Remortgaging freehold flat

gwynlas

I am unclear how you can have a freehold flat in England as usually the freehold is attached to the plot the flats are built on and in the case of four flats you would each own a quarter share. Unless of course you have a portion of a converted building classed as a flat but without shared communal areas or roof. How do you deal with buildings insurance and maintenance issues?.
The ideal would be to have a simple managemment company and four leases detailng our shared responsibilities.
I would check all your paperwork it might be that there was a combined entity that fell into disuse and became dormant.

eddddy

The ideal way forward, is that all the flat freeholders get together and merge all their freehold titles to create a building with a single freehold - and then grant themselves 999 year leases on each of their flats. But all the flat owners would have to agree,

It would need the cooperation of all the mortgage lenders as well. Although they might be pleased, as leasehold flats would be better security than freehold flats.

There'd probably be a big chunk of legal fees to pay, but it might be worth it to make the flats mortgageable again.

JMC100

Thank you both for getting in touch. At present all flat owners have insurance, there is nothing in place for maintenance issues. Yes you are right, and as such something we have looked into but without the agreement of the other flat owners. We haven't been able to do either of the above as they are just not interested 

princeofpounds

gwynlas said:

I am unclear how you can have a freehold flat in England

It's perfectly possible to have a freehold flat in England - google 'flying freehold' or 'creeping freehold'. It's just very rare, because it causes legal problems; primarily a lack of collective rights & obligations to physical support of any structure. 

It is most commonly found with coach-house type situations, where someone owns a structure over a driveway they don't own. Sometimes you get them in really old terraced buildings that have grown rather 'organically' over time.

Almost no-one would set up the title that way these days, but back in the day people simply didn't worry about stuff like that as much.

loubel

Flying freeholds refer to properties which partly overhang another's land. These are usually accepted by mortgage lenders where they are only a small percentage of the property and either come with the requisite rights and obligations or an insurance policy. A truly freehold flat will be very hard (if not impossible) to mortgage and will require a  specialist broker.

Could you go back to the broker who found your current mortgage?