Sold part of land.

Agraham1826

Hello, I own a flat and pay ground rent/service charge. Recently the leaseholder sold part of the land which the management suit was on and we are now getting charge more service charge to build a new one. 1. Are they allowed to do this? 2. If they sold some of the land should the owners of the flat be then able to buy the freehold of our flats because they’ve sold some of the land? 

Alter_ego

I imagine you are the leaseholder and the landlord has sold part of the land?

Freehold is on land not individual flats, so it's only possible to jointly own the freehold with the other flats.

I doubt if the freeholder can add the cost of building an office to your service charges

princeofpounds

Hi, unfortunately it's not quite clear what has happened here from your description.

If you own the flat, you are the leaseholder. 

The entity that owns the ground and the building as a whole, and has awarded long leases to the flat owners, is called the freeholder. I presume it is the freeholder that has sold part of the land included in the freehold title. Do you know who the freeholder actually is? (Not a specific name, but is it a third party company, or held by some of the leaseholders? etc.)

I presume the management suite is essentially an office and facilities building used for the management of the site? And you are sure that they have carved this into a separate freehold title and sold it off?

They are allowed to charge leaseholders for expenses incurred in site management as long as:
- The charge has been demanded in a valid format (let's assume it has).
- The basis for the charge is detailed in the lease (they are usually written quite widely, so it probably is but we cannot be sure)
- The charges are reasonable (this may be a valid point of contention).

There is also a separate question about what rights the leases give you over the the freehold property, and whether those were infringed by selling part of the site.

Do you know what happened to the proceeds of the building that they sold?

Certainly you should book a telephone appointment with Leasehold Advisory Service, a government-funded advice service for matters like these https://www.lease-advice.org/

If the leaseholders are interested in buying the freehold then that is called collective enfranchisement. Read this link: https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/ce-getting-started/