Flying Freehold!!!

[Orangesauce1]

Has anyone ever heard of this, whilst recently viewing properties we came accross this. It was a 16th Century house and the middle floor of each terrace house was in next doors!! very hard to explain but does anyone know what I am talking about or know why they did this.

[dot.hawkes]

Hi OS
This arises when part of one property is built on top of part of another property and so the upper property owner does not own the building or land underneath the "flying" part.

Dotty

[Octavius]

In general terms this refers to a freehold that does not stand on its own patch of land.

If (theoretically) for example you owned a two-storey house, and you sold the freehold to the entire upstairs then this would be a flying freehold. These types of freehold can be very difficult to mortgage as the freehold is worthless if the building below falls into disrepair/structural collapse. Generally leasehold is preferred in this instance.

Historically this might have occurred because the building started out as a low level hovel and has been added to and altered over the years by cobbling new dwellings and rooms for different tenants to and above the original structure.