We are leaseholders of apartments - I can't find my block's freeholder

If you own a leasehold residential flat in England or Wales you may wish to make contact with your freeholder (referred to as a ‘landlord’ according to the law) for a whole range of reasons. Perhaps you want to extend the time of your lease, maybe you in addition to a group of people want to acquire the freehold, possibly you have issues with the management of the development plus the freeholder controls the repair or maybe you have an issue with the ground rent.

It should be uncomplicated to find your freeholder but at times it is not. Possibly you don’t know the details as well as don’t know where to begin looking. Your flat’s lease record may not be the best place to begin. It will detail the original parties to the lease along with will tell you the original freeholder, but this might have changed.

If you have been receiving ground rent demands, then these will have all the freeholder’s details. The demand needs to be in a accepted format so almost undoubtedly you should have all the data you need on there. However surprisingly frequently freeholders either overlook sending the demand since it is seldom for a large sum, or the freeholder is no longer actively involved in their ownership.

If you don’t hold any of the above, in that case you can easily get a Title from the Land Registry online (not the same as the lease but it should show the details of your freeholder). The Land Registry charges £4 at the time of writing (December 2010) for any person to look for the freehold title. You can also get the leasehold title just for your apartment or the freehold title should list all the flats in the block for which the freeholder has title. Go to www.landregistry.gov.uk as well as look for the Find a Property section and you can go to the Title Registry section in addition to download a copy of the freehold title.

If you know the name of the freeholder in addition to some further details you may still not have the contact details. This is where you would possiblyneed to do a little detective work. There are a massiveamount of online sources including social media, online directories in addition to superb search tools that might give you the option to find your missing freeholder.

The primary thing to bear in mind is that the law is on your side. The next thing is, if you have tried every viable way to contact the freeholder, there is more often than not a means that the system allows you to get the result that you want, be that a lease extension, freehold acquisition or Right to Manage (RTM). You will need an enfranchisement solicitor in addition to/or surveyor to help here and you can find vetted local practitioners at their web site www.alep.org.uk.

Maybe the freehold is owned by an individual as well as they may have died. Alte
atively they have moved as well as not informed the Land Registry of their new address, as is their obligation. An added option is that you have not been offered the “right of first refusal” when a freehold title was sold. This is illegal as well as for 18 months you have the right to overtu
the sale or buy it yourself.

Having found the freeholder is sometimes only the beginning of the journey for someone wanting to extend the lease or buy the freehold. We deal with unresponsive landlords in a separate article.