Residential estate management companies

On 22 April 2025, Caroline Voaden MP led a debate in Westminster Hall on residential estate management companies.

To inform it, she asked to hear about your experiences.

Thank you to everyone who responded to the survey

Page contents:

• Video: sharing your stories
• Watch the full debate or read the transcript
• The Government's response
• MP's thank you message
• Relevant resources and support
• Debate explainer.

Sharing survey responses

Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook MP responded to the debate on behalf of the Government.

He described the Government's current policies and future ambitions related to the debate topic.

Watch or read his full speech where he covers a range of topics, including:

• The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. This contains powers to establish a regulatory framework to provide protections for residential freeholders on already constructed freehold estates, such as:

i. the provision of standardised demands and an annual report, in relation to estate management charges;

ii. requiring estate managers to consult homeowners where the anticipated cost of any works to be charged as an estate management charge exceed an appropriate amount;

iii. giving homeowners the right to challenge the reasonableness of charges;

iv. and giving residential freeholders the right to apply to a tribunal to appoint a substitute manager where their estate management company is failing.

• The Minister’s written ministerial statement to Parliament (21 November 2024) where he set out the Government’s intended sequencing for bringing the Act’s provisions into force, including the Act’s provisions on privately managed freehold estates which the government intends to “switch on as soon as is feasible.”
• Government commitments to consult this year on:

i. implementation of the Act’s new regulatory framework through “detailed secondary legislation.”

ii. additional legislative and policy options to reduce the prevalence of private estate management arrangements.

• The Government’s position that appropriate consultation is needed to ensure that its interventions capture the “diversity of models and challenges” associated with freehold estate management arrangements.
• The Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) report on the housebuilding market (with sections on the private management of public amenities on housing estates on pages 48, 96, and 115).
• The Government’s response to the CMA’s report, including the CMA’s recommendations on the private management of public amenities on housing estates.
• The Government’s commitment to strengthening the regulation of managing agents of leasehold properties and estate managers of freehold estates. There will be a consultation on the detail later this year.
• Government plans to publish a Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill, for consultation and parliamentary scrutiny, in the second half of this year.

Find out more in the Commons Library’s constituency casework articles:

• Leasehold reform in England and Wales: What's happening and when?
• Freehold estate management.

Parliamentary resources

House of Commons Library

• Leasehold reform in England and Wales: What’s happening and when? (February 2025)
• Freehold estate management (November 2024)
• Freehold houses: estate charges (June 2023)
• The regulation of letting and managing agents in England (May 2023)

Support services

• Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE): Free government-funded advice on leasehold law, service charges, and rights.
• The Property Ombudsman (TPO): Independent dispute resolution for property management complaints (if the company is a member).
• Housing Ombudsman Service: Handles complaints about housing associations and some residential estate management issues.
• Citizens Advice: Free advice on housing, legal rights, and how to deal with disputes.