When you purchase a freehold property, you are legally required to inform tenants that you are their new landlord. Get your free, Section 3 template today.
If you’re selling a freehold privately, you’ll need to serve Section 5A Notices on qualifying tenants to offer them the Right of First Refusal.
When selling a freehold by public auction, you’ll need to serve Section 5B Notices on qualifying tenants to offer them the Right of First Refusal.
If your freehold property requires major works, you may need to serve the Section 20 Notice. Start the consultation procedure with our free template.
Any demand for ground rent must be made using a Section 166 Notice. We offer two solutions to help you retrieve rent for up to six previous years.
Under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, resident landlords are exempt from offering the Right of First Refusal, so long as they meet the following conditions: The building is not a purpose-built block of flats, that is, it must be a property, a house for example, which has been converted into flats since its original construction; and The landlord genuinely lives in the building as his only or principle residence and has done so for the past twelve months
A creeping freehold is a freehold property where a section of that property underlies a different freehold at ground level, such as a basement or cellar
The Section 20 Notice forms part of a three-stage consultation procedure. This enables leaseholders to provide their observations, any objections to the works, and to nominate contractors from whom the freeholder should obtain estimates. If leaseholders feel that the freeholder is requesting excessive or unreasonable sums for the works, they can apply to the First-Tier Tribunal for a determination of liability to pay and the reasonableness of any service charges demanded.
Section 20 Notices must be served in accordance with what is stated in the lease for the property. This is typically 1st class mail or recorded delivery. It is advisable to only send Section 20 Notices via email as an additional form of service.
The process for issuing Section 20 Notices is typically dictated by the lease for the property. However, the common requirement is for Section 20 Notices to be served via 1st class mail to the leaseholder’s property. Alternatively, the lease may require service of Section 20 Notices via recorded delivery.
Technically, a Section 20 Notice cannot expire. Although there is no specified time limit for the service of a Section 20 Notice, the relevant works should not be delayed as there is a risk that changes can take place, amounting to a breach of the consultation requirements.
A Section 20 Notice of Intention informs leaseholders that the freeholder of the building in which they own a property wishes to carry out major works. As leaseholders are typically required to cover the cost for works, the Section 20 Notice procedure provides them with an opportunity to decide how their money is spent.
Qualifying works under Section 20 are any maintenance or repairs to a residential freehold property where the contribution from any one leaseholder will exceed £250.
In most cases you will not be able to prevent your tenants from purchasing the freehold unless they are not eligible to do so. Once you are served with a notice of enfranchisement, you will have two-months to issue your counter notice. Learn more here.
If a leaseholder or group of leaseholders wish to purchase their freehold, they could approach the landlord informally. However, if they are unsuccessful they are able to serve their landlord with an enfranchisement notice. Leaseholders can only collectively enfranchise if they qualify to do so. Learn more about enfranchisement here.
Tenants qualify for Collective Enfranchisment if at least two-thirds of the flats are owned by qualifying tenants and their leases were granted with an original term of more than 21 years. If tenants own more than two flats in the building, they will not be eligible. Find out more.
Collective Enfranchisement is the right outlined in the Leasehold Reform Housing & Urban Development Act 1993 for leaseholders of a building containing flats to collectively purchase the freehold. Learn more here.
Our aim is to make selling a freehold fast and simple for our customers and we can do this because we are expert freehold buyers, with decades of experience.