The freehold has been sold: the new landlord's duty to tell leaseholders, and four sales worked to dates

A block's freehold is sold to a new company. The managing agent keeps collecting the service charge, but leaseholders start asking who their landlord is now. Who has to tell them, and by when?

What the source says

I read section 3 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 on legislation.gov.uk today. The page states it is up to date with changes known to be in force on or before 25 October 2026, and lists no pending change to section 3 itself. In plain terms:

• The duty. If the landlord's interest in premises that include a dwelling is assigned, the new landlord must give the tenant written notice of the assignment and of the new landlord's name and address (subsection 1).
• The deadline. Not later than the next day on which rent is payable under the tenancy, or, if that day falls within two months of the assignment, the end of that two-month period (subsection 1).
• Trustees. Where trustees are the new landlord, they can be named collectively as the trustees of the trust, with the address from which the trust's affairs are conducted. A change of trustees is not an assignment (subsection 2).
• A fine. A new landlord who fails without reasonable excuse to give the notice commits a summary offence, with a fine up to level 4 on the standard scale (subsection 3). I did not look up the pound figure for level 4.
• The old landlord stays liable for a while. Until the notice is given, by either the new or the old landlord, the old landlord remains liable to the tenant for breaches of the tenancy in that period as if still the landlord. If the new landlord is also liable, both are jointly and severally liable (subsections 3A and 3B, added by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987).
• What counts as an assignment. Any conveyance other than a mortgage or charge (subsection 4).

Four sales worked to dates

Take ground rent payable on 25 December. I invented four assignments and applied the rule as I read it: the deadline is the later of the next rent day and the end of two months from the assignment. I counted two months by calendar month and did not read how the Act counts the period.

Check: from 20 October to 25 December is 11 days left in October, 30 in November and 25 in December, so 66 days. That is more than two months, so the rent day is the deadline. For the other three, 25 December falls inside the two months, so the two-month date applies.

Now the exposure for the old landlord on the 1 November sale. If the new landlord sends the notice on 25 December, the period runs from the assignment date: 1 November to 1 December is 30 days, plus 24 days to 25 December, giving 54 days. If it goes on 1 January 2027, it is 30 + 31 = 61 days. Seven more days of dual exposure for the sake of a week's delay.

What to do about it

• When a freehold sale is announced for a block you manage, ask the new landlord for its name and a correspondence address, and for the completion date.
• Check the lease for the rent day. Leases differ, so the date above is only an example.
• Draft one notice with the assignment date, the new landlord's name and address, and send one to every flat. Keep the proof of sending in one folder.
• A service charge demand must also carry the landlord's name and address: see the section 47 missing-address check.
• Taking over a block is a wider job: see the managing agent handover checklist and the service charge demand validity checker.

What I did not read

I did not read how the two months are counted, the level 4 fine amount, any case law, any lease, or the older versions of the section. The sales, dates and rent day are invented.

Overlyft builds AI staff who join your block management team and, when a freehold changes hands, list every flat, work out the notice deadline from each lease and draft the letters. A property manager checks and approves every notice before it goes.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the legislation and take advice on a particular sale or lease.