There are distinct differences between freehold and leasehold and how you sell, finance, insure and maintain a property depends on the ownership agreement you have. The following is a brief description of each. To own a property as a freehold simply means that the building and land is owned exclusively by you. This is the norm for most houses in the UK. A property freehold owner is responsible for maintenance and management costs of the property.
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Help with meeting goals, tax-friendly saving, saving for children. Wondering what the difference is between a leasehold and a freehold? If your property is leasehold, you can buy the freehold from the freeholder along with other leaseholders — for example, other people living in a block of flats. It also means you can extend your lease fairly easily for up to years. To buy the freehold, you and the other leaseholders will have to serve a Section 13 Notice on the freeholder.
It might be expensive to buy the freehold. You and the other leaseholders will also need to set up a company to manage the building, or find a managing agent to do it for you. Commonhold is an alternative to long-term leasehold.
Owners of the properties that share a lease can form a commonhold association, which owns the land, building and common areas and is responsible for the management, maintenance, repair and servicing of them. Like a leasehold, owners are responsible for their individual flats or houses. But, unlike leaseholds, there is no time limit for how long you can own the property. Anyone who owns a freehold in the building or estate is entitled to participate in the running of the commonhold association.
With a leasehold, you own the property subject to the terms of the leasehold for the length of your lease agreement with the freeholder. Some houses are sold as leaseholds. If this is the case, you own the property, but not the land it sits on.
When buying a leasehold property, it is important to consider the length of the remaining term of the lease. As time goes by the value of the property is affected by the diminishing term of the lease which could make the property more difficult to sell. Typically it is a good idea that the lease has at least 80 years remaining or you might struggle to get a mortgage.
This means the freeholder is, normally, responsible for the maintenance and repair of the building. You might also be asked to pay into a sinking fund, to help cover any unexpected maintenance work needed in the future. The service charge on many properties will come with terms and conditions about how much they could rise by in the contract. If you own a leasehold property, the repairs and maintenance on your property are your responsibility.
These usually apply to flats with common parts or to properties in residential areas which have communal gardens or grounds. As a leaseholder you have rights preventing the landlord from taking advantage of you financially. The Right to Manage — this lets leaseholders take over some management tasks from the landlord without having to prove bad management. Apply to appoint a new manager — but you must prove bad management unfair costs, breach of agreements.
MoneyHelper is the new, easy way to get clear, free, impartial help for all your money and pension choices. Whatever your circumstances or plans, move forward with MoneyHelper. Download app: WhatsApp. For help sorting out your debts or credit questions. For everything else please contact us via Webchat or telephone. Got a pension question? Will they let us build up a pot of money first then get the jobs done when we have the resources or can they demand payment upfront?
But reading through the contracts we are to sign it states we only own the freehold interest as there is the missing leasehold interest document. Could you advise me on what the difference is between freehold and freehold interest. Thanks, Angela. Hi, I own part of the freehold of a multi occupancy building and I am also a leaseholder for our house. We developed the loft space in At this point all the residents in the 6 houses of this joined up building thought we owned our own loft spaces.
There are 6 attached houses and 3 flats. We have now been told the freehold company which I am part of could ask for payment for the developed loft space. Even though no one else can gain access through to our loft we are being told the company own the loft spaces not the individual houses.
Could you help me understand my legal rights with this. Kind Regards. Caterina Speight. Whether you have any ownership of the loft should be specified in your legal documentation.
Did you have any discussion or negotiations with your freeholder at the time of planning and developing the loft? If so, try to find some written evidence of this as it could be helpful to your case. If you were to join us you would be entitled to a free legal call to discuss your rights. Hi I own the freehold on the whole property that consists of two converted flats, which I own one of. Recently I have had to make a claim on this insurance regarding the water from the flat above that came through my ceiling.
I own the freehold for the whole house and live in the first floor converted maisonette. The leaseholder lives in the ground floor flat below. We now wish to sell but I have been informed that we may need to buy a lease even though we are freeholders for the whole house we share the buildings insurance for over 10 years. Why is this? It would be good to know more details about your situation and who has advised you of this?
We would be happy to discuss further so please do consider becoming a member. Hi, I have recently completed a contract exchange on a leasehold flat on the fourth top floor of the building. On the day we completed and I picked up the keys, I was able to check the mailbox only to find a notice that the developer freeholder submitted plans to build a 5th floor extension.
They have not brought up this during negotiations and the other tenants that have also recently moved in has felt that our property value will now drop. I was wondering who I would consult regarding this first issue. In my property itself, the developer has not been around to perform a snagging review and we have found faults with the property such as a wall being built slanted causing the window to scratch the wall everytime we open it. I would just like to know who I can talk to as I feel that with the issue of the building extension and the developers freeholder failure to disclose this information during negiotations, I was unable to make an informed decision and was deceived into completing this contract.
I have confirmed that my solicitor and the selling agent were both unaware of this as well. Can I claim violation of my right to quiet enjoyment of my flat? And secondly with the state the property is in, especially with the lift being out of order while tenants were moving in is a complete disgrace and must be in breech of duties to maintain the property as a freeholder.
