steps for marriage value and the answer is unambiguous. Schedule 4 of LFRA 2024, the new valuation scheme that removes marriage value from the calculation, appears in none of the three commencement SIs, and the repeal of the 1993 Act's Schedule 13 valuation rules is still annotated as a change yet to be applied. The full Act text is at legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/22 if you want to read the provisions themselves; just remember that reading the Act tells you what the law will say once commenced, not what applies to a claim served this week.
The big three that are not in force
The money in this Act sits in three uncommenced provisions: marriage value, the 990-year term and the prescribed rates.
Marriage value: still payable in full
LFRA 2024 abolishes marriage value, but that provision is not yet in force; a claim made today still pays it. Marriage value is the uplift that enters the premium calculation once a lease drops below 80 years unexpired: the leaseholder must pay the freeholder half of the increase in combined value that the extension creates. On a sub-80-year flat it is frequently the largest single component of the premium, which is why the freeholders litigated and why the misreporting matters. If you delay serving a section 42 notice because you believe marriage value is gone, you are not saving that money; you are watching your lease shorten while the component you hoped to avoid keeps growing.
990-year extensions: today's term is plus 90
Section 33 replaces the current 90-year addition with a 990-year term. It is uncommenced. A statutory extension completed today under the 1993 Act gives you your existing unexpired term plus 90 years at a peppercorn ground rent. That is still transformative for most flats (78 years becomes 168), and the surrender-and-regrant mechanics, including the SDLT position, are covered in our surrender and regrant guide. But nobody extending in 2026 receives 990 years, and any quote or article that assumes it is describing a future regime.
Prescribed rates: the number that decides whether waiting pays
The new valuation scheme cannot start until the government prescribes the deferment and capitalisation rates used in the premium calculation, and those rates do not exist yet. The consultation on the rates opened on 15 July 2026 and closes on 23 September 2026, with secondary legislation still required afterwards. Until then, valuers keep using the deferment rate settled by the Sportelli line of cases, 5% for flats, as the working figure. Two things follow. First, no one can tell you when the valuation reforms commence: 2027-28 at the earliest is a realistic reading, and any precise date you see quoted has no legal source. Second, no one can tell you whether the new regime will make your premium cheaper. A prescribed deferment rate below 5% would push premiums upward, and the consultation deliberately leaves the level open. The reform package is routinely summarised as "extensions will get cheaper"; for any individual lease that is a prediction about an unset number.
What is in force, and what it changed
The commenced provisions are real improvements, and two of them change behaviour today.
The two-year rule is gone. Since 31 January 2025 a leaseholder no longer needs two years of ownership before claiming a statutory lease extension or enfranchisement. A buyer can serve notice on completion day. This kills the old contortion where a purchaser of a short-lease flat needed the seller to serve a section 42 notice and assign the benefit of it, because you can now claim in your own name straight after completion. If you are buying a short lease, the price negotiation should still reflect the extension cost you are inheriting, and our SDLT comparison of extending versus buying fresh works through the tax side of that choice.
The right to manage package is live. Since 3 March 2025, mixed-use buildings with up to 50% non-residential floor space can claim the right to manage (the old limit was 25%), RTM disputes start in the tribunal rather than the High Court, and, most valuably, the freeholder's costs of a clean RTM claim are no longer recoverable from the leaseholders. Our right to manage guide covers the process end to end.
The costs asymmetry is the proof that commencement is phased. A leaseholder group claiming the right to manage today pays nothing towards the freeholder's professional costs, because section 50 was commenced in March 2025. A leaseholder extending a lease today still pays the freeholder's reasonable non-litigation valuation and legal costs under section 60 of the 1993 Act, because sections 38 and 39, which would repeal section 60, appear in no commencement SI. Same Act, same Parliament, same freeholder, opposite costs outcomes, purely because one provision has a commencement regulation and the other does not. If a single fact persuades you to open the register before you trust a headline, make it this one. (One footnote: the new section 20J of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, inserted by section 64, was commenced only "as regards the right to manage", a carve-out written into regulation 2 of SI 2025/131 itself. Even individual sections can be part-commenced.)
The building-safety amendments came first. Sections 114 to 116 strengthened the remediation-order machinery in the Building Safety Act 2022 from 31 October 2024. They sit in a different world from enfranchisement and are covered in our Building Safety Act guide.
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Did the courts stop any of this?
No, and the litigation is worth understanding precisely because it changed nothing about commencement. A group of freehold investors challenged the Act's marriage-value abolition, ground-rent and costs provisions as an interference with their property rights under Article 1 Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In R (ARC Time Freehold Income Authorised Fund and others) v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2025] EWHC 2751 (Admin), the Divisional Court (Holgate LJ and Foxton J) dismissed the challenges on 24 October 2025. The freeholders have since been granted permission to appeal, and a second round in the Court of Appeal is pending.
