Problems Encountered With Collective Enfranchisement

One issue that arises during the collective enfranchisement process (i.e. when tenants collect together in order to purchase the freehold interest) is agreeing upon the terms of participation. Unfortunately it is a fact of life that different personalities will grate on each other and conflict may arise.

This can lead to big problems amongst tenants and the only formal way to keep this under control is to create a participation agreement, this ensures that everyone involved knows what they have agreed to do and what exactly their role will be in the entire process, the agreement can list this information in a clear and concise way.

A common problem leaseholders face is dealing with an obstructive freeholder, this is something that they cannot prevent or anticipate. Yes, we may like to think that a freeholder will always be pleasant, nice, able to converse with the representatives of the leaseholders and so on, but in the real world there may be times where the freeholder is purposively difficult to deal with. Sometimes freeholders seem to resent the fact that they have to sell, so they try and delay, delay, delay proceedings. Sadly, it can happen that leaseholders end up with a lease with under 80 years remaining to run, which can be very expensive.

To counteract this, all representatives of the leaseholders should encourage freeholders to be as co-operative as possible. Although this may feel that during the whole collective enfranchisement procedure you are doing nothing but appeasing the landlord - but this approach can work wonders!

When entering the collective enfranchisement process, you are likely to meet with lots of red tape. The process itself is quite simple, after all it is only freehold purchase, however you must be aware that different types of documents and agreements will have to be executed by your solicitors.Your surveyors will need a fair amount of paperwork to be completed.

Hoping to avoid all the red tape isn't really an option - unfortunately it's hard to avoid bureaucracy. However you need to accept this in order to make sure the process remains on schedule. Simple patience and acceptance can help a collective enfranchisement process move quicker; If you think that the process is only going to take a few weeks, you might receive a bit of a surprise!


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Thinking of collective enfranchisement? Talk first to Bonallack and Bishop - solicitors specialising in freehold purchase. Tim Bishop is senior partner at the firm, responsible for all major strategic decisions. He has grown the firm by 1000% in 13 years and has plans for further expansion.