Your advice would be much appreciated. Have a freehold house on an estate managed development. Am I arrears and management company want to go to my mortgage company and get them to pay the arrears. The arrears have been caused by extra charges, finance charges, balancing fees, debt collectors fees. Four different management companies have been involved over the last 14 years. First two years no invoices were sent out. I am 68 on my own and living on a state pension. The letters I have received have made me really ill.
Have offered them increased monthly payments with my daughter helping me. But it has been refused. The company are Hurford Salvi Carr in Hertford. I hope you can kindly advise me. I own the freehold for the whole building and live in the first floor Flat and the leaseholder lives in the ground floor flat below.
We have had a fraught relationship from day 1 unfortunately. I own the freehold on the top floor flat in a converted old property of two flats. The owners downstairs wish to remortgage their property, and have asked me to establish whether there will be any fee to do this. I have contacted my solicitors who have stated that it is largely at my discretion, and the amount I could expect to receive would be minimal; they have also stated that this could involve a lot of paperwork!
Thanks for your query. If you have a good relationship with the downstairs owner and have no problem with them remortgaging, then you could waive any entitlement to your fee and confirm that you have been notified of the remortgage if you are required under the lease to be notified of remortgages.
We own one of a three flat leasehold. We are considering attempting to buy the freehold or extending our leases to 99 years or beyond. We have about 55 years left on the leasehold. Generally speaking, is the price of extending the lease more or less than buying the freehold.
How could your organisation help us with the decision and then assist us with the process? You can get an idea of the premium purchase price for extending the lease by using our lease extension calculator tool here. For information on the process of extending your lease, take a look at our step by step guide to extending your lease. We can help and support you through the process but you will also need professional assistance. We can help you find suitable solicitors and surveyors. I and other flat owners bought the freehold of the property a house divided to flats some yeas ago.
Recent changes: Some of the flats have been bought under buy-to-let. Question 1. Who is the landlord for a buy-to-let flat that is being rented out? Question 2. I had to have a hip operation. There is no lift in the house. I am on the 5th floor. This seems excessive and we can get it cheaper even half that amount. Are we bound to take their insurance or can we use our own.
Please do consider joining us a member and one of our property experts would be more than happy to look into your query. My partner and I own a leasehold flat with a garden. It is clearly shown on our lease. We are now going through the legalities of up scaling to freehold ownership with our two Neighbours.
There is a small patch of land which is on the other side of a fence at the top of our garden and is accessed by a side road. Our next door neighbours quite cheekily have been using this land for some years. Now that we are applying for the freehold, it has transpired the ground floor flat in our building has that patch of land on his lease. My question is, when the freehold goes through, will we loose part of our garden to give this neighbour right of way?
Presently on our lease the garden is for our sole use, and there is no right of way. One of our leasehold experts would be more than happy to answer your query if you were to join as a member.
Is this still payable? The upstairs flat would apparently pay me ground rent and pay towards the home insurance. The upstairs flat is leasehold and has 78 years left. Would you be able to explain what that would mean for me? Would I be in anyway liable for extended their leasehold etc? We have a lease hold apartment but have a mortgage. What happens when the leasehold runs out. We pay a ground rent to one company and a maintenence fee to a management company.
The ground rent does not cover any grounds or maintenence work. Should we look to buy leesehold. What is the point of buying flat on leasehold, getting a mortgage, paying almost double the property value to the bank, paying the maintenance and other charges to freeholder, being restricted to do anything with your flat, not having permit to keep animals, etc and in fact NOT REALLY OWING the property you paid for, as in 90 years it will go back to the freeholder.
You pay mortgage all your life, you do not go for nice holiday or buy a nice car, because you have to pay your mortgage and you cannot afford any luxuries in your life and you cannot even pass the property to you kinds, because the leasehold will expire by the time they are 40 y.
What is the point of buying a property in this weird country??? My daughter is buying a house and garage that is in a block they were originally built as leasehold but the vendor bought the freehold he thought this was for both house and garage but it turns out only the house was transferred into lease hold He has contacted original solicitor who did this but it is taking forever is there anyway we can hurry this up or can you give us any idea how long this will take.
Hi I have a purpose built Maisonette worth approx. Hi, I am interested in a house but there are only 43 years left on the lease. If I buy it now and sell it after two years, whether there will be a high risk that the price of this property drop? Furthermore, it is a two-storeys house but divided by two leaseholders, one leaseholder owns the ground floor and the other owns the first floor. The one in the market is the ground floor one. The location and the outlook of this property is very good, however the lease really made me in a dilemma.
What shall I do? Mine is freehold semidetached and has a flying freehold under part of the house behind. My semi detached neighbour bought his house with the other part of house behind which had a flying freehold.
He was advised to buy a lease on the rear house. He did and in doing so where do I stand? My flying freehold is over years old. Should the leaseholder pay ground rent to me?
He purchased the lease on the whole of the house behind. What rights do I have.? As one of your prev correspondents asked? Hi — I live in a freehold house on a small development of 56 homes. Is there any regulation of the industry for freeholders? If not there needs to be as there are s of these companies demanding money for nothing and getting paid by threatening hard working people with legal action.
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