How to Find Out Who Owns the Freehold of Your Leasehold Property

Leasehold and freehold titles: why your flat has its own register

If you own a long lease of a flat (or a leasehold house), you usually have two separate registered interests to think about:

• Your leasehold title. Your lease is registered under its own title number. Its property register normally gives "short particulars" of the lease: the date, the term (for example 125 years from a stated date) and the original parties. It often notes the title number of the landlord's title too.
• The freehold title. The building and the land under it are registered separately. For a block of flats, the freehold title usually covers the whole footprint and sometimes gardens, car parks or a wider estate.

Your immediate landlord isn't always the freeholder. There may be one or more intermediate (head) leases. For example, the freeholder grants a long head lease of the whole block to an investment company, and that company grants the individual flat leases. In that case your landlord is the head lessee, and the freeholder sits above them. Your leasehold register usually points to the title your lease was granted out of. Check that title as well as the freehold.

If you need a refresher on how titles work, see our guide to understanding Land Registry.

How to find out who owns the freehold of my flat: step by step

Step 1: Check your own lease and leasehold register

Start with what you already have. Your lease names the original landlord. It may also name a management company and say where notices should be served. It may be decades old, though, and the freehold may have changed hands since.

Your own leasehold register is more useful. If you don't have a copy, the official copy costs £7 online from HM Land Registry. Look in the property register for a note of the landlord's title number. If it's there, go straight to Step 3.

If you don't know your own title number, our guide on what a title number tells you and how to find one explains how to get it.

Step 2: Find the freehold title number on the free GOV.UK map

Use GOV.UK's "search for land and property information" service. You can search by address or zoom in on the map and select the building. It shows the registered titles in that spot, with the tenure (freehold or leasehold) and title number for each. The basic property summary is free.

Tips:

• Click the middle of the building, not just your flat's address. The freehold of a block is usually mapped across the whole site.
• You may see several titles: the freehold, any head lease, and individual flat leases. Note the one marked freehold.
• If no freehold title appears, the freehold may be unregistered. This still happens with land that hasn't been sold or mortgaged for a long time. A search of the index map (SIM) from HM Land Registry costs £8 and confirms whether land is registered. If it isn't, you'll need your lease, older deeds and your legal rights (below) to trace the owner.

For other ways of tracing ownership, see our guide to finding out who owns land.

Step 3: Buy the freehold register

Order the official copy of the register for the freehold title number. It costs £7 online or £11 by post. The title plan is another £7, or £14 for the register and plan together online. The plan is worth having if you want to see exactly what the freehold covers.

If the register refers to a document you need to see, you can order an official copy of it for £7 online. This might be a head lease, a transfer or a deed of variation.

Step 4: Read the proprietorship register

Section B, the proprietorship register, gives:

• the registered proprietor's name: a person, several people, or a company
• one or more addresses for service
• often the date of registration and, for many transfers, the price paid

Section C, the charges register, shows any mortgage over the freehold.

The address on the register is only as current as the owner has kept it. If letters there go unanswered, use the other routes below.

If the owner is a company

Many freeholds are owned by companies. Search the company name on Companies House (it's free) to find the registered office, directors, status and filing history. If the owner is an overseas company that acquired the land, check the Register of Overseas Entities, also kept by Companies House. It records information about the entity and its registrable beneficial owners.

If Companies House shows the company has been dissolved, its property may have passed to the Crown. This is a specialist area, so get advice from a solicitor.

Who is my freeholder? Your legal right to your landlord's details

The law gives tenants of dwellings specific rights to their landlord's identity. These apply even when everything goes through an agent.

Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 1. You can make a written request for your landlord's name and address to:

• whoever demands or last received the rent, or
• any other person acting as the landlord's agent in relation to your tenancy.

They must give you a written statement of the landlord's name and address within 21 days. Failing to do so without reasonable excuse is a criminal offence. Send the request in writing, keep a copy and record the date.

