Understanding a residential lease -- The case of the missing landlord -- Dealing with landlord default -- Sale, sublettings, alterations and use -- Service charges -- The right to manage -- The meaning of collective enfranchisement -- The right of first refusal -- The general right to enfranchise/extend under the 1993 Act -- Compulsory acquisition of a landlord's interest -- Freehold enfranchisement of houses -- When a lease comes to an end -- Variation of leases -- Disputes resolution -- Running a leasehold management company.

Explains everything leaseholders and their advisers need to know in respect of long residential leases. Sets out the legal framework of a typical ground lease and its main provisions, and also advises on such problem areas as absentee landlords, spiralling service charges, the right to be consulted on significant or long term service charge items, how to challenge excessive service charges, how to gain control of the freehold, and how to set up a management company. Makes extensive use of real life scenarios, landmark cases and fictitious case studies to illustrate how leasehold law works in practice.