Question 1

What is a flying freehold?

Accepted Answer

A **flying freehold** exists where part of a freehold property **overhangs or lies beneath** land that belongs to someone else. The classic examples are a bedroom extending over a neighbour's passageway, a room above a shared archway, or a cellar extending under an adjoining property.

The name captures it: part of your freehold is "flying" over land you do not own.

**Why it creates problems.** English law was not designed for freeholds stacked on top of each other. The core difficulty is that **positive covenants do not run with freehold land** — meaning obligations to **do** something, such as maintain a structure, cannot generally be enforced against future owners of a freehold.

The practical consequences:

**Support and shelter.** Your room depends on your neighbour's structure beneath it. If they fail to maintain it, you may have **no enforceable right** to compel repair.

**Access for maintenance.** You may need to enter their property to repair your part, and without an express right you may be refused.

**Insurance complications**, where damage originates in the other property.

**Disputes** over responsibility for shared structures.

**Why lenders dislike them.** Many lenders restrict or refuse lending, particularly where the flying element exceeds a proportion of the property — commonly around 15% is cited as a threshold, though criteria vary by lender. Some require **indemnity insurance**; some decline outright.

This matters at resale as much as purchase: your pool of buyers is smaller, since they face the same lending constraints.

**How they are managed:**

**Flying freehold indemnity insurance** — cheap, and covers financial loss from enforcement difficulties. It does **not** fix the underlying problem or compel a neighbour to do anything.

**A deed of covenant** between owners, setting out maintenance and access obligations. Better in substance, and requires the neighbour's cooperation.

**Checking what actually flies** — a small overhang is very different from a substantial part of the house.

**Creeping freehold** is the mirror image, where land extends beneath another's property.

Question 2

What is the difference between freehold and leasehold?

Accepted Answer

They are two fundamentally different things to own, and the distinction has more practical consequence than almost any other feature of a UK property. Freehold means you own the building and the land

Question 3

What is a restrictive covenant on a property?

Accepted Answer

A restrictive covenant is a legally binding obligation registered against land, limiting what the owner may do with it. Crucially, it runs with the land — it binds future owners, not just whoever

Question 4

What are the rules for taking in a lodger?

Accepted Answer

Considerably simpler than letting a property, because a lodger living in your own home is an excluded occupier with minimal statutory protection — and there is a tax scheme that makes it unusually

Question 5

What is the difference between a tenancy and a licence to occupy?

Accepted Answer

Whether the occupier has exclusive possession — the right to exclude everyone, including the owner — which is what makes an arrangement a tenancy, regardless of what the document calls it. The test.

Question 6

What is indemnity insurance in a house purchase?

Accepted Answer

A one-off insurance policy bought during conveyancing to cover the financial consequences of a legal defect, instead of fixing the defect — and it is a workaround, not a solution. What it does. It

Question 7

What are estate management charges on new-build estates?

Accepted Answer

Annual charges paid by freehold homeowners on modern estates for the upkeep of communal areas the council never adopted — roads, verges, play areas, drainage and open space — and the arrangement is

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