Will my flat convert automatically? (FAQ)

Will my leasehold flat automatically become commonhold?

No. Nothing in the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill converts existing leasehold flats to commonhold automatically. Baker McKenzie's analysis of the draft Bill is explicit on this point: "existing leasehold flats will remain unaffected by the draft Bill's proposals, even where the lease is subsequently varied or extended" (Baker McKenzie). If you own a leasehold flat today, you go on being a leaseholder, with your lease, your ground rent (subject to the proposed cap — see our separate explainer) and your existing service charge arrangements, unless you and enough of your fellow leaseholders take active steps to convert.

So how would conversion actually happen?

Under the draft Bill, conversion is built around a route based on the existing enfranchisement framework — the same broad legal mechanism leaseholders already use to buy their freehold collectively (Gowling WLG). In practice this means:

1. A group of qualifying leaseholders in the building — leaseholders whose lease was originally granted for a term of more than 21 years — would need to organise, typically the leaseholders who already act together through an existing Right to Manage (RTM) company or who come together for this purpose.
2. That group would need to reach the required threshold of support. Under the draft Bill, the Housing Minister has stated that conversion will be possible "if at least 50% of qualifying leaseholders agree" — a lower bar than the unanimous consent that effectively blocked conversions under the original 2002 Act (Housing Minister speech, GOV.UK, 29 April 2026; Macfarlanes).
3. The group would need to go through a collective enfranchisement-style process — legally acquiring the freehold interest, at a valuation, before it converts into a commonhold association structure. Macfarlanes describes this as: "under the Draft Bill, existing leases will need to undergo collective enfranchisement before converting to commonhold" (Macfarlanes).
4. The freeholder would be entitled to compensation for the value of the interest being acquired — the same principle that applies to existing collective enfranchisement (buying the freehold) today, calculated under (as amended) enfranchisement valuation rules. Full technical detail on how this compensation will be calculated once the Bill becomes law is still to be finalised, and the government is separately working through valuation-rate consultations that affect enfranchisement pricing more broadly (GOV.UK). That consultation has itself been delayed by legal challenges from freeholder groups: the High Court dismissed a set of challenges to the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 on 24 October 2025, though the Court of Appeal subsequently gave five groups of freeholders permission to appeal, leaving the valuation-rate consultation still pending as of mid-2026 (Commons Library).

Note that this 50% "qualifying leaseholder" conversion threshold is different from the existing Right to Manage rules on non-residential floorspace, which separately allow buildings with up to 50% commercial floorspace to qualify for RTM at all (Charles Russell Speechlys) — the two "50%" figures address different questions and shouldn't be confused.

Do I need an existing RTM company to convert?

Not necessarily as a strict legal precondition, but in practice a building that already has an RTM company or an active Resident Management Company (RMC) is likely to be much better placed to organise a conversion, because the leaseholders are already coordinated, have an existing corporate structure, and are used to running collective decisions. The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee's May 2026 report went further, recommending that where leaseholders collectively buy their freehold, converting to commonhold should become the default outcome rather than an optional extra — though this is a committee recommendation, not yet government policy or law (Gowling WLG).

Don't have an RTM company yet? Check your Right to Manage eligibility here →

Which flats will be affected first?

New-build flats, not existing ones, are the primary and most immediate target of this reform programme. The government intends to ban the sale of most new long leasehold flats so that commonhold becomes the default tenure buyers are offered when purchasing a newly built or newly converted flat (GOV.UK). This mirrors the existing ban on new leasehold houses, already in force. For existing leasehold flats, conversion remains a choice for current owners to pursue collectively — it is not compulsory and there is no default switch-over date.

A dedicated consultation on the mechanics of the ban ran from 27 January to 24 April 2026. It set out five categories of "new" flat development the ban is meant to catch: purpose-built new developments, houses newly converted into flats, commercial buildings redeveloped to include flats, purpose-built rental blocks later sold on, and other buildings with no existing registered long leases that are refurbished and resold. Existing leasehold flats, Build-to-Rent and social-rent blocks (for as long as they stay purely rented), and entirely commercial buildings would sit outside the ban. The consultation proposes defining a "long lease" for these purposes as one originally granted for a term of over 21 years — the same threshold already used for the existing ban on new leasehold houses — and would exclude assured tenancies in England and occupational contracts in Wales (GOV.UK).

Timing-wise, the Housing Minister has said the ban on new leasehold flats is "highly unlikely" to come into force before the next general election, given the complexity of the trade-offs involved with housing supply (Macfarlanes).

How would the ban actually be enforced?

The government's proposed enforcement model mirrors the one already used for the existing ban on new leasehold houses. A developer or seller would have to give the buyer and their solicitor a prescribed Warning Notice at least seven days before exchange of contracts, and register a Prescribed Statement of compliance with HM Land Registry when the sale completes — failing to do so would trigger a restriction on the property's title, making it harder to sell or mortgage. Where a flat is mis-sold in breach of the ban, proposed leaseholder remedies include the right to obtain the commonhold unit at no cost, with financial penalties scaled to the harm caused and enforcement led by an authority appointed by the Secretary of State (GOV.UK). None of this is in force yet: the ban itself won't commence until the wider commonhold framework and supporting regulations are in place, and the government is still consulting on whether to switch it on for all new flats on a single date or phase it in, and on how long developments already under construction should be given to complete under the old rules.

What's the current status, and when could conversion actually be possible?

None of this is law yet. The draft Bill was published for pre-legislative scrutiny on 27 January 2026; the House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Committee published its scrutiny report on 27 May 2026; and the government's formal response, due within two months (27 July 2026), has been delayed. The Housing Minister confirmed the delay in a letter to the Committee on 10 July 2026, attributing it to "the announcement made by the Prime Minister on 22 June that he was resigning as Prime Minister... and the associated constraints on government business" ahead of summer recess (Macfarlanes). The Bill is expected to be formally introduced to Parliament in autumn 2026, with the Committee recommending Second Reading before the November 2026 recess and Royal Assent by mid-2027 — though this is the Committee's suggested timetable, not a government-confirmed date (gowlingwlg.com). Even after Royal Assent, the reformed commonhold conversion model is only expected to be "available" before the end of this Parliament (by 2029) — meaning existing leaseholders are unlikely to be able to use the new conversion route for some time yet (Housing Minister speech, GOV.UK, 29 April 2026).

Does any of this apply in Scotland?

No. This reform package, including the conversion route described above, applies to England and Wales only. Scotland has a different tenure system: most flats are owned outright as heritable title, with shared-building obligations governed separately under the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004, not the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform framework.