© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
You have decided that you want to enfranchise your property, be it through collective enfranchisement with your fellow leaseholders, or by going it alone with a lease extension but there is one problem, you cannot find your landlord!
If past rent demands are non existent, the superior title is not registered at the Land registry or serving a Notice under section 11 or 41 of the 1993 Act Requiring Information upon the suspected landlord or their managing agents reveals nothing, what are the options then available to leaseholders who want to enfranchise?
In areas such as rural Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, where registration only became compulsory in 1988, 1989 and 1990 it can be difficult to investigate the history of freehold land. So what can leaseholders do to enfranchise?
For collective enfranchisements, there must be an exercisable and valid claim as prescribed by the 1993 Act but qualifying tenants can apply to the county court for what’s called a ‘vesting order’ under section 26(1) of the 1993 Act. This removes the need to serve an Initial Notice under section 13 on some if not all of the landlords. If there is a head landlord present but the freeholder is missing, the court can order that the head landlord take on the role of Reversioner and deal with the claim in the usual way.
If the vesting order is applied for, section 26(5) of the Act allows the court to issue directions to give effect to rights and obligations including directions adapting or discarding any of the requirements of the Act. The court will make an order vesting the interest to be acquired in the body set up by the qualifying tenants to collectively enfranchise (i.e. the nominee purchaser). Furthermore, the terms of acquisition must be agreed by the LVT.
The purchase price is then paid into court and a conveyance is simultaneously executed by a person designated to execute by the court. Once executed, it is deemed to be an effective conveyance in law.
With lease extensions, a similar procedure applies whereby a qualifying tenant can make an application to county court for a vesting order. This, like the procedure for collective enfranchisement, dispenses with the need to serve an Initial Notice under section 42.
The vesting order allows the existing lease to be surrendered and a new lease granted. Again, the terms of the new lease mustbe approved by the LVT. The lease extension is completed by paying the premium into court and having the lease executed by a person authorised by the court.
Even if a landlord does not want to dispose of his property, the law can provide otherwise. Equally a leaseholder can compel an entity which cannot be located, communicated or negotiated with to effect a disposal!
If you are a leaseholder you should not give up at the first hurdle. You should take specialist legal advice as the courts and the LVT will scrutinise applications in this field particularly stringently.