--- title: "Leasehold Reform, Commonhold and the Future of Building Management: What It Means for You" url: https://manage.management/blog/lafra-by-rics-podcast-jan-2025 description: "Lessons from the RICS Legal Landscapes podcast on the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, commonhold and the future of building management." author: "Franklin Baeza" published: 2026-02-11T00:25:00.000Z updated: 2026-10-29T12:30:10Z categories: ["Leasehold Reform","Opinion"] publisher: Manage.Management language: en-GB --- # Leasehold Reform, Commonhold and the Future of Building Management: What It Means for You Lessons from the RICS Legal Landscapes podcast on the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, commonhold and the future of building management. Leasehold in England and Wales is changing fast and with it, the expectations on everyone involved in running residential buildings. For RTM/RMC directors, leaseholders and progressive managing agents, the recent RICS “Legal Landscapes” podcast on the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (LAFRA) and commonhold offered a clear message: more rights, more transparency and more responsibility. ## Key takeaways - The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 gives leaseholders more rights and puts more pressure on landlords and agents to follow process. - Some parts are already in force, including easier Right to Manage for mixed-use buildings; the valuation reforms are not yet commenced. - Service charge and insurance transparency is becoming a legal expectation, not a courtesy. - Commonhold removes the landlord but not the hard work: people, conflict and trust still decide whether a building runs well. Manage.Management exists to make that shift not just survivable, but genuinely better for communities. ## LAFRA: more power to leaseholders, more pressure on process LAFRA is described in the episode as one of the most significant shake‑ups of leasehold law in decades. Among the headline changes are: - 990‑year lease extensions for houses and flats at a peppercorn ground rent, replacing the previous 90‑year (flats) and 50‑year (houses) model. - Removal of the old “two‑year ownership” rule before a leaseholder can start a lease extension or buy their freehold. - Abolition of marriage value (when commenced) and a shift towards each side paying their own legal and valuation costs, rather than leaseholders routinely funding the landlord’s team. - A higher non-residential floor space limit (from 25% to 50%) for the Right to Manage, in force since 3 March 2025, with the same change for collective enfranchisement legislated but not yet in force, opening the door for more mixed‑use blocks to take control. For residents, this means more opportunity to extend leases, enfranchise and exercise RTM. For directors and managing agents, it means more buildings run by resident‑led entities that must be demonstrably fair, transparent and compliant. Manage.Management’s mission is to be the operating system for residential buildings starting with the UK’s 5 million leaseholders and is directly aligned with this shift. ## Service charges and insurance: transparency is no longer optional Service charges and insurance were repeatedly identified as the flashpoint for mistrust. The episode highlights: - Politicisation of service charges, with rising costs often portrayed as “rip‑offs” even when driven by insurance and utilities. - LAFRA’s move towards clear, standardised, easy‑to‑read service charge statements to help leaseholders see what they are paying for and challenge unreasonable items. - A crackdown on opaque insurance commissions: large, hidden commissions are to be replaced with transparent and reasonable handling fees. This is exactly where Manage.Management is focused on delivering value: - **Financial clarity for every flat.** Our platform is designed to give homeowners a clear, itemised view of building finances – from headline budgets down to invoice‑level detail – so “mystery costs” become a thing of the past. - **Service charge workflows built for the new rules.** By structuring budgets, actuals and approvals around standard templates, we make it easier for managing agents and RTM/RMC directors to meet the emerging LAFRA standard without drowning in spreadsheets. - **Insurance transparency by default.** With documents and charges in one place, it becomes simple to show residents the premium, the fee and the justification reducing conflict and building trust. In a world where regulators, journalists and campaigners are laser‑focused on service charge practices, having a digital system of record is no longer a nice‑to‑have it is risk management. ## Commonhold: a “utopia” or just a new kind of complexity? The podcast explores whether commonhold will finally move from theory to mainstream reality. Legally, commonhold promises: - Freehold ownership of individual units rather than wasting leases. - No ground rent and no external landlord; instead, a commonhold association owned and controlled by unit owners manages the building. Yet the guests also underline why commonhold has barely been adopted to date: - Lenders are cautious due to limited case law and uncertainty around protections. - Developers have historically preferred the predictable income streams of leasehold. - Without strong governance, a commonhold association is just a group of neighbours trying to manage a complex asset together. Crucially, they warn against treating commonhold as a magical fix. If a roof is broken, it still needs to be paid for, whether the tenure is leasehold or commonhold. For Manage.Management, this is a confirmation, not a concern: - Our platform is tenure‑agnostic by design. Whether a building is managed under traditional leasehold, RTM/RMC structures or future commonhold models, it still needs structured governance, clear financials and coordinated maintenance. - The same tools: digital voting, AGM management, document storage, transparent service charge accounting and contractor marketplaces – are just as critical in a commonhold association as in an RTM company. As government progresses towards a new commonhold framework, Manage.Management aims to be the operational backbone that gives lenders, residents and professionals confidence that “self‑governed” buildings can actually run well. ## The real challenge: people, conflict and trust One of the most striking themes in the episode is that law and structure are only part of the story. Even with better legislation, many issues in blocks come down to: - A small group of highly engaged residents versus a silent sceptical majority. - Director‑to‑leaseholder and leaseholder‑to‑leaseholder conflict over priorities, spending and perceived fairness. - Difficulty handing over data cleanly when buildings change managing agents. Manage.Management is built precisely to tackle this friction: - **Community‑led, not agent‑only.** Our product is designed for RTM/RMC directors, self‑managed blocks and modern managing agents alike – giving everyone access to the same source of truth. - **Structured communication, not inbox chaos.** Issues, votes, documents and decisions all live in one platform, with clear histories and audit trails, reducing misunderstanding and he‑said‑she‑said disputes. - **Smoother transitions between managers.** Because data is standardised and centralised, switching agents no longer has to mean losing visibility or starting from scratch with new systems. In other words, Manage.Management does not just respond to regulation – it rebuilds the trust that regulation is trying to enforce from the outside. ## Where Manage.Management goes from here The RICS Legal Landscapes discussion confirms that the direction of travel is clear: more leaseholder rights, more self‑management, more scrutiny and more demand for transparent, digital‑first building operations. Manage.Management is positioning itself to: - Support modern managing agents in rolling out compliant, resident‑friendly processes at portfolio scale. - Empower RTM and RMC directors to meet their growing legal obligations without becoming full‑time administrators. - Offer leaseholders a genuine sense of involvement and oversight, rather than just another “portal” they rarely log into. As LAFRA phases in and commonhold moves from consultation to implementation, we will continue to refine our governance, finance and services modules so that buildings using Manage.Management are not just compliant, they are communities that work. If you are an RTM/RMC director, a leaseholder thinking about taking control, or a managing agent looking to modernise ahead of these reforms, Manage.Management is being built with you and this new legal landscape front of mind. Last reviewed: 29 October 2026 by Franklin Baeza, Manage.Management. This article is general information for England and Wales, not legal advice. Check the current position with a qualified adviser before acting. --- Source: [Leasehold Reform, Commonhold and the Future of Building Management: What It Means for You](https://manage.management/blog/lafra-by-rics-podcast-jan-2025) on the Manage.Management blog.