Flying freehold?

Blondie1983

Hello,

Has anyone had any experience of buying a house which has a flying freehold? House in question is a semi with a alley beneath the middle of the houses. There is a shared right of way through the alley and one of 'my' rooms sits over it. I know it can cause issues with some lenders, just wondering how much of an issue this could be before I consider offering? TIA :-)

MyOnlyPost

I have no personal experience, my sister has lived in a similar propert for 15 years and they got a mortgage, but of course things change.

da_rule

Are you sure it's a flying freehold? A flying freehold generally only exists where your freehold sits above (or below) another freehold. Is the part of the alleyway that your room overhangs owned by someone else?

The things that will need to be considered will be whether there is a right of support and whether you would need any permissions to place scaffolding or support props on the path should the overhanging part suffer problems. As long as the surveyor is happy, and depending on what sort of size we are talking (a 1 meter wide alley way etc) then it may not be too detrimental.

Blondie1983

I'm awaiting more info from the EA pending a second viewing on Saturday (this is with the vendor himself so hopefully he'll know more). The EA simply said he thinks the alleyway is jointly split between the 2 neighbours - so the property I'm viewing and the one attached, with 'my' room hanging over it. It's simply a narrow alley to access our back gardens. Just feeling a bit wary about it though it may not be anything to worry about too much!

tim123456789

this is the simpler end of flying freeholds

I shouldn't worry about it

trailingspouse

Once upon a time, you couldn't get a mortgage for a flying freehold. But I don't think it's been a problem for a while now.

We bought a house where part of the little bedroom was effectively above next door's hall. They needed all sorts of measurements and so on, but nothing onerous, and it wasn't a problem when we sold either.

Blondie1983

Thanks for the info. I guess that is the other worry - whether when we'd come to sell (if we bought it) then people would be put off by it! Bit more reassured now

Purplepenguin88

The property we're buying has exactly that.
Neither our mortgage broker nor our solicitor seemed at all concerned when I told them.
So far no red flags with the mortgage company (survey is today).
The LR plan has been obtained and shows the right of way for us under next door's bit and their bit under ours, and everyone seems happy with it so far.

G_M

Who owns the land?

Is the alley within the boundary of the property? If yes, then it's not a flying freehold, it's a simple right of way across your land (just like a footpath across your garden for example)

If the land is owned by someone else (eg the neighour the other side, the council, etc), then yes, your property overhangs someone else's land, and is a FF - there may then be issues around your right to sleep there (!) and /or maintenance issues.

Blondie1983

The alley appears to be within my boundary but the advert says the property is freehold with a flying freehold. I'm still awaiting EA clarification - he simply pointed at the arch and room on viewing and said "that's the flying freehold bit"!

da_rule

Blondie1983 wrote: »

The alley appears to be within my boundary but the advert says the property is freehold with a flying freehold. I'm still awaiting EA clarification - he simply pointed at the arch and room on viewing and said "that's the flying freehold bit"!

This is kind of a common misunderstanding. People think that anything that doesn't make contact with the ground is "flying", when actually it's only if it passes over land owned by someone else.