How do I start formal negotiations with my landlord to purchase my freehold?

The Leasehold Reform Act 1967 is a detailed piece of legislation that introduced rights for leaseholders of houses to buy their freehold, among other things. It sets out a procedure to be followed by both leaseholders and freeholders.

In relation to buying your freehold, the 1967 Act includes:

Minimum criteria leaseholders must meet to buy the freehold (for example, have you owned your house for two or more years?);
The information you need to give your freeholder to claim your right to buy the freehold, and how this must be done;
How long the freeholder is allowed before replying to your claim and what information they must give you;
How the price of the freehold should be calculated. If the leaseholder and freeholder can’t agree, it gives a right to ask a specialist property tribunal to make a legally binding decision. Either party can also ask the property tribunal to decide on other disagreements, such as the minimum qualifying criteria or how much the freeholder’s reasonable costs should be (see 6);
How the process of recording your ownership of the freehold should be done once all issues are decided;
A condition that the leaseholder must pay the freeholder’s reasonable costs (for example, for the work done by the freeholder’s solicitor and valuer), as well as their own costs of going through this process.