The Commonhold Reform Bill and Remediation Bill: What's Coming for RTM and RMC Directors

TL;DR: Two separate reform tracks are moving through Parliament in 2026, and both affect people who run existing leaseholder-managed buildings. The draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill (£250 ground rent cap, abolition of forfeiture, commonhold as the default for new flats) is in pre-legislative scrutiny. The Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill, introduced to Parliament on 14 October 2026, would create a register of occupied 11-18 metre residential buildings and a legal duty to assess and remediate unsafe cladding, a duty that can fall on RTM companies and RMCs. Nothing here is law yet. This is what is coming and how to get ahead of it.

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#Two Bills, One Reader

There is a lot of noise about leasehold reform right now, and most of it blurs two distinct pieces of legislation. Keeping them apart is the first step to acting sensibly.

The first is the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, published on 27 January 2026 (Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, draft, 2026). It changes the ownership and governance model: ground rent, forfeiture, and the long-term shift from leasehold to commonhold. The House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee scrutinised it and published its report on 27 May 2026, calling for significant amendments before a final Bill is introduced.

The second is the Remediation Bill, announced in the King's Speech on 13 May 2026 and introduced to Parliament on 14 October 2026 as the Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill. It did not go through the committee's pre-legislative scrutiny; it is a separate track. It is about building safety remediation: who must fix unsafe cladding, by when, and what happens if they do not.

Nothing in either Bill is in force. The Commonhold Bill is still a draft awaiting a government response; the Remediation Bill has been introduced to Parliament but has not passed.

Both reach the same person: a director of a Right to Manage (RTM) company or a Residents' Management Company (RMC), or the managing agent who runs the building day to day. If that is you, the practical question is the same for both Bills: what should I have in place before this becomes law?

#Where the Commonhold Bill Stands

The draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill is a draft. It has not been enacted, and you cannot rely on any of its provisions today. The government's ministerial statement set out six key provisions (Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, draft, 2026):

• a new legal framework for commonhold;
• a statutory restriction on new leasehold flats, so commonhold becomes the default tenure for new blocks;
• a process to convert to commonhold aligned with enfranchisement, possible when at least 50% of qualifying leaseholders agree (Clause 6);
• the abolition of leasehold forfeiture, replaced with a fairer enforcement system;
• the repeal of certain rentcharge powers on freehold estates; and
• a cap on ground rent for existing leases.

The committee broadly backed the direction but said the draft Bill under-delivers on short-term relief. The timeline matters here. The government has two months from 27 May to respond to the committee, and a final Bill will follow "as soon as possible" after that (HCLG Committee report, 2026, para 221). The committee did not pin down a firm date, and neither will we.

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#The £250 Ground Rent Cap on Existing Leases

The cap applies to existing long leases. New leasehold flats were already moved to a peppercorn ground rent by the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, so this is the intervention aimed at leases already in place.

The draft Bill would cap ground rent on existing long leases at £250 a year, transitioning to a peppercorn after a 40-year period.

The committee agreed with the £250 figure, noting it is "a threshold where ground rent frequently affects the saleability and mortgageability of properties" (HCLG Committee report, 2026, para 64). It was less convinced by the 40-year transition to peppercorn, saying the government "has not presented sufficient evidence to justify why 40 years is the optimum period" (HCLG Committee report, 2026, para 7 of conclusions).

For an RTM or RMC director, the ground rent cap is mostly a matter that sits between leaseholders and the freeholder, not a service charge line. But it changes the building's financial backdrop, and you will field questions. A leaseholder paying £450 a year in ground rent will want to know whether the cap helps them and when. The honest answer, today, is: the cap is proposed, not law, and the transition timing is still being argued over.

#Abolition of Forfeiture Changes the Enforcement Backdrop

Forfeiture is the landlord's power to end a lease and take back the property where a leaseholder breaches lease terms, including unpaid service charges. The draft Bill abolishes it and replaces it with "a fairer system" of lease enforcement (Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, draft, 2026). The Minister told the committee that the forfeiture measures "will commence as soon as possible following Royal Assent" (HCLG Committee report, 2026, para 221, Box 5).

For directors who recover service charges, this is worth tracking. Forfeiture has long been the ultimate backstop for non-payment, even though it is rarely used. If it goes, recovery will rest more heavily on clear, defensible records: the demand, the breakdown of what was charged, the consultation where one was required, and the chain of correspondence. A building that can show exactly what it billed, why, and when is in a far stronger position than one relying on the threat of forfeiture.

#Commonhold: A Long Transition, Not an Overnight Switch

Commonhold is a tenure where flat owners hold their units outright and collectively own and run the common parts through a commonhold association, with no third-party landlord (HCLG Committee report, 2026, para 165). The draft Bill makes it the default for new flats and creates a route for existing blocks to convert.

