Conveyancing

Buying your freehold means taking full ownership of the land your property sits on, ending your position as a leaseholder paying ground rent to someone else. For many leaseholders, particularly those facing steep ground rent increases or a lease running down towards 80 years, this is one of the most valuable pieces of legal work a solicitor can carry out on your behalf. The 2024 Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act is gradually simplifying parts of this process, including changes to how premiums are calculated and removing some of the barriers that previously put buyers off starting a claim.

Owning your freehold gives you control over service charges, insurance arrangements, and any future extensions or alterations, without needing permission from a landlord. It can also add real value to your property, since buyers are typically willing to pay more for a share of freehold or outright freehold title than for a leasehold interest with a dwindling term. The rules and process differ significantly depending on whether you own a house or a flat, so it helps to understand which route applies to you before you start.

Eligibility for houses

If you own a leasehold house, you can usually apply to buy the freehold individually under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967. You typically qualify if you have held the lease for at least two years and your original lease term was granted for more than 21 years. Low-value ground rents and older leases tend to produce the most favourable premium calculations, while houses with very long unexpired terms sometimes see limited financial benefit from enfranchisement.

Eligibility for flats

Flat owners cannot buy individually. Instead, you join with other leaseholders in the building under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, known as collective enfranchisement. At least 50% of the flats in the building must participate, and at least two-thirds of all flats must be let to qualifying tenants on long leases. This is why leasehold conveyancing for flats typically involves more coordination between neighbours and specialist solicitors than a straightforward house purchase.

Collective enfranchisement is the formal legal process that lets a group of flat owners buy the freehold of their building together. It typically takes 6 to 18 months from the first conversation with neighbours to registration at the Land Registry, and involves several distinct stages that build on each other. Missing a deadline or serving a notice incorrectly can add months to the timeline, so most groups instruct a solicitor who specialises in enfranchisement rather than relying on general practice conveyancing.

1. Rally your neighbours and check participation thresholds: Confirm that at least two-thirds of flats in the building are held on qualifying long leases and that at least 50% of all flats want to take part. This stage usually takes 4 to 8 weeks depending on how easy it is to reach absent landlords or reluctant neighbours.
2. Sign a participation agreement: Participating leaseholders sign a legal agreement setting out how costs, decisions, and future ownership shares will be split. This protects everyone if someone later drops out partway through the claim.
3. Set up a nominee purchaser company: A company is formed to hold the freehold on behalf of participating leaseholders once the purchase completes. Setting this up alongside Companies House registration typically takes 2 to 3 weeks.
4. Get a RICS valuation: A qualified valuer calculates the premium payable to the freeholder, based on the value of the building, ground rent income, and the remaining lease terms. Expect this stage to take 2 to 4 weeks, longer for larger or more complex buildings.
5. Instruct a specialist solicitor and serve the Section 13 notice: Your solicitor prepares and serves a formal notice on the freeholder setting out your proposed premium and the terms of the claim. This is the point at which the legal process formally begins and starts the freeholder's response clock.
6. Receive the freeholder's counter-notice: The freeholder has 2 months to respond, either accepting your claim, disputing the premium, or challenging your right to enfranchise altogether. Many counter-notices propose a higher premium than the initial claim, which is a normal part of negotiation rather than a sign the claim has failed.
7. Negotiate or apply to the First-tier Tribunal: Most claims settle through negotiation between solicitors and valuers within a few months. If the two sides cannot agree on price or terms, either party can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber), which adds 6 months or more to the timeline.
8. Complete the purchase and register with Land Registry: Once terms are agreed, your solicitors exchange contracts and complete the transfer, then register the nominee purchaser company as the new freeholder. This final administrative stage usually takes 4 to 6 weeks after completion.

Buying the freehold of a house is more straightforward than collective enfranchisement because you are dealing with a single owner and a single lease, under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 rather than the 1993 Act. Most house enfranchisement claims complete within 4 to 9 months, considerably faster than the typical flat process, because there is no need to coordinate multiple neighbours or set up a nominee purchaser company.

1. Confirm eligibility and instruct a solicitor: Check you have held the lease for at least two years and that the original term exceeds 21 years, then instruct a solicitor experienced in enfranchisement work.
2. Get a valuation: A surveyor calculates the premium using the same broad principles as collective enfranchisement, based on ground rent, unexpired lease term, and the value of your house.
3. Serve a formal notice: Your solicitor serves a notice on the freeholder or their managing agent, setting out your claim and proposed price.
4. Receive the freeholder's response: The freeholder has 2 months to accept, dispute the premium, or object to your right to buy.
5. Negotiate the premium: Most house claims are agreed through solicitor-led negotiation, though disputed cases can go to the First-tier Tribunal.
6. Complete and register the freehold: Your solicitor completes the purchase, updates the title at the Land Registry, and merges your leasehold and freehold interests into a single title.

