From 1 April 2027 leaseholders can ask for more detail on service charges and challenge them without risking the landlord's legal bill. Updated November 2026.

Leaseholders will be able to demand more information about their service charges from 1 April 2027, and challenge costs they think are unfair without automatically risking their landlord’s legal bill.

A second set of changes follows on 1 November 2027, when landlords will have to send clearer information about building insurance, administration fees and service charges as standard. The Government set out the dates in an explainer published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 11 November, which says around 3 million leaseholders in England pay service charges.

Andrew Cooper, the Labour MP for Mid Cheshire, has welcomed the changes. He sits on the House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Leasehold and Commonhold Reform, and his office says he helped scrutinise the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, taking evidence from leaseholders, campaigners, freeholders and industry representatives and questioning the Housing Minister and officials.

What changes on 1 April 2027

According to the ministry’s explainer, leaseholders will be able to:

  • ask for more information about service charges, including information going back further in time, and landlords will need stronger grounds to refuse it;
  • challenge charges without automatically footing the landlord’s legal bills, and apply to recover their own legal costs in appropriate cases.

What changes on 1 November 2027

  • Leaseholders will automatically get clearer information about building insurance costs, administration fees and service charges.
  • Private landlords will have to send simpler, standardised service charge demands, financial accounts and annual reports.
  • Council and housing association leaseholders get the insurance and administration charge changes on the same date. The standardised demands, accounts and annual reports reach them a year later, on 1 November 2028.

The reforms do not cap service charges. The ministry says buildings still have to be maintained, repaired and insured, but leaseholders will have more evidence and a fairer route to challenge costs that are unreasonable.

“There is more work to be done”

Mr Cooper said:

“I am so pleased that tangible changes are coming into law to greater protect leaseholders.

“In the House of Commons I have directly challenged the justifications for paying ground rent, asked what a leaseholder receives in exchange for it.

“I’ve challenged arguments made against these reforms and questioned why leaseholders should have to wait decades before ground rents are ultimately reduced to a peppercorn.”

He added:

“I’ve also previously pressed the Housing Minister and officials on giving homeowners greater control over the management of their properties and the position of homeowners on privately managed estates.

“I have highlighted problems caused by multiplying ground rents, opaque service charges, management companies which homeowners cannot change, overpriced maintenance, short leases and excessive lease-extension costs.

“These reforms are good news for leaseholders but the wider shake-up of leasehold does not stop here; there is more work to be done.”

Ground rent cap and commonhold to follow

The Prime Minister has pledged to introduce the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill in Parliament before Christmas. The ministry says it will include the plans already announced to:

  • cap existing ground rents at £250 a year;
  • make it easier for existing leaseholders to move to commonhold;
  • make the revised commonhold model the default for most new flats.

Commonhold means owning the freehold of your flat and having a greater say, with the other owners, over how the building is run.

What it means for you

  • If you own a flat on a lease, nothing changes yet. The new rights to information and the protection on legal costs start on 1 April 2027.
  • If you are unhappy with a service charge now, keep your demands, accounts and correspondence: from April you will be able to ask for more of the detail behind them.
  • If you pay ground rent, the £250 cap is a plan for the Bill due before Christmas, not yet law.
  • Leaseholders in Mid Cheshire who want to raise a problem with their MP can contact Mr Cooper’s office through andrewcooper.net or at Unit 23 Meridian House, Road One Industrial Estate, Winsford CW7 3QG.