Are you a qualifying leaseholder, and what happens if you are not?

In England, Building Safety Act leaseholder protections turn on the lease’s statutory status, not just the buyer’s current circumstances. The practical question is whether the lease was qualifying at the relevant date, because that status can follow the lease into later sales.

How do you know if you are a qualifying leaseholder?

You know you are a qualifying leaseholder in England if the flat’s lease meets the Building Safety Act 2022 test and, at the start of 14 February 2022, it was a relevant tenant’s only or principal home or that tenant owned no more than two other UK dwellings. The Act starts with the rule that “A lease is a ‘qualifying lease’ if—” and one of the key alternatives is that “(iii)a relevant tenant owned no more than two dwellings in the United Kingdom apart from their interest under the lease.” A non-qualifying lease is simply a lease that fails that test, usually because it was not the main home and the relevant tenant owned too many other dwellings at the qualifying time. The deed of certificate matters because GOV.UK says: “The deed of certificate is how you can demonstrate that you qualify for protections under the Building Safety Act.” Abodient can store the deed of certificate and the lease record against the property, so the qualification evidence is not separated from the flat it relates to.

Does owning more than three properties make you a non-qualifying leaseholder?

Owning more than three UK dwellings does not automatically make every lease you hold non-qualifying in England, because your principal-home flat can still qualify while your other flats may fail the dwelling-count test. GOV.UK’s example puts the split plainly: “Only the flat lease you live in qualifies for the leaseholder protections.” The same guidance then explains why the other leases do not qualify: “The other flat leases do not qualify as you own more than three properties in the United Kingdom.” So an owner with five buy-to-let flats on top of their own home is not disqualified across the board, but a leasehold buy-to-let that was not the owner’s only or main home at the start of 14 February 2022 is exposed if the owner then had more than two other UK dwellings. The cost difference is not a fixed tariff; for a non-qualifying lease, liability depends on the lease and on whether another statutory bar applies.

Does a buy-to-let held through a limited company count towards the three-property threshold?

A buy-to-let held through a limited company does not count as personally owned by an individual shareholder for the England three-property threshold unless that individual is the tenant under the long lease or holds the freehold, because the Act defines ownership by legal property interest, not share ownership. Section 119 says “(b)a person ‘owns’ a dwelling in England, Wales or Northern Ireland if the person has a freehold interest in it or is a tenant under a long lease of it;” and the Interpretation Act adds that “‘Person’ includes a body of persons corporate or unincorporate.” That means a company can itself be the relevant person for a company-owned lease; the company’s own freeholds and long leases are counted for it. There is no statutory look-through rule that attributes a company’s dwellings to an individual shareholder for this count. A leasehold buy-to-let in your limited company therefore needs its own certificate analysis, rather than being folded automatically into your personal name.

Does buying the flat after February 2022 make you non-qualifying?

Buying the flat after 14 February 2022 does not automatically make you non-qualifying in England, because a lease that was qualifying at that date remains qualifying for later buyers. The explanatory notes state: “This means that if a lease is qualifying, it will be automatically qualifying for any future buyer of that lease.” GOV.UK says the same thing more directly for purchasers: “This means that all new owners of a property that was eligible for the protections on 14 February 2022 will be covered, even if you have bought it since then.” The hard edge is the opposite case: if the lease was already non-qualifying on 14 February 2022, buying it later and moving in does not cure it. GOV.UK’s example says: “Although the future buyer is intending for the flat to be their only and main home, the lease remains non-qualifying as the lease’s qualifying status was determined on 14 February 2022.”

What happens if you are not a qualifying leaseholder?

If you are not a qualifying leaseholder in England, you lose the main statutory service-charge protections for qualifying leases, including the cladding-remediation bar, but you may still benefit from rules that apply to any lease in a relevant building. Schedule 8 gives the strongest cladding protection in this form: “No service charge is payable under a qualifying lease in respect of cladding remediation.” For non-qualifying leases, GOV.UK states the practical default: “Where this is not the case, you will be liable for remediation costs as per the terms of your lease - but the costs passed on to you cannot be increased to replace money that qualifying leaseholders are protected from paying.” There is still an important separate protection where the landlord or an associate is responsible, because paragraph 2 says: “This paragraph applies in relation to a lease of any premises in a relevant building.” The result is not no protection at all; it is a narrower and more fact-dependent protection.

Should you buy a flat with a non-qualifying lease?

