Free guide · Updated July 2026 · 7 min read
Leasehold: the questions to ask before you offer on a flat
The short answer
Before offering on any leasehold property, ask five things: years left on the lease (walk carefully below 90, expensively below 80), the ground rent and whether it escalates, the service charge with three years of accounts, any planned major works, and who manages the building and how responsive they are. Each answer moves the price.
Lease length: the 80-year cliff edge
Below roughly 80 years remaining, extending the lease becomes dramatically more expensive (the dreaded 'marriage value') and many lenders hesitate or refuse. At 85 years you're fine but should price in an extension soon; at 82 you're negotiating hard; below 80 you're either getting a serious discount or walking away.
Ask the agent the exact remaining term in writing, and verify it in the title early. 'About 90 years' has a way of becoming 81 when the paperwork arrives.
Ground rent: read the escalation clause
New leases (since June 2022) carry zero ground rent, but older leases vary from a peppercorn to genuinely toxic doubling clauses. Ground rent that doubles every 10 or 15 years made flats unsellable in the 2010s scandal, and lenders now check. Ask: what is it today, and what does the lease say it becomes?
Service charges: the accounts don't lie
The number that matters isn't this year's service charge; it's the trend and the reserve fund. Ask for three years of service charge accounts and the current reserve fund balance.
- ✓Rising sharply year on year: the building is deteriorating or the managers are poor, either way you're paying
- ✓A healthy reserve (sinking) fund: repairs are planned and funded; a near-empty one means the roof is one letter away from a five-figure demand
- ✓Ask directly: are any major works planned or consulted on? A Section 20 notice after completion is your bill, not the seller's
The management question nobody asks
Who manages the building, and are they any good? A slow or hostile managing agent makes everything worse: repairs, disputes, and critically your own sale later, because their LPE1 management pack is the single most common cause of leasehold conveyancing delay. Ask the seller how long the pack took when they bought, and knock on a neighbour's door and ask what the management is like. Five minutes of doorstep honesty beats any brochure.
The quick checklist
- ✓Exact years remaining on the lease, in writing
- ✓Ground rent now, and the escalation clause verbatim
- ✓Service charge for the last three years, plus reserve fund balance
- ✓Any planned or consulted major works (Section 20)
- ✓Building insurance: who arranges it and what it costs through the service charge
- ✓Cladding and external wall status for blocks: ask about EWS1 or the building's remediation position
- ✓Lease restrictions that affect your life: pets, subletting, alterations, wooden floors
- ✓Who the freeholder and managing agent are, and the neighbour's verdict on them
Quick answers
Is it bad to buy a flat with an 85-year lease?
It's buyable but plan the extension now: at 85 years you have a five-year window before the 80-year threshold makes extending significantly more expensive. Price the extension into your offer (commonly £5,000 to £15,000 plus fees for typical flats) and start the process soon after completing.
What is a Section 20 notice?
The formal consultation a freeholder must run before major works costing any leaseholder more than £250. If one is in progress or looming when you buy, the bill lands on whoever owns the flat when the demand arrives. Always ask, in writing, whether any works are planned or consulted on.
Why does leasehold conveyancing take longer?
Mostly one document: the management pack (LPE1) that freeholders and managing agents must provide, which routinely takes weeks and sometimes months. Leasehold purchases average around 155 days of conveyancing against 97 for freehold. Sellers can compress this by ordering the pack the day they list.
Put this guide to work
General information for England & Wales, not financial or legal advice. Costs are typical 2026 ranges and vary by region and circumstances.