Buying a house with garage on another street - Is this really freehold ?

[Dumdidums]

This morning i went to view a terraced house to buy . It seems that the garages to the houses are at the bottom of the garden but this effectively means that the vehicle entrance to the garage is on the parallel street. There is also a storey of flats above the garages.
I want to buy a freehold property , is it likely that the freehold owner of the flats may own the garage and that therefore there may be a fee . I would probably be using the garage for storage and not for a car so im not keen on encountering legal issues with something that may end up being used as a large garden shed .
The estate agent couldn't provide any info on who owns the flats or the land the garage is on or whether there is a fee etc. He did say he would get back to me but apparently the property has 12 viewings today so im not holding my breath.
Are there likely to be any legal issues here as i just get the feeling that legally this could be complicated or am i overthinking this ? Its the major thing thats putting me off making an offer as i do not want to have any dealings with a landlord in a future property

It’s unlikely to be a freehold garage if there’s a flat above. Technically possible but unlikely.

You’ll probably find that somebody owns the freehold, and then the flat and the garage are both leasehold properties.

Whoever owns the freehold would be responsible for maintenance and insurance of the building structure, and you’d cover their costs by paying a service charge. Their might also be a ground rent to pay, in which case check amounts and how it can increase over time very carefully.

In principle it should be very straightforward. In reality if the freeholder is rubbish, you could have a situation where eg the flat leaks into the garage, the garage roof becomes unsafe, but the freeholder won’t sort it out. Then it gets complicated.

So if you can afford freehold in your area that’s simpler.

thanks i feel this puts into words what i was thinking @OneCalamerra

It’s really frustrating when agents are not clear about this kind of thing upfront. Surely they must know this is a question potential buyers would want answered. I think you are right to be concerned.

We recently viewed a property that was described as freehold, but substantial parts of it (2 bedrooms) were flying freehold as they were above the neighbouring property (who themselves had 2 rooms below the property we viewed, on a flying freehold too). Far too complicated and pretty unmortgagable. Wouldn’t have bothered viewing if we’d known from the outset.

@umbel - absolutely, such a waste of time. We drove out an hour to see a beautiful detached house with big gardens in the countryside - turned out it was a leasehold house, on an estate of other houses who all collectively owned and maintained the big communal gardens. Why waste everybody’s time like that? We were never going to buy it.