Freehold is simply owning the buildings and the land the buildings are on - outright. It's that simple. I means the whole freehold property is yours to do whatever you wish to do with it. There are a few catches do doing whatever you want to do with it though as discussed below. Generally though, you can paint is as you wish, plan the garden as you wish; or just let it overgrow and live in it as you wish

Freehold generally applies to houses, however recent legislation has allowed for flats to be bought as freehold. Occasionally you may come across Flying Freeholds. A Flying Freehold is a property that is built above land that does not form part of the property freehold. Flying Freeholds are not that common in the UK but they can be very common for apartment block in other countries. The law regarding Flying freeholds is not very clear in the UK and you should consult with a specialist property solicitor if you are considering buying a Flying Freehold in the UK.

When buying a freehold property the estate agent may advise you of certain conditions attached to the freehold. Your solicitor should certainly advise you of some these conditions during the searches they carry out in relation to buying a property. When buying the property, be careful to do some of your own homework to find out any other problems, if something does not feel quite right.

Availability for Use

During your property viewing's you may have seen properties that are being offered far below their market value. They usually have a number of tenants and are in a very poor state of repair. Such properties usually have sitting tenants. More recent legislation has reduced the likelihood of properties having sitting tenants. Sitting tenants have taken up residence in the property when the law gave them greater protection from being forced out by landlords whether they have a tenancy agreement or not. If you do want to consider buying a property with sitting tenants for your own use, it can be very difficult to get sitting tenants to re-locate. One possibility is paying the sitting tenants a sum of money to move elsewhere.

In large cities, houses that have been left empty and unchecked for a long period of time may be occupied by squatters. It is possible to legally evict them, though this can take time and money. The problems arise when they are finally evicted and you find that they have done significant damage to the property.

You may consider buying a property that is partially or wholly sub-let. In which case, there is a certain length of time to wait until their lease expires. Again be careful that they are not classed as sitting tenants and that you can have the property for your own use when the time arrives.

In rare cases, you may find that access routes to your property may mean going over land owned by private land owners and you will have to come to an agreement with the owners to let you use their land to access your property. Cases have arisen with houses having a rear garage opening onto a rear lane that is privately owned, with the rear lane not being the responsibility of a local council to maintain. When the lane falls into such a bad state of repair, the rear garage is made inaccessible.

Terms and Conditions Imposed upon the Freehold

When purchasing a property outright, there can be a number of conditions attached to the conveyance. These terms and conditions are called covenants. They may include things like: agreement to keep walls and fences maintained, restrictions of felling trees, restrictions on running a business at the property, restrictions on building more buildings on the land and shared charges for maintenance for shared driveways. Obviously, these terms and conditions are not a problem if you agree to them. Often, covenants are lapsed if they were made a very long time ago.