Process and cost of buying share of freehold from other owners

BT_Scam

Hi All,

I need some help regarding the process and cost of buying share of freehold from other owners.

Ours is the only flat left which is on lease and rest all the flats in the block are freehold.

Everywhere there is information about how to get together and buy share of freehold together with other flat owners, but I can't anywhere find the process and costs involved for a single flat owner to buy or to be included with other freehold flat owners ?

Can anyone please share whatever information / knowledge in this regard.

Thanks

eddddy

I suspect that all the flats in the block are leasehold...

... but all the other leaseholders except you, also jointly own the freehold - perhaps through a company.

(That's what estate agents often call 'Share of Freehold'.)

If you want to become a joint owner of the freehold (or a shareholder in the company), along with the other leaseholders - all you can do is ask them if they'll agree to that.

If they do agree, they'll probably expect you to pay them some cash.

You don't have any statutory right to force them to do that though.

BT_Scam

Thanks a lot edddy.

Can we only approach them through solicitors or can we do it ourselves?

If they agree to for us to become joint owner of leasehold then, how will our title deed of land registry change to reflect the share of freehold and lease years of 999 as they all have in their land registry ?

eddddy

BT_Scam wrote: »

Can we only approach them through solicitors or can we do it ourselves?

I definitely wouldn't get a solicitor involved at this stage - it's not any kind of formal process.

A group of people jointly own a building - and you want to buy a share from them. So you ask them if they'll sell you a share. They might say yes, or they might say no.

BT_Scam wrote: »

If they agree to for us to become joint owner of [STRIKE]leasehold[/STRIKE] freehold then, how will our title deed of land registry change to reflect the share of freehold and lease years of 999 as they all have in their land registry ?

You will either become a joint owner of the freehold (and your joint ownership would be registered with land registry) or you will own a share in the freehold company.

Your lease will not change to 999 years automatically. But that's something you can negotiate with the joint freeholders.

i.e. You say to the joint freeholders something like "I want to buy a share of the freehold, and I want my lease extended to 999 years - are you prepared to negotiate a price for that?"

But again they might just say "no" - or they might be prepared to start a negotiation.

BT_Scam

Thanks again edddy for you help, I am really very grateful already for the valuable information you have shared.

From your last answer, I gather that share of freehold and lease are separate and two different things?

The other owners who are joint owner of the freehold can allow me to own the share of freehold but they can still refuse to extend the lease? Quite obvious, they can refuse for both.

If this is correct, I want to know, are those the people who can extend the lease (after taking some money)?

da_rule

Yes, the lease and the freehold are different and in these circumstances both will continue to exist independently of each other.

In terms of who can authorise an extension of your lease, that would be a decision for the owners of the freehold. If there is a company, at least one director would be required to sign the new lease. If they own the freehold in a personal capacity then all of the owners would have to sign the new lease.

There is a statutory route for extending the lease which requires you to serve notice on the freeholders.

BT_Scam

Thanks da_rule.

But I guess the route of Freehold is much better than extending the lease, isn't it? and that is why we may be taking the freehold route.

Is there ever an issue in this particular case where the owners of the freehold flat have to include another owner in the freehold and increase the lease, apart from the money involved ?

Tom99

If you have owned the flat for 2yrs you have a statutory right to extend the lease by +90yrs and reduce the ground rent to a peppercorn at a fair market price. Bear that in mind as a backdrop.

That may be almost as good as a share of the freehold. If you own a share of the freehold you will have a say in how the block is managed but your influence will depend on whether you are say 1 of 4 freeholders or 1 of 50.

BT_Scam

My perception is that freehold brings 999 years of lease with it and that is why we want to get our flat freehold like all the others in our block who have 999 years of lease as their land registry says.

Tom99

BT_Scam wrote: »

My perception is that freehold brings 999 years of lease with it and that is why we want to get our flat freehold like all the others in our block who have 999 years of lease as their land registry says.

No, that will only happen if that is what you agree when you buy a share of the freehold, its not a given.
A statutory lease extension gets you +90yrs on your current lease and I doubt there is any price difference between say a 100yr lease and a 999yr lease so don't overpay for the freehold just to get a longer lease, if say your current lease has 70yrs to run a lease extension will get you 160yrs at a peppercorn.

BT_Scam

Guy, once again many thanks for your answers and help.

We have just now found out that we own a share of freehold, but still still our lease as mentioned in land registry is 99 years,

Now, there are many ifs and buts, can it be possible the previous owner who had bought of share of freehold also got the lease extended but could not get it registered ?

If not, then now knowing that we own a share of freehold, does it make it any simpler to extend our lease.

One important point to not is that all the owners who own the share of freehold have 999 years of lease except us ?