Buying your freehold
Properties in England can be either Freehold or Leasehold.
If you own a leasehold property you may have certain restrictions placed on what you can do to the property, these restrictions will be contained in the lease document and can vary enormously in scope.
You will also be liable to pay ground rent to the landlord on an annual basis. Again, the amount of this can vary greatly.
The restrictions in a lease can take many forms, but common ones which can cause problems are when you want to make changes to your property. This can be something like wanting to build an extension, or even smaller changes such as putting up a satellite dish.
These clauses do not mean that you cannot carry out the changes at all, simply that you will need to ask your landlord for consent before making any of these changes, and the landlord can charge a fee for providing consent, or in some cases refuse the consent.
You can apply to purchase the freehold to your property if certain criteria are met. This means that the property would no longer be leasehold and that you would own the property and the land with no time constraints and with no or limited restrictions imposed by a lease. This means that you would have greater control over what you could do with the property and also that you would no longer have to pay ground rent.
For flats the rules are different. If you own a leasehold flat then you can
purchase the freehold to the flats collectively with other flat owners in the same property. This is known as collective enfranchisement.
If you wish to purchase the freehold to your property you will need a solicitor to deal with the legal work. We are specialists in helping people to acquire their freeholds and have handled many cases for our clients. Please contact us for a quotation or for more information.
