Freehold
The term ‘freehold’ in property law describes the ownership of a property. A freeholder of a property owns the ‘title absolute’ of the property, that is, ownership of the land and any immovable structures attached to it, outright in perpetuity.
The freeholders details will appear on the land registry, and the freeholder is responsible for any maintenance and repair works. Freeholders may also be referred to as 'landlords' or 'lessors'.
A freehold is in contrast to:
- A ‘leasehold’, which describes a lease from the freeholder that enables the leaseholder to use the property for a specified period, after which it will revert to the freeholder. Leaseholders are sometimes also referred to as ‘tenants’.
- A ‘commonhold’, which is a form of property ownership for multi-occupancy properties that enables the collective ownership of the freehold of property.
A leaseholder may be able to purchase the freehold of the property (leasehold enfranchisement). This can be either by agreement with the freeholder, or for houses or flats, can be by right.
A leaseholder may have the right to purchase a freehold if they have owned the lease to a house for at least two years, or, if they own a flat, they may be able to buy it collectively with other leaseholders (see Shelter, Buying the freehold of a house for more information). Leaseholders of flats will also normally have the right of first refusal (RFR) if the freeholder decides to sell the freehold.
Leaseholders are entitled to know the name and address of their freeholder.
Existing leases can also be converted into a commonhold, but this requires the agreement of the leaseholders, landlords and any lenders, which may be difficult to achieve.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
- Accommodation.
- Buy-to-let mortgage.
- Commonhold.
- Copyhold.
- Housing tenure.
- Land registry.
- Landlord.
- Leasehold.
- Licence for Alterations for Apartment.
- Negotiating a lease.
- Poor drafting of agreements.
- Property guardianship.
- Property ownership.
- Property rights.
- Remortgage.
- Resident.
- Types of building.
- Vacant possession.
- What is an estate?
- What is a mortgage?
[edit] External references
- Shelter, Buying the freehold of a house.
Featured articles and news
The CIAT principal designer register
Providing assurance and verification of the capability and competence of registered ATs.
Building Safety recommendations and Northern Ireland
The NI roadmap to improving safety in high rise residential.
BSA residential sector competence standards guidance
BSAS 01:2024 Organisational Capability Management System Standard - Competence Assurance.
Specifying rendered external wall insulation for fire safety
How to interrogate the evidence provided to the specifier.
The benefits of writing articles for your organisation
How to create a profile for your organisation and publish for free.
No Falls Week. The importance of safe working at height
What to expect and what is on offer to avoid accidents.
Scottish Government action to reach net-zero targets
Retrofit expert group highlight critical actions needed.
A forward thinking, inclusive global community of members.
From engineered product life-spans, to their extension.
Circular economy in the built environment
A brief description from 2021. Where are we now?
CLC publishes domestic retrofit competency framework
Roadmap of Skills for net zero.
Understanding is key to conservation.
Open industry engagement survey seeks responses
Institutions and the importance of engagement.
National Retrofit Hub unveils new guide
Digital Building Logbooks and Retrofit: An Introduction.