How do I read a lease?
Residential leases follow a broadly common structure, though the drafting varies with the age of the lease and the block. The particulars at the front set out the parties, the property, the term and the rent. The demise describes exactly what is let, often the internal surfaces of the flat, sometimes the structure as well, and defines who is responsible for what. Schedules set out the rights the flat enjoys, the rights reserved to the landlord, the leaseholder's covenants, the landlord's covenants and the service charge machinery.
The table sets out the parts of the lease you will most often need to find and what each one decides. Where the lease has been varied, the variation takes precedence over the original wording, and the two must be read together.
| Part of the lease | What it says | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Particulars and parties | The landlord, the original tenant, the property and the date of the lease | Identifies the document and the block; the original tenant is rarely the current owner |
| Term and commencement date | The length of the lease and the date it runs from | Years remaining are counted from this date, not from any later sale |
| Demise | Exactly what is let: internal surfaces only, or walls, floors and windows too | Decides who repairs what, and whether windows are yours to replace |
| Rights granted | Access, services, use of common parts, parking, storage | What you may use beyond the front door |
| Rights reserved | The landlord's rights to enter, to run services, to build | Access for works, and what the landlord may do around you |
| Ground rent and review | The annual rent and how, if at all, it increases | A doubling clause or an escalating rent affects lenders and buyers |
| Service charge | The proportion payable, what it covers, how it is demanded, any reserve fund | An uncapped share with no sinking fund leaves you exposed to a major works bill |
| Leaseholder's covenants | Pets, subletting, alterations, flooring, business use, nuisance | What you may and may not do, and what needs the landlord's consent |
| Landlord's covenants | To insure, to repair the structure and common parts, to enforce against other leaseholders | What you can require the landlord to do, and at whose cost |
| Forfeiture and re-entry | The landlord's right to end the lease for breach | Rarely exercised, subject to statutory protection, but a real threat |
How many years are left on my lease, and does it matter?
Find the term and the commencement date at the front of the lease, add them together, and subtract today's date. A lease granted for 125 years from 1 January 1990 has the years remaining that arithmetic gives, whatever the flat sold for or when. The figure matters because lenders set minimum unexpired terms at completion, and because the cost of extending rises as the term falls.
Eighty years has been the line that mattered: below it, marriage value formed part of the premium and extension became sharply more expensive. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 provides for marriage value to be abolished and the two-year ownership requirement has already gone, but the valuation provisions depend on commencement and on the rates the Government sets (section 27 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, in force 31 January 2025, checked 19 September 2026). The lease extension page explains the process.
Can a lease be changed?
Usually only by agreement with the landlord, recorded in a deed of variation, which is not itself a registrable disposition but is entered on the register by alteration of both titles or noted against the landlord's title (HM Land Registry Practice Guide 68, updated 1 June 2026). In limited circumstances a party can apply to the tribunal under Part IV of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, either on the ground that the lease fails to make satisfactory provision for repair or maintenance, insurance, installations, services, the recovery of expenditure or the computation of a service charge, or, where several leases from the same landlord need the same change, with the consent of the required majority of the parties. The tribunal is the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) in England and a leasehold valuation tribunal in Wales (Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 sections 35 and 37, checked 20 September 2026). A statutory lease extension is itself a form of variation: the term is extended and the rent reduced to a peppercorn, on terms the statute sets.
What cannot be done is to ignore a clause because it is inconvenient. A covenant against hard flooring or subletting binds until it is varied or released, and a landlord who has tolerated a breach can usually still enforce it. Where a clause makes the flat unsaleable, a doubling ground rent is one example, the answer is a deed of variation negotiated with the landlord, and we quote for that once the lease has been read.