If your freeholder cannot be traced, you can still extend your lease or buy the freehold through the courts, but you will need an independent valuation to set the price paid into court. Kingston Surveyors arranges an RICS Registered Valuer to prepare the valuation required for a missing or absentee freeholder application, helping leaseholders across London and nationwide protect and improve their property.
An absentee or missing freeholder is a landlord who cannot be found or contacted, which can leave leaseholders unable to extend a lease or buy the freehold by the usual agreement. The law allows you to apply to the First-tier Tribunal and County Court for a vesting order, and the court sets the premium based on an independent valuation.
Our RICS Registered Valuer assesses the premium payable for the lease extension or freehold purchase using the statutory basis, taking account of the unexpired term, ground rent and any marriage value. This figure is submitted to the tribunal and paid into court, allowing the transaction to complete despite the freeholder’s absence.
We arrange valuers with specific experience of enfranchisement and missing landlord cases, matched to your building and lease, and we can work alongside your solicitor throughout the application. Contact Kingston Surveyors today for a free, no-obligation quote on an absentee freeholder valuation.
You may also need: lease extension valuations, freehold valuations and RICS valuation costs.
Missing landlord applications — for lease extensions under section 50 or freehold purchases under section 26 of the 1993 Act — go through the County Court and First-tier Tribunal, and the tribunal sets the price from an independent RICS valuation. The valuers we arrange prepare exactly that: a Red Book premium valuation with marriage value and deferment calculated to tribunal standards.
Your solicitor proves the freeholder can’t be traced; the court grants a vesting order; the tribunal determines the premium from the valuation evidence and the money is paid into court. The valuation is usually the decisive document. Related: lease extension valuations, buying your freehold and lease extension costs. Call 0204 579 8270.
