Buying A House Or Flat

I want to buy the freehold of my building. What do I do?

I want to buy the freehold of my building. What do I do?

You have the right compulsorily to buy out your Landlord’s freehold interest.  This is known as enfranchisement. As with the right to extend your Lease, you must qualify in order to exercise your right in so far as you must have held the Lease of your property for a minimum of 2 years and hold the property on a Long Lease of over 21 years. In addition the building must contain 2 or more flats, which usually would be self-contained, where at least two thirds of the flats are also sold to qualifying Tenants.

 In order to apply to buy the freehold you must serve notice on your Landlord. The price for such acquisition is based upon the rateable rent value, calculated on an ‘Open Market’ basis with at least half of the ‘Marriage Value’ being added and will usually be agreed between yourself and your Landlord. However, in the circumstances where an agreement cannot be reached, the matter can be referred to the Lands Tribunal. In addition to this cost you may have to pay the landlords legal fees and surveyors costs 50% of the tenants of your building will need to be prepared to participate in the enfranchisement.  If you wanted to exercise your right to buy the freehold it is recommended that you discuss the issue with the other tenants of the building to ascertain whether or not they qualify and in need wish to participate.  You may then wish to set up a Management Company.

Other frequently asked questions