So who is that owns the lease?
And why can't you just buy the flat off them instead of leasing it?
(Bazongaloid, Fri 11 May 2012, 14:26, 1 reply, 12 years ago)

whoever the landlord is
could be the people in the block collectively. could be the builder. could be the queen. could be an investor.

you can't own the freehold of a flat independently of the rest of the block. the structure, roof, common parts etc are owned by the landlord, who then leases the live-able bits.

what you CAN do is get together with the other residents and force the landlord to sell to you, provided enough people want to do it. then you can grant yourself a new 999 year lease at a peppercorn premium!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 11 May 2012, 14:31, Reply)

I don't really understand why you can't.
Sounds like a massive con to me. Why can't leases be made really long, like 500 years or something?
(Bazongaloid, Fri 11 May 2012, 14:32, Reply)

they can
you can agree whatever you want. but you can only force the landlord into another 90. as a VERY rough rule of thumb, you only see short-term leases like these in london. the rest of the country tend to be on 999 year leases, or even 2,000 year leases, so of course it's academic.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 11 May 2012, 14:33, Reply)