Property Ownership

It may seem like technical legal language but understanding your property tenure makes the difference between owning outright and having a landlord. Do you know the difference between Freehold, Leasehold or Flying Freehold and what is the difference between Shared Ownership and Co-Ownership? Here, we give a brief synopsis of all types of ownership: –

Freehold

Generally seen as better than Leasehold as no real restrictions regarding what you can do with the property.

Flying Freehold

An example of where this may arise is a room situated above a shared passageway in a semi-detached house or row of terraced houses.  The passageway would have its own freehold title and the room would be a Flying Freehold.

Leasehold

The Freehold owner provides the Leaseholder with rights of possession and use of the land by granting them a Lease.  This has had “bad press” of late with shorter Leases of 125 years rather than 999, and fixed rental increases.  The Competition and Marketing Authority is investigating and recently Persimmon Homes agreed a fixed fee to sell Leaseholds and other developers have frozen their right to increase the rent.

Shared Ownership

Aimed to help first time buyers.  Typically, the purchase owns 25% and pays rent on the remainder.  They can purchase the remainder at which point in practical terms it will cease to be a Shared Ownership and would simply become a leasehold.

Common Hold

A former Freehold enabling a building or large development to go under a freehold basis.  It provides a structure to manage the relationship between the separate Freehold properties, typically this is in a block of flats.

If you wish to discuss any aspects of Tenure, please do not hesitate to contact Brent Forbes on 01282 456677.