Any guidance on how a freeholder can refuse to sell?

Fedcas65

Hi,

it seems I can't find this precise scenario, I need to buy a leasehold home, which includes only one title, that is, one terrain, simple.

The problem is that I want to make a few adjustments, I need to do terrain leveling (with terrain, I don't think I'll use stone or brickwork) because I want to put a big shed on top of it (not higher than 2m). The shed will have electricity, but not water probably and it will not be bigger than the 50% of the house size.
My neighbors may question the increase, which is probably about 40cm, but can they?
regardless, is it legal what I want to do?
I won't raise the fence, even though I could up to 2m because currently it's much less than that, around 160cm I guess.

Due to my objective, I need to buy the freehold right, currently there is a leasehold of 250y, can the freeholder refuse to sell?

Is there any price guidance on how much I can be charged?
The plot is roughly 120-140 m2 in a remote are of Merseyside, the exact opposite of a prime location in the center.

Looking at the land registry, the leasehold sale was 330k, which is much more than with the house on top of it as of today , so I wonder if it refers to all the list of plots available (20-40), or if there is something I missed...

eddddy

So you want to buy a leasehold house, and also buy the freehold, and alter the garden, and build a large garden building.

There's a lot of points to cover. As a starting point, there are 2 routes for a leaseholder to buy the freehold of a house...

• The formal route - known as "statutory enfranchisement"
• The informal route

You can read a bit out the 2 routes here: https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/i-own-a-leasehold-house-how-do-i-buy-the-freehold/

If you decide to follow the statutory enfranchisement route, here's more info about it: https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/houses-qualification-valuation/


Briefly,

• Statutory enfranchisement is possible with most leasehold houses, and the freeholder usually can't stop it. (See the link above for the 'rules'.)

• You have to own a leasehold house for 2 years before starting Statutory Enfranchisement - but you can ask the seller to start it, to avoid a 2 year wait.

• Even when you own the freehold, it's possible that there will be covenants (or rules) which restrict what you can build in the garden