Does a freehold invalidate the terms of a leasehold?

It is unlikely that the leases have disappeared due to the purchase of the freehold. Therefore the lease clauses will still hold.

As ever, though, you should perhaps review with your lawyer precisely what transactions have taken place.

You are each leaseholders with share of freehold interest in the resident owned management company. This company must be limited liability registered at Companies House and HMRC.
You need the company Memorandum & Articles to see your voting rights.
You wear two hats: one as shareholder with obligations under M&A and separate hat your obligations under provisions of your lease which do not vary.

In my opinion, the lease should prevail unless you’ve agreed to change it and solicitors have updated it. These are the conditions under which you purchased the flat.
I had a similar situation where a levy has been split equally when I should have paid a smaller proportion as my lease says I pay a smaller percentage of the service charge. It was argued, wrongly in my opinion, that the levy was different from the service charge!

Reply to the comment left by JB at 07/06/2024 – 11:22
I agree, the lease is “KING” and the freeholders are not able to change the terms of your lease without your approval and should you agree, your solicitor should draw up a Deed of Variation to the Lease which they would register at the Land Registry. Clearly you should not agree.

Your terms under the Lease stand unless and until ALL or possibly a majority (would need to be agreed at an AGM or EGM) decide to go equal shares on service charges/maintenance. Same as not collecting the ground rent ( one of the perks of leaseholders also being joint freeholders)

The lease is a legal contract between the freeholder and the leaseholder.
The terms of the contract cannot be changed unless both parties to the contract agree. As this is to do with land I beleive any change has to be in writing and possibly as a deed. (Solicitors on this site can advise the correct details).
It does not matter if the freeholder changes as they would have to agree to honor any exisiting contract terms.
The problem is that you are a shareholder, and possibly a director, of the company that owns the freehold. This gives you an iron in both fires and could make things difficult with your neighbours if you insist on not paying what they think is a reasonable contribution to the total service charge.
It is best to take legal advice just to make sure.

Do the 6 who have voted for the change own larger properties which previously had higher service charges than the other 3?

Reply to the comment left by NewYorkie at 07/06/2024 – 13:02
‘The terms of the contract cannot be changed unless both parties to the contract agree’
This introduces an interesting point. I own 100% of a freehold where one of the leaseholders has requested a decrease in his share of the service charge as he has a very small studio flat which has its own entrance and a lot of the service charge is spent on fire precautions for the communal entrance. If I agree, the other leaseholders will have to pay more so I think ALL the leaseholders, regardless of whether they own a share if freehold, need to agree. What do other people think?

You own the freehold interest and granted the leases. Your leaseholders do not own a share of the freehold and do not have a vote.
It depends on how you as freeholder apportioned the service charge which must obv total 100% and whether the FTT would consider reasonable

Switching from leasehold to freehold ownership doesn’t cancel your lease terms, including how service charges are split. Your lease is still a binding contract. The other owners can’t just change the cost split without everyone’s agreement. You should talk to a property solicitor to see what you can do next.