Seven journeys, mapped on one page. Service charge, Section 20 major works, demand validity, lease extension, forfeiture, take control, and director-side compliance. The lease sits in the middle of all of them.
Every leasehold dispute or compliance question lives on one of these seven lines. Each station is a legal step, statute, or document you might need to know about. Where lines meet (interchanges) is where the same rule applies in two places at once.
The annual cycle: budget set, demand issued (with the s.21B Summary of Rights), pay or challenge, year-end accounts, balancing charge, reserve fund. Where service charge disputes start. Service charge guide →
Stage 1 Notice of Intention. 30-day window for leaseholder nominations. Stage 2 Notice of Estimates. 30 days for observations. Stage 3 award. If the procedure slips, the freeholder loses recovery rights. Section 20 guide →
s.47 LTA 1987 (landlord name + address), s.48 (UK service-of-notice address), s.21B Summary of Rights, s.166 CLRA prescribed form for ground rent. If a demand fails any of these, it isn't payable until reissued. Demand anatomy guide →
Years remaining. The 80-year marriage-value zone. s.42 notice. Counter-notice. Premium negotiation. Tribunal valuation. Completion adds 90 years at peppercorn ground rent. Lease extension guide →
The freeholder's nuclear option. Breach identified, waiver risk, s.146 notice, time to remedy, Court or FTT determination of breach, relief from forfeiture, mortgagee protection. Fast and dangerous if procedure is right. Easy to defend if it isn't. Demands and forfeiture guide →
RTM qualifying conditions, RTM company formation, s.79 notice and counter-notice, FTT if disputed, right vests. Or s.13 collective enfranchisement. Or commonhold conversion (LRFA 2024). The leaseholder-led routes. Take control guide →
Higher-Risk Building registration, BSA leaseholder protection certificate, EWS1, Building Safety Levy, Fire Risk Assessment, EICR, Asbestos register, cladding remediation. Statutory duties on the freeholder/director side, often life-safety. Director compliance audit →
One side — the freeholder, the managing agent, their solicitor — has read the lease, knows the statutes, has the systems. The other side doesn't. The dispute exists in that gap. Solicitors then get hired to cross the gap, which adds cost, jargon, and delay to a problem that didn't need any of those things.
This map is the gap closed. Both parties holding the same map is roughly the conversation the lease was always supposed to enable. Print it. Pin it to the kitchen wall. Take it to the AGM. Quote the station name in the email. The conversation gets shorter and the dispute gets smaller.
Download a print-ready copy. A3 looks great on a wall. Share it with co-leaseholders, board members, your solicitor. No attribution required, but a link back to building-trust.uk is appreciated.