Part 5: Other provisions about safety standards, etc. Remediation of Certain defects Section 119 – Meaning of "qualifying lease" and the "qualifying time" Effect
This section sets out the meaning of "qualifying lease" and "the qualifying time" which apply for the purposes of sections 122 to 125 and Schedule 8.
	The "qualifying time" is defined in subsection (2) as the beginning of 14 February 2022.
	A "qualifying lease", defined in subsection (2), is a lease to which the leaseholder protections measures apply. For a lease to be qualifying, it must be a long lease of a single dwelling within a relevant building (see section 117 for the definition of "relevant building"). A "long lease" is defined in subsection (4)(a) as one which exceeds 21 years in length. The tenant under the lease must also be liable to pay a service charge, where "service charge" has the meaning given under section 18 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. The lease must also have been granted before the qualifying time.
	Subsection (2)(d) sets out the categories of leases that are qualifying. For a lease to be qualifying, at the qualifying time the lease must have been the tenant’s only or principal home, or it must have been the only property they owned in the United Kingdom (even if it was not their only or principal home), or the relevant tenant must have owned no more than two additional properties in the United Kingdom in total. A "relevant tenant" is defined in subsection (4)(c) as a person who is a tenant under the lease (in other words, a leaseholder) at the qualifying time.
	The provision at subsection (2)(d) means that a leaseholder will qualify for the leaseholder protections for their properties if they own up to three properties in the United Kingdom in total. If more than three properties in total are owned, then the principal home qualifies for the protections, but the other properties do not.
	Subsection (4)(b) sets out that a person "owns" a dwelling in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland if they have either a freehold or leasehold interest in it (capturing the two types of property ownership in those jurisdictions). The word "owns" suffices for property in Scotland because Scotland does not have a system of leasehold; ownership in Scotland is a generally understood term which does not need a separate definition. This means that all types of residential property ownership count against the total of three properties in the United Kingdom for the purposes of the leaseholder protections.
	Subsection (3) makes provision for the situation where a dwelling was let under two or more leases at the qualifying time. It sets out that any lease which is superior to any other lease is not a qualifying lease. This ensures that it is always the lease at the end of any chain of demised leases that qualifies for the protections, rather than any superior landlord (see the explanatory note to paragraph 12 of Schedule 8 for more detail about superior landlords and demised leases).
	This section makes clear the terms on which a lease becomes a qualifying lease. It is not a leaseholder that becomes a qualifying leaseholder – it is the leasehold interest itself that is qualifying. Because whether a lease is qualifying is determined as regards the position as at the qualifying time, the status of the lease (as qualifying or otherwise) became fixed on 14 February 2022. That status will then transfer automatically to future buyers of the lease should it be sold. This means that if a lease is qualifying, it will be automatically qualifying for any future buyer of that lease. Similarly, if a lease is non-qualifying, it will also be non-qualifying for any future buyer.