You should treat a flat with a non-qualifying lease in England as a pricing and funding risk, not as something the Building Safety Act forbids you to buy. The Act does not impose a buy-or-do-not-buy rule; it says the qualifying-lease section “applies for the purposes of sections 122 to 124 and Schedule 8.” The commercial problem is that lenders and valuers may treat non-qualifying status as a real defect. Coventry Building Society’s handbook says: “If the current owner does not own a qualifying lease (as defined in the Building Safety Act 2022) and/or the building does not have confirmed funding costs (via a developer or the Government) for remediation works under the Building Safety Act 2022, the lender will not provide a mortgage.” That should change the price you are willing to pay if remediation funding is uncertain, and may make the purchase unsuitable unless your conveyancer can quantify the uncapped exposure and your lender accepts the position.

Can indemnity insurance protect a non-qualifying lease?

Indemnity insurance cannot turn a non-qualifying lease into a qualifying lease in England, because qualifying status is a statutory test fixed by the Building Safety Act, not an insurable condition. Section 119 begins with the statutory gateway, “A lease is a ‘qualifying lease’ if—”, and GOV.UK’s post-sale example confirms that status is not remade for a later buyer: “Although the future buyer is intending for the flat to be their only and main home, the lease remains non-qualifying as the lease’s qualifying status was determined on 14 February 2022.” Insurance or an indemnity may still reduce service-charge exposure if money is actually recovered, because the 1985 Act says: “Where any funding of a kind mentioned in subsection (2) is obtained, the amount of the funding is to be deducted from the remediation costs (and the amount of any service charge is to be reduced accordingly).” That is a recovery mechanism, not a status conversion.

Last reviewed August 2026.

Sources

• Building Safety Act 2022 s.119 — “A lease is a ‘qualifying lease’ if—” Source
• Building Safety Act 2022 s.119 — “(iii)a relevant tenant owned no more than two dwellings in the United Kingdom apart from their interest under the lease.” Source
• GOV.UK, Leaseholder protections deed of certificate FAQs — “The deed of certificate is how you can demonstrate that you qualify for protections under the Building Safety Act.” Source
• GOV.UK, qualifying date, qualifying lease and extent — “Only the flat lease you live in qualifies for the leaseholder protections.” Source
• GOV.UK, qualifying date, qualifying lease and extent — “The other flat leases do not qualify as you own more than three properties in the United Kingdom.” Source
• Building Safety Act 2022 s.119 — “(b)a person ‘owns’ a dwelling in England, Wales or Northern Ireland if the person has a freehold interest in it or is a tenant under a long lease of it;” Source
• Interpretation Act 1978 Schedule 1 — “‘Person’ includes a body of persons corporate or unincorporate.” Source
• Building Safety Act 2022 explanatory notes — “This means that if a lease is qualifying, it will be automatically qualifying for any future buyer of that lease.” Source
• GOV.UK, leaseholder protections on building safety costs in England FAQs — “This means that all new owners of a property that was eligible for the protections on 14 February 2022 will be covered, even if you have bought it since then.” Source
• GOV.UK, qualifying date, qualifying lease and extent — “Although the future buyer is intending for the flat to be their only and main home, the lease remains non-qualifying as the lease’s qualifying status was determined on 14 February 2022.” Source
• Building Safety Act 2022 Schedule 8 — “No service charge is payable under a qualifying lease in respect of cladding remediation.” Source
• GOV.UK, remediation costs: what leaseholders do and do not have to pay — “Where this is not the case, you will be liable for remediation costs as per the terms of your lease - but the costs passed on to you cannot be increased to replace money that qualifying leaseholders are protected from paying.” Source
• Building Safety Act 2022 Schedule 8 paragraph 2 — “This paragraph applies in relation to a lease of any premises in a relevant building.” Source
• Building Safety Act 2022 s.119 — “This section applies for the purposes of sections 122 to 124 and Schedule 8.” Source
• Coventry Building Society, UK Finance lenders’ handbook — “If the current owner does not own a qualifying lease (as defined in the Building Safety Act 2022) and/or the building does not have confirmed funding costs (via a developer or the Government) for remediation works under the Building Safety Act 2022, the lender will not provide a mortgage.” Source
• Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 s.20D — “Where any funding of a kind mentioned in subsection (2) is obtained, the amount of the funding is to be deducted from the remediation costs (and the amount of any service charge is to be reduced accordingly).” Source