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The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 is shaking up the rules for renting homes in England. Starting from 1 May, 2026, the law will change how renting works, aiming to make things fairer and clearer for everyone involved - landlords, tenants, and property managers. Specialist conveyancing solicitor Talat Naveed explains what’s new.
Thinking about remortgaging, transferring a property to joint names, moving home, extending your lease, taking up right to buy and right to acquire, staircasing or equity release next year? Solicitor Martin Whitehorn highlights a few key considerations for 7 of the New Year’s resolutions that homeowners may be making for 2023.
The property industry has come together working as the Home Buying and Selling Group (made up of property lawyers, solicitors, removals, surveyors and estate agents) to publish The Home Buying and Selling Pledge. This sets out ways the industry can work with buyers and sellers to ensure that moves progress as quickly and smoothly as possible in challenging times.
Julie West Solicitors is a member of ALEP (Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners) and has the expertise to assist with leasehold work.
Formed in 2007 and now with 249+ member organisations, ALEP is a not-for-profit association that brings together barristers, managing agents, project managers, solicitors and surveyors working in the residential leasehold sector.
ALEP promotes best practice by vetting organisations and individual practitioners to ensure they have significant expertise in leasehold enfranchisement.
Membership of ALEP acts as a badge of assurance so that flat owners and freeholders can be confident that they are employing professionals with the right level of experience in handling potentially complex transactions.
Extending the term and/or reducing or removing ground rent paid for your leasehold property will increase value and saleability. There are two routes to lease extension - statutory or voluntary - but which one is better? We’re expert solicitors and we can help you with your lease extension, even during lockdown!
Buying a property on a private estate should give you control over shared spaces, limits on building/noise/use, plus shared services and maintenance. However, these schemes are complex and title defects with individual properties damagethe value of the whole.
Terms were agreed and all seemed straightforward. But we discovered that the original transfer deed omitted to grant a right of way over the private road. Then we found that all the original transfers for the estate were defective. Our solicitors had to contact the original developer to organise a deed of variation. The seller imposed an impossible deadline and this could only be achieved if we took the initiative and drafted the documents.
Managing agents employed by the estate supplied inaccurate and misleading information, and imposed requirements for documentation that our deeper investigation showed to be wholly unnecessary.
What’s more, a restriction on the title required third party consent before we could register change of ownership at Land Registry. That third party was a company intended to manage the estate and a SUDS - sustainable urban drainage system. This company was unresponsive for weeks.
Our solicitors has to make a case to Land Registry for the restriction to be disapplied due to inactivity on the part of the company.
Julie West
Founder, 30+ years qualified property solicitor
Our clients were able to meet the deadline and secure the property because our solicitors cracked on with tackling every legal issue.
We also cured a serious title defect that would otherwise have caused major problems with a future sale or mortgage.
“We are in and very happy! I just wanted to thank you for making a potentially stressful process really as painless as it can be!”
SDLT is a tax you pay on completion of your purchase of a property (whether freehold, leasehold or transfer of part).
SDLT is calculated in percentage bands on the value of the property above the threshold of £125,000 for residential properties.
Standard rates for those who have bought a home before or who will not qualify for first time buyer rates are as follows:
Tax on value up to £125,000 = zero
Tax on value £125,001 to £250,000 = 2%
Tax on value £250,001 to £925,000 = 5%
Tax on value £925,001 to £1.5 million = 10%
Tax on remaining amount above £1.5 million = 12%
What are the new rates for first time buyers?
You will qualify for SDLT relief if you are buying your first home, you complete your purchase on or after 22 November 2017 and the value of the property you are buying is less than £500,000.
Tax on value of property up to £300,000 = zero
Tax on value of property £300,001 to £500,000 = 5%
This means first time buyers that complete their purchase from today will qualify for an SDLT saving of up to £5,000.
Emma West - solicitor, operations and strategy
“As a solicitor acting for many first time buyers, as well as having experienced being a first time buyer myself, this is great news. First time buyers are under immense pressure to find cash to cover their deposit, legal fees and moving costs. When you have spent time budgeting, saving and counting each penny - every little helps!
This initiative from the government, as well as others such as lenders favouring cash back over “free legals”, will free up cash for first time buyers to invest in quality legal advice that will ease the process of buying and protect their investment for the future.”
Use the HM Revenue and Customs calculator to calculate your SDLT saving: https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/calculate-stamp-duty-land-tax/#/intro
Sometimes leaseholders buy the freehold from their landlord. We have experience of acting for both leaseholders and landlord in this situation. We have a detailed knowledge of the law as well as the ability to manage a major project.
In one case involving 6 flats built over commercial premises we got involved because the landlord wanted to dispose of the freehold and the leaseholders had a statutory right to acquire it. A landlord that disposes of the freehold must comply with a statutory procedure.
In another case a majority of leaseholders called on the landlord to sell its freehold interest to them. The leaseholders collectively engaged JWS to acquire the freehold on their behalf. This involved initial advice, preparing and serving the required notices, preparing the transfer documentation, and using an existing residents’ owned management company to buy the freehold interest.
In a third example a handful of leaseholders whose own leases derived from an intermediate head lease combined to buy the freehold reversion by private negotiation from the original builder. Leaseholders were not all in a position to participate in buying the freehold. We needed to devise a means for future leaseholders to buy into the freehold at a later date.
Whether acting for the freeholder or one of numerous leaseholders, we investigated the legal position, analysed the facts and applied the law. Paying attention to detail we identified and observed important timeframes so that no rights were lost.
Individual leaseholders that took a lead role in these procedures valued the fact that we are local, so that consultations could easily be arranged to iron out the details and ensure smooth progression.
We managed the costs, a major aspect of the job, as well as holding the leaseholders’ financial contributions in a secure client account.
Julie West
Founder, 30+ years qualified property solicitor
Freeholder complied with the procedures for notifying qualifying leaseholders of a proposed sale and completed the sale of the freehold confident in the knowledge that the transaction could be challenged. With our help the transaction was secure.
With our expert guidance leaseholders seized the opportunity presented by the freeholder giving notice of an intended sale to exercise their right to buy the freehold, thereby taking control and becoming able to manage their development themselves.
Leaseholders found themselves in a position to waive or even terminate ground rent provisions in their leases. More importantly the leaseholders acting collectively were in a position to agree to extend their leases, thereby eliminating the risk of having to shell out wads of cash in the future for a lease extension.
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