Freeholder/Registered Owner/Landlord/Lessor

stardust23

I am a Leaseholder.

In the Freehold Title Register, the Registered Owner is shown as "COMPANY 1".
In the Notice of Rent, the Landlord is shown as "COMPANY 2".
In the Lease, the Lessor is shown as "COMPANY 3".

I assumed they would be the same.  Does that make sense?

user1977

The lessor in the lease is whoever originally granted the lease - not necessarily the current freeholder.

There's definitely only one layer of leases involved rather than a lease and then a sublease? Company 1 and Company 2 are different companies, rather than the same company with different names? The title register is up to date and there aren't pending applications for registration?

stardust23

1) I am the only Leaseholder.
2) Company 1 and Company 2 are different companies.
3) I downloaded the Freeholder Title Register yesterday.

It was always said (e.g. by LEASE and others) that Ground Rent, Insurance etc. are paid to the Landlord (who was always the Freeholder), so who am I now responsible to for making those payments and/or going to First Tier Tribunal, if I needed?

user1977

Might help if you showed us what it is you're looking at.

eddddy

stardust23 said:

... Landlord (who was always the Freeholder)

Usually, but not always!

There might be an intermediate lease (also known as a headlease). So the ownership structure could be like this...  (From your previous post it sounds like your leasehold property is a flat)

• 1) A freeholder owns the freehold of your building (or owns the freehold of a group of buildings)

• 2) An Intermediate leaseholder who owns a headlease (often a subset of what the freeholder owns - e.g. just one building)

• 3) You - the leaseholder of just one flat (a.k.a a sub-leaseholder)

In that case,

• You are at level 3
• Your landlord is the person/company at level 2
• The freeholder is the person/company at level 1

What has made you query this? Has something changed? Are you getting ground rent demands from a different company than previously?

You could ask the management company to clarify the situation.

eddddy

 Just another thought...

stardust23 said:

It was always said (e.g. by LEASE and others) that Ground Rent, Insurance etc. are paid to the Landlord ...

How many parties are mentioned on your lease - 2 or 3?

A lease with 3 parties (a.k.a a tripartite lease) might be between lessor, lessee and management company.

In that case...

• Ground Rent normally goes to your landlord (the lessor)
• Insurance payments might go to your landlord or the management company
• Service Charges normally go to the management company

Remembering that your landlord might or might not be the freeholder. And the management company might collect Ground Rent and/or insurance payments on behalf of your landlord.


(And just a random question - is there a Housing Association involved?)

stardust23

No, it is not a H.A.

It is a private building of 13 flats. The 13 flats have one Freehold Owner, as per the one Title Register of the 13 flats.

How does a Freehold Owner make a company(or anyone) a landlord? Just saying (or writing) that they are?

eddddy

stardust23 said:

How does a Freehold Owner make a company(or anyone) a landlord? Just saying (or writing) that they are?

No... they would do it by transferring ownership.

For example, if company A owns the freehold and they are your landlord - they can transfer ownership (e.g. sell)  the freehold to company B. Then Company B is your landlord.

(Assuming no intermediate leases.)

stardust23 said:

The 13 flats have one Freehold Owner, as per the one Title Register of the 13 flats.

FWIW, that alone isn't conclusive evidence that there is no intermediate lease. The intermediate lease might not be registered with LR.

For conclusive evidence, you need to cross reference title numbers in the title register. Look for a line saying something like "Lessor's title registered under nnnnnn". 

stardust23

1) Would the ownership transfer be available public?

2) The Title Register document says ...

"Title register for:

52A to 76A XXXXXXXX (Freehold)
Title number: NGL33zzzz

Registered owners [COMPANY 1]

B: Proprietorship Register

This register specifies the class of title and identifies the owner. It contains any entries that affect the right of disposal.

Class of Title: Title absolute"

3) The Lease states ...

"The Lessor [COMPANY 2] is registered at H.M. Land Registry as proprietor with absolute title of the freehold property known as numbers 52a to 76a ... under title number NGL33zzzz"

eddddy

stardust23 said:

3) The Lease states ...

"The Lessor [COMPANY 2] is registered at H.M. Land Registry as proprietor with absolute title of the freehold property known as numbers 52a to 76a ... under title number NGL33zzzz"

Your lease is a historic document. It tells you who the lessor/freeholder was on the day that the lease was first granted. That might be decades ago.

The freehold could have been sold many times since that day. Each time it's sold there would be a new lessor/freeholder. (But your lease document doesn't get changed.)



But the Title Register gets updated each time the property is sold (or transferred). Sometimes there's a backlog and it takes a while to be updated.

However, if the freehold was being sold, you should have received a Section 5 notice before the sale and a Section 3 notice after the sale.

stardust23

Section 5 of which Act please?