The transition will take years. As the committee put it, "the transition from leasehold to commonhold will take many years" (HCLG Committee report, 2026, para 235). Existing leaseholders cannot convert automatically; they must complete a collective enfranchisement (buy the freehold) and then vote to convert, a two-step process the committee wants streamlined. To promote uptake, the committee recommended that conversion to commonhold become "the default outcome of a collective enfranchisement" (HCLG Committee report, 2026, para 153). That is a committee recommendation, not yet a provision in the draft Bill, so treat it as a likely direction of travel rather than settled law.

One point matters now for anyone weighing conversion. When a building converts to commonhold, the directors of the commonhold association "take on a range of statutory duties for maintenance and safety of the block," including ensuring the building is registered with the Building Safety Regulator and verifying safety information before signing declarations (HCLG Committee report, 2026, para 161). Those are personal duties. If you are a director thinking about commonhold, the building safety obligations come with you.

#Commonhold Does Not End the Managing Agent's Role

There is a popular reading of commonhold that says leaseholders will self-manage and managing agents disappear. The committee took the opposite view.

Managing agents will also continue to play a key role under the commonhold regime, as it is likely that many commonhold associations will opt to contract with them for services rather than run the blocks themselves, especially in larger and more complex blocks.

— HCLG Committee report, 2026, para 116

What changes is the contracting relationship. Today a managing agent is often appointed by the freeholder. Under commonhold, the agent is contracted by the unit-holders' association directly. The work does not vanish; the accountability shifts, and the committee expects these contracts to run for several years. For a managing agent, the practical implication is that you will increasingly answer to a board of resident-directors who can see what you are doing. That is the same relationship an RTM or RMC already creates, and the agents who do well in it are the ones who can show their work.

#The Remediation Bill: A New Duty, and a Register That Reaches Below 18 Metres

The Remediation Bill is the second track, and for building safety it is the more immediate one. It was announced in the King's Speech on 13 May 2026 as "a Bill to speed up remediation for people living in homes with unsafe cladding" (King's Speech 2026, gov.uk). It was introduced to Parliament on 14 October 2026 as the Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill (MHCLG press release, 14 October 2026). The government's guide to the Bill sets out what it would do. It is still a Bill: none of it applies until it receives Royal Assent and the relevant provisions come into force.

Four provisions matter most for people running existing buildings:

1. A legal duty to assess and remediate. The Bill "will introduce a clear legal duty on responsible entities of medium and high-rise buildings to assess and remediate life-critical external wall fire safety risks" (Guide to the Bill, MHCLG, 2026). The duty covers "multi-occupied residential buildings in England over 11 metres in height or with at least 5 storeys, completed before 28 June 2022", and remediation has to happen "as soon as reasonably practicable" (Guide to the Bill).
2. The duty can sit with an RTM company or RMC. It falls on whoever holds the relevant repairing obligation, which the guide says "may include freeholders, leaseholders in a head or sub-lease, right to manage companies, or resident management companies" (Guide to the Bill).
3. Deadlines that run from Royal Assent. The duties come into force 2 months after Royal Assent. The external wall assessment, a fire risk appraisal of external walls (FRAEW) that the Bill requires to follow the PAS 9980 methodology, is due 12 months after Royal Assent. Where the FRAEW recommends work, a Remediation Compliance Plan is due 15 months after Royal Assent (Guide to the Bill).
4. A register of medium-rise buildings. The Bill gives the Secretary of State power to create "a register of occupied 'medium-rise buildings'", meaning "residential buildings in England with 2 or more dwellings, that are between 11 and 18 metres tall, or which have at least 5 storeys but fewer than 7" (Guide to the Bill).

Where a responsible entity deliberately fails to mitigate or take steps to remediate as soon as reasonably practicable, the guide says it will be "liable for criminal prosecution and, if convicted, up to 2 years in prison". As an alternative to prosecution, "regulators may issue a financial penalty of up to £500,000" (Guide to the Bill). If a duty-holder still does not act, a Remediation Backstop would let local authorities or Homes England carry out the works, with additional costs recoverable from the duty-holder once remediation is complete (Guide to the Bill).

On timing, the government's stated expectation is that "by the end of 2029, every building over 11 metres with unsafe cladding should either have been remediated or have a clear date for completion" (MHCLG press release, 14 October 2026). The Bill itself contains no 2029 date. The backdrop is slow progress: only 35% of identified buildings have had cladding remediated since 2017, with regulators taking enforcement action at more than 800 buildings (Hogan Lovells, King's Speech 2026 analysis).

#Who the register covers

The register's scope is set by height, storey count and number of dwellings. Nothing in the definition limits it to buildings with unsafe cladding or buildings that need remediation. The guide explains the gap it fills: the Cladding Safety Scheme's review of Ordnance Survey data "has identified the vast majority, but not all, medium-rise buildings in England" (Guide to the Bill).

The "registration duty-holder" will have to register the building, provide key details about it, and pay a registration charge. That is "an organisation or individual who owns or has a legal obligation to repair any common parts of the building" (Guide to the Bill). Failing to register, or to provide or update the required information, carries civil penalties of up to £7,000, with penalties of up to £40,000 or prosecution if the non-compliance continues. The register needs secondary legislation before it starts, which the guide anticipates will be "approximately 8 to 10 months after Royal Assent" (Guide to the Bill).

