Legal Advice

G_M

good grief!

Is this thread still rambling on?

andonandon

PaulC5

I'm struggling to follow the concept because someone said I can't buy the freehold because who then pays to maintain the common areas?
The common areas are paid for via a separate payment called the maintenance charge so in my head that's not the reason why I can't buy the freehold so my question still stands?

Not trying to be awkward or argumentative, just not an expert in this area and looking to understand how it works.

libf

PaulC5 wrote: »

I'm struggling to follow the concept because someone said I can't buy the freehold because who then pays to maintain the common areas?
The common areas are paid for via a separate payment called the maintenance charge so in my head that's not the reason why I can't buy the freehold so my question still stands?

Not trying to be awkward or argumentative, just not an expert in this area and looking to understand how it works.

Ask about buying the freehold. It will likely be prohibitively expensive, and the developer may well just decide to sell to someone who doesn't kick up a fuss about it being leasehold, but that doesn't stop you inquiring.

(You probably don't need to concern yourself with this, but... The common areas under freehold... If everyone is leasehold then the freeholder does the maintenance. If everyone was freehold then you would have to form a management company in which everyone was a member and then that company would perform the maintenance. This would have the upside of being run at cost, but the downside of having to make sure this management company actually remained able to function as a proper company and do the necessary.)

AdrianC

PaulC5 wrote: »

Why would you charge yourself to live on the plot of land you own?

For you to buy JUST your freehold, the existing freehold - for the entire development - would have to be dismantled. If everybody did that, the common areas would be orphaned. You have no legal right to force the freeholder to do that.

The legal mechanism to force sale of a freehold would cover the whole freehold. If there are 130 leases, then 66 of you would need to be in. You would each own 1/66th of a company which owned the freehold. Your house would still be leasehold, so you would still pay ground rent to the freeholder - except you would own part of that freeholder, who would still maintain all the common areas within that freehold.

If you and 33 of the other 65 shareholders in the freehold company wanted to break the freehold up, you could do that - because then it would be the freeholder wanting to do it. But you would incur substantial legal fees to do so, and you would need to decide what to do with the rest of the development.

PaulC5

Thank you, that makes more sense now.
So the freehold originates from the original land. So say if the development is over 3 seperate fields with 3 seperate freeholds, you would only need 50% or more of the houses that are built within that fields boundaries in relation to its freehold?

wastedtalent

PaulC5 wrote: »

Thank you, that makes more sense now.
So the freehold originates from the original land. So say if the development is over 3 seperate fields with 3 seperate freeholds, you would only need 50% or more of the houses that are built within that fields boundaries in relation to its freehold?

Yes you need only concern yourself with the freehold of the land your house sits on.

Then as above, you need to acquire the whole freehold, first, before you can then break that up to acquire just your own freehold. I would imagine in time and effort it's cost considerable more than it'd save unless you stayed a very long time, and not just you, but the other leaseholders as well. The chances of you getting more than 50% to agree to each bit I'd suggest are marginal at best.

AdrianC

PaulC5 wrote: »

Thank you, that makes more sense now.
So the freehold originates from the original land. So say if the development is over 3 seperate fields with 3 seperate freeholds, you would only need 50% or more of the houses that are built within that fields boundaries in relation to its freehold?

You need 50%+ of the leaseholders under a freehold to buy that freehold.

You need to look at your lease - or Land Registry - to figure out the exact freehold setup. But... if three freeholds were bought for development, the freeholds were probably merged, giving one freehold for the entire development. The legals to do that would be far simpler than trying to figure out which freehold a particular lease within that development falls under, especially if the original boundaries didn't obviously map to the final development - and, when it comes to the common areas especially, they won't.

PaulC5

AdrianC wrote: »

You need to look at your lease - or Land Registry - to figure out the exact freehold setup. But... if three freeholds were bought for development, the freeholds were probably merged, giving one freehold for the entire development.

Thats a shame as there are only 28 houses in the field my house sits in so wouldn't be that difficult persuade 14 others. The fields is easily marked as the majority of original hedges will stay in place with identifiable trees along them too.

Oh well, best sign the paperwork and get it sent back then.

Thanks to everyone's contributions.