freehold/leasehold query

[welovepinkmilk]

We bought a leasehold property last year, a 1930's semi. The freeholder is nowhere to be found and there's been no mention of 'him' for at least the last two times the property was sold. Does anyone know how we can buy the freehold if there isn't anyone to buy it from? All the guides relating to leasehold properties seem to talk about flats etc and don't have any relevance to our situation.

If no-one comes up with any advice, look on www.moneysavingexpert.com and put a thread on the relevant place in their forum. I know there are a lot of people on there with this sort of experience

Heres a link to the house buying, renting and selling forum

try this too
leasehold Advisory Service

Thank you, I'll try the links

Look on the land registry website: here You need to do a Search of the Index Map against your address. If the freehold is registered you will be able to find out the last known address (for property purposes) of your landlord. This will give you somewhere to serve papers - if you have a house you need to follow the procedure set out in the Leasehold Reform Act 1967.

So long as you've owned the house for two years, you can use the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 to either force the freeholder to sell the freehold to you or, in your case, to apply to the County Court for a Vesting Order that will give you the freehold, for a premium decided by the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. You will need to show that you have made reasonable attempts to locate the freeholder before the Court will give you the freehold so consider using an enquiry agent (they're quite inexpensive but shop around!)

You will have to wait until next year before you can exercise the right to buy the freehold but you may as well start the process now as time does fly by. For an inexpensive valuation and some general advice try www.buythefreehold.com and go to the Houses page. A chartered surveyor will charge you between £350 and £750 for doing the same calculation 0 I tried it recently and wished I hadn't used a surveyor as the price quoted by www.buythefreehold.com was almost exactly the same but at a fraction of the cost. Shop around for a solicitor as purchasing the freehold of a house is a particularly specialist area of law - very few do it.

Hope this helps and good luck

Gosh I found this when buying my house....which I've since sold. I didn't really do any of the above. This was my experience.

My solicitor noticed that the freeholder had 'disappeared' - so the likely hood was he'd died...or a company he'd set up had gone under. It turned out to be both. My solicitor did it all and then I bought it (can't remember how much for) and it was all done. It put about 3 months onto the sale of the house - but it was a vacant possession so there was no chain.

I've also had the same situation with a flat - and that was a lot more complex - and caused all manner of insurance problems etc. I ended up owning the freehold to 2 other flats in the building!

Good luck. Sounds like there are probably quite a few ways of going about it - but I would get a decent solicitor.

Flats come under the Leasehold Reform Act 1993 but the same legal principles apply. If you can't find the freeholder, you can apply to the Copunty Court for an order (called a Vesting Order) that will give you the freehold or a lease extension of an extra 90 years at a zero ground rent. You still need to obtain a price of the freehold or the lease extension, though. I trawlled the net and still came up with only two sites that could give me an immediate valuation - that is - www.buythefreehold.com andwww.extendthelease.com. They are both worth going to (although they both seem to be linked to the same website! These sites also have a range of useful FAQs and other advice that might offer answers to many questions, but if in doubt, use a solicitor. Above all, don't fret as the process is rather simple but can take a long time, so do factor this in!!

Flats come under the Leasehold Reform Act 1993 but the same legal principles apply. If you can't find the freeholder, you can apply to the Copunty Court for an order (called a Vesting Order) that will give you the freehold or a lease extension of an extra 90 years at a zero ground rent. You still need to obtain a price of the freehold or the lease extension, though. I trawlled the net and still came up with only two sites that could give me an immediate valuation - that is - www.buythefreehold.com and www.extendthelease.com. They are both worth going to (although they both seem to be linked to the same website! These sites also have a range of useful FAQs and other advice that might offer answers to many questions, but if in doubt, use a solicitor. Above all, don't fret as the process is rather simple but can take a long time, so do factor this in!!