Managing agents to need a licence: what it means for blocks that manage themselves

What happened

At its conference in September 2026, the governing party confirmed that property agents, including the managing agents who run blocks of flats, will need a licence to practise and recognised qualifications. An independent regulator would oversee them. Propertymark, the agents’ professional body, reported the announcement. The government has not yet set out how the scheme will work or when it will start.

Separately, the government plans powers to cap some of the fees charged to leaseholders and estate homeowners, such as permission, administration and document fees, after a consultation on which fees and at what level.

What it means for your building

If your block uses a managing agent, licensing should in time mean minimum standards and a regulator to complain to. Costs of meeting the new rules may be passed on in agents’ fees.

If your block is run by its own freehold or right to manage company, the company is the landlord or manager itself, not an agent working for someone else, so on what has been announced the licensing plans are not aimed at you. The directors still have legal duties as company directors and as the landlord.

What to do now

• If you use an agent, check your contract’s notice period and fee schedule, and keep a record of any administration or document fees charged to leaseholders.
• If you are weighing up managing the block yourselves, write down what the agent does today, so you can see what the board would need to cover.

This is general information. We will report the details of the licensing scheme when they are published.

How Freeholdpilot helps

Freeholdpilot gives a board the tools an agent’s office would use: repairs and contractors, budgets and demands, documents, votes and a calendar of legal deadlines, with the board staying in charge.