Part 5: Other provisions about safety standards, etc. Remediation of Certain defects Section 119 – Meaning of "qualifying lease" and the "qualifying time" Background
The leaseholder protections apply to leasehold dwellings in multi-occupied buildings in England that are at least 11 metres tall or have at least five storeys. Further detail on the leasehold model of ownership in England is set out in the explanatory note to section 116. Subsections (2)(a) and (2)(b) of this section set the parameters for what is to be determined as a leasehold dwelling for the purposes of the leaseholder protections. It applies to a lease which is at least 21 years in length; this type of lease is generally known as a "long lease".
	The leaseholder protections do not apply to all leasehold dwellings. They are designed to protect leaseholders living in their own homes as well as those who may have moved out and are subletting due to building safety issues in their property or for other reasons. In addition, the protections apply to people owning small numbers of additional properties, with people owning up to three residential properties in total in the United Kingdom qualifying. For people who own more than three properties in total, their principal home always qualifies for the protections if it is otherwise in scope.
	The section also defines the "qualifying time" as the beginning of 14 February 2022; the qualifying time is relevant elsewhere in the leaseholder protections and applies to a number of different tests which are applied under the provisions. Liability under the leaseholder protections became fixed and immutable at the qualifying time. This is important to give certainty to all parties who will be affected by the leaseholder protections provisions and to the housing market, which is important to ensure, for example, that lending on properties can take place with confidence.
	The "qualifying time" is defined as the beginning of 14 February 2022, as that was the date on which the leaseholder protections provisions were first tabled as amendments to the Building Safety Bill at Committee stage during the Bill’s passage through the House of Lords, and as such the point at which the provisions first become public knowledge. Although the leaseholder protections only take legal effect at commencement, two months after Royal Assent, the choice of qualifying time means that the provisions could not be manipulated or preemptively avoided in the period between the original publication of the amendments and the provisions becoming law.
Example 1
A person owns three flats in England, all of which are contained within relevant buildings. They do not own any other property in the United Kingdom. All three flats are qualifying leases and qualify for the leaseholder protections.
Example 2
A person owns two flats in England which are contained within relevant buildings, and a house in Scotland. As three properties in the United Kingdom are owned in total, the two flats fall within the definition of qualifying lease and qualify for the leaseholder protections.
Example 3
A person owns four flats in England which are contained within relevant buildings, one of which they live in (and lived in on 14 February 2022). The flat the person lives in qualifies for the leaseholder protections as it was their principal home at the qualifying time. The other three flats do not qualify, as the person owned more than three properties in the United Kingdom in total.
Example 4
A person owns two flats in England and two houses in Wales. They live in one of the houses. As the person owns more than three properties in the United Kingdom in total, neither of which was their principal home at the qualifying time, the flats do not qualify for the leaseholder protections.
Example 5
A person owns a flat which has a qualifying lease. The lease is qualifying because the flat was their principal home on 14 February 2022. They sell the flat on. The leaseholder protections automatically transfer to the future buyer of the flat. The protections transfer irrespective of the identity of the buyer, because the status of the lease as qualifying was determined with respect to the position on 14 February 2022.
Example 6
A person owns a flat which has a non-qualifying lease because on 14 February 2022 they owned nine flats in total in England. They sell it on to a buyer who intends to live in the flat. Even though the flat will be the buyer’s principal home, the lease remains non-qualifying because on 14 February 2022 it was not a qualifying lease