A Freeholder is a person who owns the land and the building the land is built on and can also be known as a Landlord and to whom the building reverts to at the end of the lease.
However, a freeholder can grant a "Head Lease" to another party, who can also be termed as a Landlord who in turn can grant a lease to a third party.
A leaseholder is someone who purchases a right to occupy a property for the duration of the lease. It is very important to understand that it is the lease that has been bought and not the property.
When a leaseholder seeks a lease extension, the owner of the Head Lease can only grant the leaseholder an extension up to the term of their own lease.
So for example if a leaseholder with 80 years left on their lease wishes to extend their lease by 50 years, but the Head Leaseholder only has 95 years on their lease, it would only be possible to extend the lease by 15 years.
So any further extension must go through the freeholder.
It is strongly recommended that anyone wishing to extend their lease goes for the statutory 90 year increase and don't involve themselves in any other negotiations. over years and terms.
Freeholders are perfectly aware that once negotiations have been entered into, the leaseholder has lost their protections afforded by the upper tribunal.
If for any reason a freeholder fails to respond to a statutory 90 year lease extension application, or the freeholder cannot be located (possibly using a box office address) then the upper tribunal has the power to grant the extension.
