Freehold Purchase
House Enfranchisement
Buying the Freehold to your House with Specialist property solicitors in Manchester and London
If you own a leasehold property and wish to buy the freehold, our expert freehold purchase solicitors can assist you through our house enfranchisement service. Owning the freehold of your house can greatly increase the value, help with selling or getting a mortgage.
Leasehold Title Restrictions
Owning a leasehold title means that you own the property on the terms set out in your lease. In addition to paying a ground rent, a leasehold title can impose restrictions on the use of your property, for example consent may be required for building extensions and transferring the property. Moreover, a lease with a term of less than 125 years may impact on the value of your property and its saleability and missing freeholders can also cause a disruption to the sale of your property altogether. Therefore, buying the freehold can offer you freedom from your freeholder and security.
Statutory Leasehold Enfranchisement
Under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967, most leasehold house owners have the statutory right to buy the freehold title to their lease, effectively buying their landlord’s interest outright. The process of buying the freehold is known as “leasehold enfranchisement”.
Buying the Freehold
It is best not to delay the purchase of your freehold.
To assist homeowners through the complex process of leasehold enfranchisement, please see our FREE GUIDE ON BUYING THE FREEHOLD or download a copy from the right hand side of this page.
Our free leasehold enfranchisement guide for houses covers:
- The routes available to buying the freehold – voluntary or statutory
- Leasehold enfranchisement process flow chart
- The steps taken in the statutory leasehold enfranchisement process
- The qualifying criteria for leasehold enfranchisement
- What happens to ancillary land and buildings
- The freehold purchase price and valuation
- How enfranchisement disputes dealt with and absent freeholders
- How third parties are dealt with
- Withdrawing the Section 5 Notice of Claim
- Extending a house lease option
- The advantages of buying the freehold
How Our Freehold Purchase Solicitors Can Help
The process of purchasing the freehold title to a property is not the same as buying a house. A leaseholder must meet certain criteria for statutory leasehold enfranchisement rights to come into effect and the process can be complicated. Therefore, specialist legal advice is recommended.
We are members of the Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners and as such our ALEP accredited leasehold enfranchisement solicitors have vast experience of dealing with the complex nuances of the issues that can arise during a freehold purchase.
However, a typical freehold purchase process would entail:
- Checking your eligibility to make a leasehold enfranchisement claim
- Preparing detailed instructions for a valuer
- Preparing and serving the section 5 notice
- Dealing with the counterclaim
- Assisting with negotiations on price
- Dealing with the transfer deed terms and covenants
- Registration at Land Registry
Our lease enfranchisement solicitors have the specialist knowledge and know-how of each step in the process of a residential freehold purchase in order to provide you with peace of mind and ensure the process progresses smoothly and efficiently whilst protecting your interests.
As specialist leasehold solicitors, our team can also advise on:
- Collective Enfranchisement
- Statutory Lease Extensions – Houses
- Statutory Lease Extensions – Flats
- Right to Manage Claims
- Right of First Refusal
- Freeholder Duties
- Service charge Disputes
- Commercial Leases
- Commercial Lease Renewals
- Buying a residential property
- Selling a residential property
- Residents Associations
Price & Service Transparency
At Monarch Solicitors we provide highly competitive fees for clients wishing to buy their freehold. We will provide you with a routine cost’s breakdown in our Terms of Engagement letter from the outset so that you can budget the costs associated with leasehold enfranchisement.
Contact Our House Enfranchisement Solicitors
We would like to discuss your house enfranchisement requirements directly to find out how we can help.
Please contact our house enfranchisement team by sending an email to us at [email protected] and one of our leasehold solicitors shall call you back.
Alternatively, please call our leasehold house enfranchisement solicitors on 0330 127 8888 for a no obligation discussion.
Monarch’s award winning legal team are based in Manchester and London.
Contact Us Today
FAQ
Leaseholders have a legal right under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 to buy the freehold of their house if they meet certain criteria. Alternatively, it is possible to negotiate with the freeholder informally to buy the freehold by agreement.
It depends on a number of factors including the rateable values of the house at different dates, the ground rent, the number of years left on the lease and the value of the house. You may be required to obtain the rateable value of the house in 1965 (or the first day of the lease, if later) and in 1990. These rateable values will tell your chartered surveyor whether to use the Original Valuation Basis or the Special Valuation Basis. Buying the freehold can be a difficult process.
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