What is leasehold?

Leasehold flats can be in purpose-built blocks, in converted houses or above commercial or retail premises.

Leasehold ownership of a flat is simply a long tenancy, the right to occupation and use of the flat for a long period – the ‘term’ of the lease. This will usually be for 99 or 125 years and the flat can be bought and sold during that term. The term is fixed at the beginning and so decreases in length year by year. Thus, if it were not for inflation, the value of the flat would diminish over time until the eventual expiry of the lease, when the flat returns to the landlord (although an assured tenancy would then become a possibility).

The leasehold ownership of a flat usually relates to everything within the four walls of the flat, including floorboards and plaster to walls and ceiling, but does not usually include the external or structural walls. The structure and common parts of the building and the land it stands on are usually owned by the freeholder, who is also the landlord. The freeholder is responsible for the maintenance and repair of the building. The costs for doing so are recoverable through the service charges and billed to the leaseholders.

The landlord can be a person or a company, including a local authority or a housing association. It is also quite common for the leaseholders to own the freehold of the building, through a residents’ management company, effectively becoming their own landlord. Furthermore under right to manage, the lessees may not own the freehold but are able to manage the building as if they were the landlord.