Freehold Garage Advice

[Hippea]

There is a maisonette that has peaked my interest, a new build with three garages below, the far right one being owned by the property. The other two garages are on a long lease to the properties across the road but the freehold is held by the maisonette in question. I'm totally uneducated on this kind of thing but would there be any way of obtaining the other two garages? I'm guessing it would be by private negotiation with those that are leasing them?

[surveyor]

realistically by negotiation. But I would never sell my garage!

[AW10]

You would have to buy the leasehold. Presumably the garages are each in a leasehold "package" with a residential property; this would need to be split apart. And each leaseholder gets to park in front of their garage which might well be their only allocated parking space? In that case a leaseholder would be foolish to sell.

If you like the property with just one garage then buy it on that basis alone. A future bonus is that you *might* get one or the other garage. But don't bet on it.

[Landlubber]

surveyor said:

realistically by negotiation. But I would never sell my garage!

I actually bought the house next door just to get his garage and driveway.

[Shnozz]

Likely to be on a peppercorn rent to the houses that own the lease.

And keep in mind that you are at the mercy of how they conduct themselves in the garages immediately beneath your home. Hopefully only storage but if it’s a noisy car starting, or used for DIY, it might cause a disturbance.

[NDA]

Have you seen copies of the actual leases?

They might not offer much help - but it would be a good starting point.

[normalbloke]

Absolute minefield. Run away!

[Promised Land]

Shnozz said:

Likely to be on a peppercorn rent to the houses that own the lease.

And keep in mind that you are at the mercy of how they conduct themselves in the garages immediately beneath your home. Hopefully only storage but if it s a noisy car starting, or used for DIY, it might cause a disturbance.

Garages on new builds under Fag units (flat above garage) rarely have cars in them, more for storing crap or the odd one might try and make a gym out of it.

Cars parked in front of the Fag unit are more common.

[Shnozz]

Promised Land said:

Garages on new builds under Fag units (flat above garage) rarely have cars in them, more for storing crap or the odd one might try and make a gym out of it.

Cars parked in front of the Fag unit are more common.

I agree, hence DIY comment.

There was a post on here from someone who was tearing their hair out as the garage tenant was using power tools regularly into the late evening in the garage beneath them.

Gym no better for weights being dropped.

And let’s not even consider a motorbike with a race can…

[Nothingtoseehere]

... or drum practice...

[NDA]

This is why the lease might be interesting to look at. There may well be restrictions on noise, parking on the apron etc

[Shnozz]

NDA said:

This is why the lease might be interesting to look at. There may well be restrictions on noise, parking on the apron etc

What the lease says and how much of a toss leaseholders give is another matter, however. Ask me how I know...

And enforcing compliance with a lease by another leaseholder...yeah, more fun that.

[NDA]

Shnozz said:

NDA said:

This is why the lease might be interesting to look at. There may well be restrictions on noise, parking on the apron etc

What the lease says and how much of a toss leaseholders give is another matter, however. Ask me how I know...

And enforcing compliance with a lease by another leaseholder...yeah, more fun that.

Well it would be a start to at least look at the leases and what breaches of the conditions might mean.

[OIC]

It's all in the lease and freeholder contract details.

If the lease is 1000 years the garages are essentially freehold.

I'd ask to see all the legal documentation then run very fast unless there was an obvious easy way to achieve what you want.

Which is unlikely.

[Promised Land]

Shnozz said:

I agree, hence DIY comment.

There was a post on here from someone who was tearing their hair out as the garage tenant was using power tools regularly into the late evening in the garage beneath them.

Gym no better for weights being dropped.

And let s not even consider a motorbike with a race can

It would be a PITA yes but there are time limitations for neighbours to be noisy, anything late at night you’d put a complaint into the local clowncil but yes would it do anything after that to solve it.

[Cow Corner 2.0]

Promised Land said:

Shnozz said:

I agree, hence DIY comment.

There was a post on here from someone who was tearing their hair out as the garage tenant was using power tools regularly into the late evening in the garage beneath them.

Gym no better for weights being dropped.

And let s not even consider a motorbike with a race can

It would be a PITA yes but there are time limitations for neighbours to be noisy, anything late at night you d put a complaint into the local clowncil but yes would it do anything after that to solve it.

Getting the council to act may be difficult unless the noise is really bad - I can imagine a level of noise which could be very annoying to have underneath your living room, but which may not be considered antisocial - think old Bob who just likes to tinker with cars or do a bit of DIY in the evenings while listening to Radio 2 - to the casual observer he might not appear to be a problem, but once you hear the noise, you’ll never unhear it…

[Ste-EVo]

normalbloke said:

Absolute minefield. Run away!

+1

The thought of who might own them and what they might park/put inside/outside those garages, makes my teeth itch.

I looked at one of these for my first house about 15/16 years ago and for the above reasons we didnt go with it. The place was lovely inside though.

[RGG]

Cow Corner 2.0 said:

Promised Land said:

Shnozz said:

I agree, hence DIY comment.

There was a post on here from someone who was tearing their hair out as the garage tenant was using power tools regularly into the late evening in the garage beneath them.

Gym no better for weights being dropped.

And let s not even consider a motorbike with a race can

It would be a PITA yes but there are time limitations for neighbours to be noisy, anything late at night you d put a complaint into the local clowncil but yes would it do anything after that to solve it.

Getting the council to act may be difficult unless the noise is really bad - I can imagine a level of noise which could be very annoying to have underneath your living room, but which may not be considered antisocial - think old Bob who just likes to tinker with cars or do a bit of DIY in the evenings while listening to Radio 2 - to the casual observer he might not appear to be a problem, but once you hear the noise, you ll never unhear it

We had one as a second home for 10 years.

It's very likely the garage associated with the property has electricity in the garage, as supplied to the living quarters.

The remaining garages for other properties won't have an electric supply and will be almost certainly be prohibited from installing one (deeds).

Any questions, just ask re insurance, freehold and leasehold garages combined.

Ours sold August 2025, after 3 viewings over the asking price - it was an interesting property - flat living - freehold advantage - felt very safe on the first floor - great floorpan layout - 20 x 20ft living dining kitchen area and as has been said the garages were used for storage only.

[Hippea]

Thank you everyone for thoughts and advice. Think it confirmed my doubt, that this is likely impossible. Also put doubt in my mind about having garages used by others under a residence

[Fatboy]

Shnozz said:

NDA said:

This is why the lease might be interesting to look at. There may well be restrictions on noise, parking on the apron etc

What the lease says and how much of a toss leaseholders give is another matter, however. Ask me how I know...

And enforcing compliance with a lease by another leaseholder...yeah, more fun that.

But in this case the freeholder is the flat, if the tenant in the garage repeatedly breaches the terms of the lease, the freeholder can boot them out, can't they?

So not as risky if the flat owns all the freehold...