How to Find Out Who Owns the Freehold of Your Property

Step 1: check the paperwork you already have

Start with your most recent ground rent or service charge demand. Under section 47 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, any written demand for rent or other sums due under the lease must contain the landlord's name and address. If the landlord's address is outside England and Wales, the demand must also give an address in England and Wales where you can serve notices.

Your own leasehold title register helps too. HM Land Registry's guide to reading a register says that for a leasehold property the property section (the A register) shows brief details of the lease: its date, the parties and how long it is for. That gives you the landlord at the time the lease was granted, which may not be today's owner if the freehold has been sold since.

Be careful with names on letterheads. The managing agent that sends the bills usually acts for the landlord and is rarely the freeholder itself.

Step 2: ask in writing, free, with a 21-day deadline

If the demand does not settle it, use your legal right. Under section 1 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, a tenant of a dwelling can make a written request for the landlord's name and address to anyone who demands the rent, to the last person who received it, or to anyone acting as the landlord's agent. That person must supply a written statement of the landlord's name and address within 21 days of receiving the request. Failing to do so without a reasonable excuse is a criminal offence with a fine up to level 4 on the standard scale, which the Leasehold Advisory Service gives as up to £2,500 (local authority landlords are excepted). You cannot be charged a fee for the answer.

If the landlord turns out to be a company, section 2 of the same Act lets you make a further written request for the name and address of every director and the company secretary, again with a 21-day deadline.

One limit: the Act gives you your immediate landlord. In some blocks that is a head leaseholder who sits between you and the freeholder. If so, the freehold title register in step 3 shows who is at the top.

Step 3: download the freehold title register for £7

• Open the Search for land and property information service on GOV.UK. You need to sign in, and you need a debit or credit card to download documents.
• Search by address. A leasehold flat is normally covered by two registered titles: your leasehold title and the landlord's freehold title.
• Open the free property summary for each result. It shows the tenure type, so you can tell the freehold title from the leasehold one before you pay.
• Download the title register for the freehold title. It costs £7. The title plan, which shows the boundary, is another £7 if you want it.
• If only your own leasehold title comes up, search the address of the whole building, or use the search by map option under Other ways to search. The freehold of a block is often registered against the building, not each flat.

Step 4: read the proprietorship register

A title register has three parts. The property register (A) describes the land and says whether the title is freehold or leasehold. The proprietorship register (B) names the current registered owners and gives the addresses HM Land Registry uses to contact them. The charges register (C) lists mortgages and other burdens.

The name in section B of the freehold title is your freeholder. If it is a company, you can look it up free at Companies House to see its directors, its filing history and whether it is still active.

Landlord, freeholder, managing agent: who is who

• Freeholder: owns the building and the land outright. Named on the freehold title register.
• Landlord: the person or company your lease is with. Usually the freeholder, sometimes a head leaseholder with a longer lease over the whole building.
• Managing agent: a firm paid to collect charges and run the building. It acts for the landlord and does not own the freehold.
• Residents' management company or right to manage company: runs the building on behalf of the leaseholders. It may or may not own the freehold; the title register settles it.
• Share of freehold: the leaseholders own the freehold together, often through a company. The freehold register names that company or the individual owners.

If the freehold has been sold

Freeholds change hands, and the bills can start arriving from a name you do not recognise. Under section 3 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 a new landlord must give you written notice of the change, with their name and address, by the next day rent is due or within two months of the transfer, whichever is later. A fresh £7 freehold register shows the current registered owner if you want to check a new name before you pay it.

Section 48 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 adds a second protection: until the landlord has given you an address in England and Wales for serving notices, rent, service charges and administration charges are treated as not yet due. This is general information, not legal advice; if money or a dispute turns on it, speak to a solicitor or the Leasehold Advisory Service first.

If the property does not come up or the land is unregistered

GOV.UK says a property that does not appear in a search may be filed under a different address, or its boundaries may have changed since it was registered. Ask HM Land Registry for a search of the index map using form SIM. It costs £8 for an area covering up to 5 registered titles, the results arrive in less than a week, and they list the title numbers for the land or confirm that it is unregistered.

If the freehold is unregistered, HM Land Registry will not know who owns it. Your routes are then the written request in step 2, the lease itself, and the neighbours or the residents' association, who often already know. If the freeholder cannot be traced at all, the Leasehold Advisory Service (lease-advice.org) explains the options for leaseholders in England and Wales.

Buying a leasehold flat? Check who is behind the freehold before you offer

Who owns the freehold matters before you buy, not only after. A freeholder that is an overseas company, a company with charges or insolvency history, or a building with Property Chamber tribunal cases can mean slow answers, rising charges and a harder sale later.

The HomeBuyerCheck Premium report (£4.99) checks HM Land Registry's published data on titles owned by UK and overseas companies for the address. Where a company is recorded, the report names it and runs a Companies House check for status, charges, insolvency and disqualified directors, alongside tribunal history for the building and the tenure recorded when the property last sold. It covers England and Wales.

Know its limits. The report does not list individual owners, it does not say whether the company holds the freehold or a lease, and it is not the title register. For a definite answer on the freeholder's name, the £7 freehold register is the source. For checking the tenure itself, see the freehold checker guide; for any owner, not only a freeholder, see how to find out who owns a property.