healt agency

Leasehold enfranchisement is not a term that most people are accustomed with this is why most of them fail to take the necessary action that could only be in their favour. In England and Wales the flats are usually not owned under a long lease. We can say that the term long lease refers to a lease drafted for 21 years. This will mean that the person staying there will rent the flat for a long number of years. However, this does not mean that he/she is the rightful owner. The owner is still the freeholder that also posses the common areas such as the roof, for example. An owner not only has the building in question but he also possesses the land underneath the building to the centre of the earth and the sky above.

The concept of leasehold enfranchisement denotes a process in which half of the tenants that live in the house have to agree on. When the tenants are interested in buying their building then they have the legal help of the 2002 Commonhold and Leasehold reform. Such a reform and the ones before it have smoothened the way for the tenants to buy the buildings they live in. Once such a process is completed then the tenant will become the owner and will have a lease for 999 years.

The lease is the legal document that manages this relationship. Most of the tenants though consider the lease to be too complex and they don't even bother to read it. This however is something that has to be done when you are interested in starting a leasehold enfranchisement process.

If the tenants in your building are looking forward in starting a leasehold enfranchisement process then you have to note that there are some things that should be taken care of. First of all, the building needs to have at least two flats. If there are just two flats then these tenants need to join the application. If the building in question is a bigger one, then half of the tenants need to participate. For a leasehold enfranchisement the lease has to be for at least 21 years. This procedure is not a "lease extension", therefore one doesn't have to have owned the apartment for 2 years prior to the start of the procedure.

Leasehold enfranchisement comes with a lot of advantages. The fact that it is not necessary to pay rent anymore is surely one of the most important of all.