Welcome to my blog, which will be addressing an exciting transformation in the system of apartment ownership in the UK. I will be writing about dramatic changes taking place in the leasehold/freehold model that has long existed throughout England and Wales.
If you buy an apartment in New York or Paris or Rome – or just about any other location in the world – you will own that apartment completely and forever. You and other apartment owners will collectively own the building.
In the United States this is called a “condo”. The French call it “co-propriété”. In Australia, it is the Strata Title system.
But in England and Wales, based on the ancient system of freehold – which dates back to William the Conqueror in 1066 – and on the leasehold system dating back to the Middle Ages, purchasing an apartment does not result in true ownership. In fact, when you buy an apartment in London or other parts of England or Wales, you are actually buying a “lease”, a contract with a time limit and limited rights to the property. When the lease expires, you own nothing. There is more bad news. Although you do not fully own your flat, you and the other “leaseholders” in the building have to pay for all repairs and maintenance costs of the building, despite the fact that the structure is actually owned by the landlord (the “freeholder”).
So, in England and Wales, being the leaseholder of a flat has the worst aspects of ownership – in that you bear all the cost and financial risk of ownership – without the true benefit of ownership, since you and your neighbours do not own and control the building.
The good news is that powerful legislation in 1993 and 2002 brought major reform to this old-fashioned type of apartment ownership. To borrow from New York terminology, a homeowner in England or Wales is, for all intents and purposes, now able to transform his or her apartment into a “condominium” or “co-op” – that is, an apartment owned totally and in perpetuity.
I hope my blog will be useful for homeowners and also for professionals working in the fast-growing area of “leasehold reform” in the UK. As a leaseholder and also a shareholder of a freehold company, I shall seek to present a balanced view regarding the pro’s and con’s of embarking on the two main ways in which people are securing full ownership of their flats – whether by buying their building freehold or by extending one’s lease.
Thank you for visiting. I shall welcome your feedback, questions and suggestions on issues you would like to see covered.