Under the Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill, an occupied residential building in England with 2 or more dwellings and a height of 11 to 18 metres would have to be registered once the register is set up.

If you manage a building in the 11-18 metre band, the practical takeaway is that 'we are below 18 metres' will stop being an answer. If the Bill passes in this form, the building goes on the register regardless of its cladding, and if its external wall carries a life-critical fire safety risk, the remediation duty makes the party with the repairing obligation accountable for acting on it. That party can be an RTM company or RMC.

#What You Need to Do Now

Both Bills are pre-enactment, so there is nothing to file and no deadline to hit yet. But the work that puts you ahead is the same work in both cases: be able to evidence the state of your building and the decisions you have made about it. Here is where to focus.

1. Know your building's height, storey count and wall make-up. If you are anywhere near the 11-18 metre band or 5 storeys, find out the exact height and whether the external wall has had an FRAEW. The register would ask for key details about the building, and the remediation duty starts from an assessment.
2. Get your service charge records demand-ready. With forfeiture going, recovery leans on clean records. Each demand should have its breakdown, its Section 20 consultation where one applied, and a clear audit trail. Our service charge demand template covers the basics.
3. Treat building safety records as a transferable asset. Whether you convert to commonhold, hand to a new agent, or face a remediation duty, the building's safety history has to travel intact. A golden thread of who did what, when, and with what evidence is the thing every one of these reforms assumes you have.
4. If you are weighing commonhold, plan for personal director duties. Commonhold-association directors take on BSR registration and safety-verification duties personally (HCLG Committee report, 2026, para 161). Go in with eyes open.

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#Where Brocade Fits

Brocade is built around three things an RTM director, RMC director, or managing agent has to do at once: run the building, stay compliant, and manage the money. Both Bills push on all three.

The Commonhold Bill changes governance and finance: clean service charge records, defensible demands, and a transferable history of decisions. The Remediation Bill would put an assessment and remediation duty, with deadlines counted from Royal Assent, on the responsible entity, which can be an RTM company or RMC. Showing what was assessed and what was done is exactly the job Brocade's audit-trail and evidence-chain features are designed to serve. Every significant action in Brocade is logged with a checksum-chained audit event, so the question 'can you show what was done and when?' has an answer that holds up. That is what a remediation duty, a commonhold conversion, and a service charge dispute all eventually come down to.

You do not need to act on either Bill today. You do need the building's records to be in the shape that makes acting on them straightforward when the law changes.

#Common Questions

Is the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill now law?

No. A draft was published on 27 January 2026 for pre-legislative scrutiny. The Commons committee reported on 27 May 2026, the government must respond within two months, and a final Bill follows after that. Nothing in the draft is in force yet.

What is the £250 ground rent cap?

The draft Bill would cap ground rent on existing long leases at £250 a year, transitioning to a peppercorn (effectively zero) after 40 years. The committee supported the £250 figure but questioned the 40-year transition. New leasehold flats were already moved to peppercorn ground rent by the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022.

Does commonhold mean RTM and RMC directors no longer need a managing agent?

No. The committee concluded at paragraph 116 that many commonhold associations will still contract managing agents, especially for larger or more complex blocks. Commonhold changes who hires the agent, not whether one is needed.

What is the Remediation Bill's 11-18m register?

The Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill, introduced to Parliament on 14 October 2026, would give the Secretary of State power to create a register of occupied medium-rise buildings in England: residential buildings with 2 or more dwellings that are 11 to 18 metres tall, or have at least 5 storeys but fewer than 7. The definition has no cladding or remediation condition. The registration duty-holder, whoever owns or has a legal obligation to repair the common parts, would register the building, provide key details and pay a charge. Civil penalties go up to £7,000, or £40,000 for continued non-compliance. The register needs secondary legislation, which the government's guide expects about 8 to 10 months after Royal Assent.

Will the Remediation Bill affect buildings under 18 metres?

Yes, if it passes. Beyond the register, the Bill's duty to assess and remediate life-critical external wall fire safety risks would apply to multi-occupied residential buildings in England over 11 metres or with at least 5 storeys, completed before 28 June 2022. The duty falls on whoever holds the repairing obligation, which the government's guide says may include freeholders, RTM companies and RMCs. It comes into force 2 months after Royal Assent, with assessments due at 12 months and Remediation Compliance Plans at 15 months.

#Further Reading

• Building Safety Act 2026: Key Changes Every Higher-Risk Building Manager Must Know
• Service Charges and Building Safety Costs: A Guide for RTM Directors
• RTM Companies and BSA Compliance Obligations
• HCLG Committee report: Pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill (27 May 2026)

This article is for informational purposes and reflects two Bills that are not yet law. For building-specific advice, consult a qualified fire safety or property professional.

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