Freehold
Freehold is the highest form of property ownership. You own the building and usually the land outright, indefinitely, rather than for a fixed term under leasehold. As a freeholder who lets out homes, you are a private landlord and may also be a superior landlord to leaseholders, mesne landlords and undertenants in the same building.
If you let directly to residential tenants, you grant private tenancies, normally assured tenancies under the Renters’ Rights Act framework. That brings duties on rental standards, fit for human habitation, Awaab’s Law, energy efficiency rules (including MEES and Higher rate efficiency standards (HRAD)), permitted payments, tenancy deposits, and use of the correct possession grounds when regaining possession.
Where you grant long leases over flats, you retain the freehold and collect ground rent, increasingly a peppercorn rent on newer leases and service charges to fund repairs and capital improvements. You remain responsible for the structure, common parts and any HMO licence or building-wide compliance, while leaseholder-landlords run their own private tenancies in individual units.
Professional freeholders manage both roles, including long-term stewardship of the building and land, and, where they also let units themselves, full compliance with modern PRS regulation and redress via the Private Rented Sector Ombudsman and PRS Database.
Also see our landlord blog articles, including:
