When beginning the right to enfranchise process, prior to your first meeting, print out this useful guide to collective enfranchisement and give one to everyone who attends. It will remind you of the steps you have to go through and how long each one should take.
Statutory time limits and procedures when carrying out enfranchisement:
1) The enfranchising leaseholders provide an Information Notice. This is just a discretionary step and it's up to you whether to do so or not.
2) The freeholder has to reply to this Information Notice within 28 days.
3) The first mandatory issue in enfranchisement is for the leaseholders to choose a nominee purchaser. This is normally a company consisting of the enfranchising tenants and, if forming such a company, register at Companies House.
4) Once you have got all the information you need and taken advice from an experienced collective enfranchisement solicitor, you are ready to serve the initial notice. The 'valuation date' will be fixed as the date of service of the Notice.
5) If the landlord wants additional information, he must ask for it within 21 days of receipt of the Initial Notice.
6) The nominee purchaser must respond to this request within 21 days.
7) As part of the collective enfranchisement process, the landlord has to serve a Counter Notice by the date that is specified. Remember that this date has to be a minimum of two months from the date on which the Initial Notice was served.