Because there is only one buyer and one seller, house enfranchisement rarely needs the tribunal stage that flat claims sometimes require, and legal costs are typically lower as a result.

The premium (and how it is calculated)

The premium is the price you pay the freeholder for their interest in your building or house, and it is by far the biggest cost in the process. It is calculated using a formula that weighs the ground rent income the freeholder is giving up, the value of the building's reversion once your lease eventually ends, and, for very short leases, marriage value, which is the extra value created when a short lease becomes a long lease or freehold. A flat with 70 years remaining and low ground rent might see a premium of £5,000 to £15,000, while a flat with under 80 years remaining, where marriage value applies, can easily reach £20,000 to £40,000 or more. Houses tend to sit at the lower end of these ranges because there is no service charge history or shared building value to factor in.

Professional fees breakdown

On top of the premium, you pay your own conveyancing fees, and by law you must also cover the freeholder's reasonable legal and valuation costs, even if you eventually decide not to proceed. Budget for your own solicitor, a RICS valuer, and, for flats, company formation costs for the nominee purchaser vehicle. Stamp duty applies to the premium in the same way it applies to any property purchase, though many enfranchisement premiums fall below the current residential threshold and attract no stamp duty at all.

Most freehold purchases take between 6 and 18 months from the first serious conversation to completion, though timelines vary widely depending on whether you are buying a house or joining a collective flat claim, and whether the freeholder cooperates or disputes your claim. Straightforward house enfranchisement with a cooperative freeholder can complete in as little as 4 months, while a collective flat claim that ends up before the First-tier Tribunal can stretch beyond 2 years.

Several factors speed up or slow down the timeline. Freeholders who are unresponsive, hard to trace, or based overseas add delay at the notice stage. Disagreement over the premium is the single biggest cause of extended timelines, since tribunal applications routinely add 6 months or more. On the other hand, using a solicitor who specialises in enfranchisement, agreeing a realistic premium range early with your valuer, and keeping all participating leaseholders engaged throughout typically keeps a claim on the faster end of the range.

Buying the freehold is not the end of the story, particularly for flats, because owning the freehold comes with ongoing legal and administrative responsibilities that someone now has to manage. Many leaseholders underestimate this stage and are surprised by the paperwork involved in running a nominee purchaser company for years after completion.

• Company admin: If you bought collectively, your nominee purchaser company must file confirmation statements and, in most cases, dormant company accounts with Companies House every year. Missing these filings can lead to fines or, eventually, the company being struck off.
• Building insurance responsibilities: As freeholder, you or your company become responsible for arranging buildings insurance for the whole structure, then recovering the cost from leaseholders through service charges.
• Service charge management: You take over collecting and accounting for service charges, including budgeting for repairs, managing reserve funds, and producing annual service charge accounts that comply with lease terms.
• Ground rent collection: If any sub-leases still carry ground rent, your company becomes responsible for collecting it and complying with the same statutory notice requirements the previous freeholder had to follow.
• Managing agents: Many freehold companies choose to appoint a professional managing agent to handle day-to-day administration, insurance renewals, and repairs, rather than running the building entirely themselves.

Buying the freehold is not always the right answer. Depending on your priorities, a lease extension or setting up a Right to Manage company might solve your problem more quickly and at lower cost. A lease extension adds 990 years to your lease term and reduces ground rent to zero under the reformed rules, but leaves the freeholder in place as the party you deal with on structural and building matters. Right to Manage lets you take over day-to-day management of the building, including repairs and service charges, without buying anything at all, but it does not remove ground rent or give you the long-term security of ownership.

Which option suits you depends on whether your main concern is a short lease, high service charges and poor management, or wanting outright control and value in the building. Freehold purchase is the most expensive and complex of the three, but it is also the only option that removes the landlord relationship permanently.

Enfranchisement is a specialist area of property law, and general conveyancing solicitors do not always have deep experience of Section 13 and Section 42 notices, tribunal procedure, or nominee purchaser company structures. A conveyancer who focuses on this work will check your eligibility before you spend money on a valuation, draft and serve notices correctly so you do not lose time on a technicality, and negotiate the premium with the freeholder's solicitor on your behalf.

Good enfranchisement solicitors also understand the wider conveyancing process that runs alongside your claim, including how completion and Land Registry registration fit together once terms are agreed. Because you are legally required to pay the freeholder's reasonable costs regardless of outcome, choosing a solicitor with a clear, fixed-fee structure from the outset helps you budget accurately rather than facing open-ended bills. If you are ready to start, you can find a conveyancer who specialises in freehold purchase and enfranchisement claims.