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Commonhold: an alternative to leasehold

Setting up a commonhold

In this guide

This note provides only an introduction to the registration process. Land Registry Practice Guide 60 provides full guidance, details of fees and copies of all prescribed forms.

By law, there are certain restrictions on the land on which the commonhold may be registered. (The term ‘land’ refers also to a building or buildings. The title relates to the land the building stands on, even though none of it may be visible.)

  • The land must already be registered at the Land Registry as freehold with absolute title (so a freehold building or plot registered with only ‘possessory’ title cannot be a commonhold). In cases where land is not registered, for example, where the most recent change in ownership was before land needed to be registered, the land will need to be registered as absolute freehold title before the unit-holders can apply to create a commonhold.
  • The requirement that the land needs to be registered as freehold title makes it clear that a commonhold cannot be created out of leasehold land, regardless of how long is left on the lease. Commonhold creates a freehold interest of a unit and this cannot be done unless the land on which the commonhold is registered has full freehold title.
  • The ‘grounded’ rule: a commonhold can only be created from the ground upwards. This means that a residential commonhold cannot be created above office or shop units in a building. The whole building, down to the ground, must be one single commonhold. It is not possible to create, for example, two floors of commercial units as one commonhold, then two more floors of flats as a separate residential commonhold. There can only be one commonhold on a site, and it is not possible to register a commonhold on land which is already commonhold.
  • Split-site commonholds: it is possible for a commonhold to be made up of two or more sites, perhaps two pieces of land that are divided by a road or railway. As long as one CCS applies to all the separate parts, these parts make up one commonhold. However, in cases where the freeholders of the separate sites are not the same person, any commonhold unit must be situated entirely within one site (for example, if a garage is included as part of a commonhold unit, this must be on the same site as the flat).
Last updated:
24 October 2024
Next review:
22 December 2026

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