Owning share of Freehold & garden sale?

tizzle6560

Hi all, some advice needed on the following -

Myself and the other 2 leaseholders in my building are considering buying the Freehold. There is plenty years left on the leases and personally we would like to manage the property ourselves and save on PMC fees, not get ripped off for bulb changes etc.

About 18 months ago I brought it to the FH's attention that my neighbours had asked if they could purchase a small portion of the (private, not shared) garden that sits within the demise of my ground floor flat. It didnt come to much as both side's valuation of the land was simply too far apart.

Should we indeed go ahead with purchasing the FH, do either of the other 2 Leaseholders involved have a say in what I can do with the private garden land? Or am I right to assume that as it falls under the demise of my property, I can do with it what I like?

Many thanks for any advice

davidmcn

If you're the leaseholder of your garden then a sale would also need the freeholder's involvement - which would be everyone.

G_M

What does 'private land' mean? My guess is
* it is part of the freehold, but
* falls within your lease

As david says, if the 'private land' is part of the freehold of the property, then clearly the freeholders would have to agree to any sale.

have a say in what I can do with the private garden land?

What do you mean by 'do with'? If you own the lease within which this land falls, you can do anything lawful with the land which is permitted by your lease.
* grow whatever plants you want
* put up a greenhouse (unless the lease prohibits greenhouses)
* sunbathe nude on the lawn (unless the neighbours object)
etc

This is effectively the same advice you received here 18 months ago!
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/68478064#Comment_68478064

Perhaps another suggestion, given the repeated issues you've had with this property, would be to buy a freehold house.....

tizzle6560

G_M wrote: »

What does 'private land' mean? My guess is
* it is part of the freehold, but
* falls within your lease

Correct on this yes.

As david says, if the 'private land' is part of the freehold of the property, then clearly the freeholders would have to agree to any sale.

What do you mean by 'do with'? If you own the lease within which this land falls, you can do anything lawful with the land which is permitted by your lease.
* grow whatever plants you want
* put up a greenhouse (unless the lease prohibits greenhouses)
* sunbathe nude on the lawn (unless the neighbours object)
etc

I am simply referring to the sale of said land above.

Luckily both other leaseholders are fairly decent so hopefully would not care too much/ stand in the way. I can always chuck a portion of the sale price their way if need be.

harrys_dad

If you bought the freehold equally between you then surely any proceeds from a sale of land would have to be shared equally too?

steeeb

harrys_dad wrote: »

If you bought the freehold equally between you then surely any proceeds from a sale of land would have to be shared equally too?

The land/garden is in her lease.

economic

sounds like the leaseholder is spending too much time on these issues (she posted another question on noise from above flat). sadly owning a flat does mean more time spent but to the OP it sounds like she has got a lot of things to worry about.

btw buying the freehold is no easy task. its not only costly but time consuming can take 6 months to a year or maybe more. not only that but u need agreement from the other leaseholders, and if one pulls out then you are back to square one. time and money wasted on surveys and legal.

by all means spend the time to make it better for you but realise that there will always be an issue sooner or later whether u own a share of freehold or not. part of it is due to the silly leasehold laws. i hope the time and money is worth spent.

tizzle6560

steeeb wrote: »

The land/garden is in her lease.

Exactly where I was coming from. So does this mean that they would need to agree, or is it solely down to me as the land is in my lease and not their's?

G_M

tizzle6560 wrote: »

Exactly where I was coming from. So does this mean that they would need to agree, or is it solely down to me as the land is in my lease and not their's?

Good grief!

Already clearly answered in both this thread and your previous one.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/68478064#Comment_68478064

Asking the question again, and again, when you get a reply you don't like will not change the reply.

personally we would like to manage the property ourselves and save on PMC fees,

Why not apply for RTM? Much simpler.

(she posted another question on noise from above flat)

and leak from above. And smokers at the door. And..........and.......

tizzle6560

G_M wrote: »

and leak from above. And smokers at the door. And..........and.......

And.... and... is it a crime to ask this forum for advice on whatever and however many issues I might have?

I'm well aware that buying a flat comes with certain repercussions/issues but we are not all in a position to buy a house, with its own Freehold, in London, first time round.

If you don't like the context of the OP, or subsequent posts - no one is holding a gun to your head to keep responding.

Cakeguts

At the moment the freeholder owns all the land including your garden what you have is a lease of it. If you and your fellow leaseholders buy the freehold your garden will still be owned by the freeholder. The freehold though will be jointly owned by all the people who bought it so you will still only have a lease of the land. If you wanted to sell that land then you would have to get the agreement of all the people who own the freehold and the money raised would have to be divided between all of them.

There is no way that you will ever be able to sell a piece of your garden and get all the money raised from it because you will never own it on your own it will always form a part of a lease. In your latest plan the only difference between freeholders will be someone else owning it changing to several of you neighbours owning it.