Two flats' lessees jointly enfranchising- procedures?

[cambridge]

If I went ahead with sharing freehold with the one other leaseholder, what safeguards should be in place? Do leases still remain? Other leaseholder rents his flat out continually, not committed to the place, only see them when the place needs renting out again, so is sharing a freehold with such an individual a good idea anyway? Also just wondered about getting mortgages on freehold flats, lots of info on the web says this may be a problem, so If I wanted to sell would I then have problems with potential buyers. Hope someone can help, dont want to go into this without really knowing what Im getting in to. Being a leaseholder isnt a breeze but I have a good lease and there are lots of safeguards for all participants.

[jeffrey]

If I went ahead with sharing freehold with the one other leaseholder, what safeguards should be in place? Do leases still remain? Other leaseholder rents his flat out continually, not committed to the place, only see them when the place needs renting out again, so is sharing a freehold with such an individual a good idea anyway? Also just wondered about getting mortgages on freehold flats, lots of info on the web says this may be a problem, so If I wanted to sell would I then have problems with potential buyers. Hope someone can help, dont want to go into this without really knowing what Im getting in to. Being a leaseholder isnt a breeze but I have a good lease and there are lots of safeguards for all participants.

If the two lessees jointly buy f/r, they MUST remain lessees. They can, however, re-grant their lease (one each) for longer terms.
If they are A and B, each of them retains status of lessee and any mortgage or sale is of a leasehold flat. If A sells flat to P, A must also arrange transfer of f/r from A + B to B + P. The sale contract will make P responsible for the legal fees of this.

[cambridge]

selling the property done like this wouldnt be an issue then would it. Thank you for your help, feel I have a little time on my side at the moment with a long lease in place, so want to explore this thoroughly before I start a process going.. Thanks again for all your help.

[Richard Webster]

Quite apart from the legalities (ably explained by Jeffrey) you also have to consider the relationship issue - are you going to be able to get on with the other flat owner over the management of the building?

Generally it is an advantage for both of you to buy the freehold because you remove any outside landlord and can manage the place between you. However, it does not remove the possibility of arguments over how it should be run - there is no magic wand here. If there are arguments and one wants to sell his leasehold flat then the other may refuse to sign the transfer of the freehold. I'm by no means saying not to buy the freehold between you, but only that the likely nature of the future relationship is a factor you should consider.

The point is of general application - anyone buying a flat in a small building with only a few flats in it needs to establish as far as they can that there are not likely to be any problems caused by personalities. If there are they can turn into a kind of neighbour dispute, and these are stressful, produce much heat and no light, and can be exceedingly expensive to resolve!