The Project
The leaseholders sought to acquire the freehold of their development, comprising 17 flats.
What WHN Delivered
| WHN acted on behalf of the group of participating leaseholders and the company, as nominee purchaser, in exercise of its statutory right to enfranchise/acquire the freehold, under the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993.
The project was an involved process both in terms of consideration of the legal issues that arose throughout and due to the stance taken by the freeholder and/or its representative. The right was exercised upon service of an initial notice in May 2020. Ultimately, proceedings were issued in the First Tier Tribunal (the Property Chamber, administered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service, which handles applications, appeals and references relating to disputes over property and land). Our commercial property team worked closely alongside our litigation team, to navigate the relevant deadlines and negotiate the terms of the transfer. The matter was settled without the need for a Tribunal hearing. Consideration needed to be given to discrete and complex issues, deriving from the interpretation of the Act and how that applies in practice, illustrating the benefit to the client of our deep working knowledge in this specialist field. We were able to guide the client through each stage of the complex statutory process to achieve their objective of acquiring the freehold. The legal issues included careful consideration of qualification criteria including the number of qualifying and participating leaseholders and flats; the title structure; building qualification criteria; incorporation of the nominee purchaser; preparation of a participation agreement, which regulated the relationship between participating leaseholders; working alongside the valuer who negotiated the premium; negotiating and ultimately agreeing the terms of acquisition. Our advice also included enforcement of the terms of the participation agreement, as between leaseholders. We achieved the client’s objective, enabling it to take on the role of landlord and manage the property in the best interests of the leaseholders. |
About the client
St Johns Court Ramsbottom Ltd is a company formed by a group of leaseholders to acquire the freehold and become their own landlord of their development.
