Commonhold: an alternative to leasehold
Commonhold units
A commonhold unit is a part of the commonhold which is owned fully by a unit-holder on a freehold basis. It can be a house or flat, an office or other commercial property, or even a golf course or a piece of unbuilt land on a large commonhold estate. The definition of a unit may include a garage or a parking space which is located elsewhere in the commonhold, or these can be units in their own right, owned separately.
If the unit you own is a flat in a block, you will usually own the wall, ceiling and floor coverings and the space between them. You will not usually own the external walls. You will not own the structure of the building, the walls, and the floors as part of your unit. (This is the same as for a leasehold flat.) These will be included in the common parts, owned by the commonhold association. The common parts may also include limited-use areas, which are areas of the common parts which only a particular unit-holder or unit-holders can use, or which can be used by all unit-holders but only for a specific use.
The purpose of a limited-use area is to be able to include it within the ownership and management responsibility of the commonhold association, while still providing a special use to one or more unit-holders or to restrict it to a particular use regardless of who uses it. The most useful example is a balcony to a flat – this is likely to be part of the physical structure of the building so it is sensible that the commonhold association rather than the unit-holder is responsible for maintaining and repairing it. If the balcony is a limited-use area for the benefit of a particular unit, only the holder of that unit is allowed to use the balcony, but the commonhold association is responsible for maintaining it and the costs are shared by the members of the commonhold association. A similar arrangement could apply to an allocated car-parking space in a parking area.
Another limited-use area could be part of the building which the unit-holders would not normally need, or be allowed, to enter (such as a boiler room or lift motor room, which only certain people would need access to), or perhaps a caretaker’s flat or office which only the caretaker would be allowed to use.
An example of a limited-use area restricted to a certain use could be a shared dustbin area that is open to all unit-holders but only for the purpose of emptying their bins.
- Last updated:
- 24 October 2024
- Next review:
- 22 December 2026
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Overview of the proposals and where to get more detail