Section 2. If the landlord is a company, you can make a further written request for the names and addresses of its directors and secretary. The same 21-day period and offence apply.

Section 3. When the landlord's interest is transferred, the new landlord must notify you in writing of the transfer and of their name and address. The Act sets out the time for doing this.

Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, section 47. Any written demand for rent or other sums due under the lease must include the landlord's name and address. If that address isn't in England or Wales, the demand must also give an address in England or Wales where notices can be served. If a demand leaves this information out, any service charge in it is treated as not due until the information is given.

Section 48. The landlord must give you notice of an address in England and Wales where you can serve notices. Until they do, rent and service charges that would otherwise be due are treated as not due. This does not cancel the debt. The money becomes payable once the landlord complies. Don't withhold payment without taking advice first.

Freeholder, managing agent, RTM company or management company: who's who?

The name on your service charge bill often isn't the freeholder's.

• Freeholder (landlord): owns the freehold. Usually responsible under the lease for the structure and common parts, and the party you deal with for a lease extension or freehold purchase. If there's a head lease, the head lessee may be your immediate landlord.
• Managing agent: a firm appointed to run the building day to day, such as collecting service charges, arranging repairs and insurance. It acts for whoever appointed it but doesn't own the building.
• Right to manage (RTM) company: a company set up by qualifying leaseholders to take over management functions under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002. Ownership of the freehold doesn't change.
• Residents' management company (RMC): often a party to the lease, with responsibility for management. Leaseholders are typically members or shareholders. Sometimes the RMC also owns the freehold (a "share of freehold" arrangement), but often it doesn't.

The register is the reliable test. If the proprietor named there is an RMC you're a member of, you and your neighbours may already collectively own the freehold.

When the freehold has been sold

Right of first refusal. Under Part 1 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, qualifying tenants of flats in many buildings have a right of first refusal when the landlord plans to sell. In outline:

• the landlord must serve notice offering the freehold to the qualifying tenants first
• a majority of them can choose to buy on the same terms
• if the landlord sells without following the procedure, the tenants may be able to get information about the sale and, in some cases, buy from the new owner

There are conditions about the building, the tenants and the landlord, plus several exemptions. Strict time limits apply, so get advice quickly if you think a sale has slipped through.

The register may lag behind. A sale isn't shown on the register until HM Land Registry has registered it, which can take time. If you've been told the freehold was sold but the register still shows the old owner, there may be a pending application. The new landlord should notify you under section 3 of the 1985 Act. You can also use your section 1 request.

When the freeholder is missing or can't be traced

Sometimes the registered owner has died, a company has disappeared, or nobody answers letters. This doesn't have to stop you.

• Flats: Under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, you can extend your lease, or qualifying leaseholders can buy the freehold collectively, by applying to the court if the landlord can't be found. The court can make a vesting order. The price is determined independently and paid into court, and the new lease or freehold transfer is completed without the landlord.
• Houses: The Leasehold Reform Act 1967 has a similar missing-landlord route for buying the freehold or extending the lease of a house.

The court expects to see real efforts to trace the landlord. Keep records of your searches, letters and enquiries. These applications are technical, so instruct a solicitor experienced in leasehold enfranchisement.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 is changing leasehold rules in stages. Check GOV.UK for which parts are in force before relying on older guidance about procedures or costs.

Free help: the Leasehold Advisory Service

The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) gives free, independent initial advice on residential leasehold law. It covers lease extensions, buying the freehold, service charges, right to manage and dealing with absent landlords. It's a good first call before you pay for legal advice.

Can't find the right title? We can do it for you

Identifying the right freehold can be tricky when a block has many titles, head leases or a confusing map. Our Owner Lookup costs £7.50. We find the correct title from your address or a map pin, buy the official register from HM Land Registry and email it to you with a plain-English summary of who owns it.

If you already have the freehold title number, our Title Register service gets you the official register for £7.50.