Both of the popular readings of that judgment are wrong. The dismissal did not bring anything into force: commencement remains a governmental act under section 124, and the government made no commencement regulation in response to the October 2025 judgment. The pending appeal has not suspended anything either: the provisions already commenced (the two-year rule, RTM, building safety) continue to operate regardless. A court case about whether uncommenced provisions are lawful tells you nothing about when, or whether, they commence. If the government is waiting for litigation certainty before commencing the valuation package, that is a political choice rather than a legal requirement, and the only honest answer on timing stays the same: unknown.
Extend now or wait: the decision framework
The decision divides cleanly on your unexpired term.
Under 80 years: the clock is expensive. You are already paying marriage value, and every year that passes makes it worse twice over: the term shortens, which raises the premium on its own, and the marriage-value component grows as the lease decays. Waiting for abolition is a gamble that an uncommenced provision, with no start date, commences before the annual growth in your premium outweighs the hoped-for saving. It is also a gamble on the prescribed rates, which could offset part of the marriage-value saving even if abolition arrives. For most sub-80-year leaseholders, dated professional advice will price the wait explicitly, and it rarely flatters delay.
What is at stake. Dev owns a flat in Croydon with a long lease, currently at 78 years unexpired. On a sub-80-year lease, marriage value is commonly a quarter to a third of the whole statutory premium. That share is what the misreporting invites Dev to treat as money he has already saved, and it is not: a claim served today includes it in full. Nor is the share static. If he waits three years for a commencement that may not come, his term falls to 75 years, relativity falls with it, and the marriage-value slice grows in both absolute and proportionate terms, while the eventual prescribed rates could claw back part of any saving from the other direction. The build-up of the premium, component by component with the arithmetic shown, is the job of our lease extension cost guide, and you can put your own lease through our lease extension premium calculator. If you already own another property, note that an extension premium of £40,000 or more can attract the 5% additional-dwellings SDLT surcharge, which you can test on our stamp duty calculator.
Comfortably above 85 years: watching is cheap. No marriage value is at stake yet, the premium grows slowly at long unexpired terms, and the consultation outcome on 23 September 2026 will reveal a good deal about where the prescribed rates might land. The main risk of waiting is drifting towards the 80-year cliff through inattention: diarise your unexpired term and act well before it approaches 82-83 years, because the process itself takes months.
Between roughly 80 and 85 years: the uncomfortable middle. You are close enough to the cliff that a long commencement delay pushes you over it, but far enough that acting immediately forgoes any reform saving. This is the band where a priced comparison from a valuer, extend now versus projected cost at the cliff edge, earns its fee. Whichever way you lean, the choice between extending and buying the freehold outright is a separate decision with its own economics, worked through in our lease extension versus freehold purchase comparison, and a specialist solicitor runs the statutory process either way; our guide to what a lease extension solicitor does explains the moving parts.
What this means for RTM claims, recent buyers and service charge payers
Right to manage claimants are the clearest winners of the commenced reforms: a wider gateway for mixed-use blocks, tribunal-first dispute routing, and no liability for the freeholder's costs on a clean claim, all live since 3 March 2025. If your block has been putting off an RTM claim because of the old costs exposure, that reason has gone; start with our right to manage guide.
Buyers who have just completed on a short-lease flat can claim immediately, with no two-year wait and no notice-assignment gymnastics. The price you negotiated should already reflect the extension you are about to fund; serve the claim early rather than letting the term decay further, and price the full cost stack (premium, both sides' professional costs and any SDLT) before exchange.
Service charge payers should know that the transparency package in Part 4 (standardised demand forms, annual reports, stronger information rights) is wholly uncommenced: SI 2024/1018 explicitly commenced nothing from Part 4. Your rights today come from the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 regime, which is less generous but far from toothless; our service charge disputes guide covers how to challenge a demand under the rules in force.
Owners on privately managed estates are the group with least to show for the Act so far. The whole of Part 5 would have brought estate management charges under a challenge regime modelled on the leasehold one, with a code of practice and a route to the tribunal, and the redress schemes in Part 6 would have given a complaints route on top. Neither has a commencement regulation. Until they do, an estate rentcharge payer is governed by the deed they signed and by the general law, and the reform they may have read about does not yet exist in any usable form.
The honest one-line summary of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 in August 2026: the procedural reforms are law, the money reforms are not, and the commencement register settles every question the coverage confuses. If a lease extension, enfranchisement or RTM decision is on your desk, take advice from a specialist valuer and solicitor on the claim itself, and speak to a property tax adviser before you commit, because the SDLT, capital gains base-cost and ownership-structure consequences all turn on how and when you act under the rules in force today.