How to Find Out Who Your Freeholder and Managing Agent Are

How Do You Find Out Who Owns the Freehold?

It sounds like a question with an obvious answer, and in a well-run block it is. In plenty of others the freehold was sold to an investment company two owners ago, the managing agent changed last year, the ground rent is collected by a firm you have never heard of and the lease still names a developer that stopped trading in 1998. Sellers often discover the gap only when their solicitor asks where to send the request for the management pack.

This guide takes it in order: who the different parties are, where their names already appear in your paperwork, how to get the official answer from the Land Registry and what to do when nobody will tell you. If the answer turns out to be that nobody can be found at all, our guide to selling with a missing freeholder takes over from there.

How to find out who your freeholder and managing agent are: a practical guide

This guide is general information, not legal advice. It covers England and Wales.

Written and kept up to date by the Sell Flat UK team at LDN Properties Ltd, who have tracked down a good many freeholders since 2003. Last reviewed on 14 October 2026.

Who Is Who in a Leasehold Building

Part of the confusion is that four different parties can be involved, and the one you deal with day to day is often not the one who owns anything.

The freeholder owns the building and the land. In law they are your landlord, unless there is a head lease in between. They are entitled to the ground rent, they are the party who grants a lease extension and they are responsible for the structure under most leases.
A head leaseholder, where there is one, holds a long lease of the whole building from the freeholder and grants the flat leases under it. If your lease was granted by a head leaseholder, they are your immediate landlord, not the freeholder. Blocks on big estates and some ex-council buildings are set up this way.
A residents' management company or right to manage company runs the building on the leaseholders' behalf, either because the lease set it up that way or because the leaseholders took over management. It collects the service charge and appoints the agent. It does not own the freehold and does not collect the ground rent. Our guide on how your block is managed explains the variations.
The managing agent is a firm paid to do the work: demands, accounts, repairs, insurance, the management pack. They act for whoever appointed them, which may be the freeholder or the residents' company. Changing the agent changes nothing about who owns the building.

In a share of freehold building, the freeholder is a company owned by the flat owners, or the owners themselves. The same checks apply, and the answer is usually your neighbours.

Step 1: Look at What You Already Have

Most sellers can answer the question from their own drawer, because the law requires the names to be on the paperwork.

Ground rent demands. Ground rent on a long lease is only payable once a formal demand has been served, and the demand must give the landlord's name and address. Whoever is named is your landlord, or is holding themselves out as such. If the demand comes from an agent, the landlord's name should still be on it.
Service charge demands. Every demand must show the landlord's name and an address in England or Wales where notices can be served. Until it does, the charge is not legally due. The managing agent's name and address will be on the same document, usually at the top.
The lease. The first page names the original landlord and, if there was one, the management company. The landlord named there may have sold the freehold since, so treat it as the starting point rather than the answer. If you do not have the lease, our guide to getting a copy of your lease explains how.
The buildings insurance schedule names the policyholder, which is normally the freeholder or the residents' company.
Your completion pack from when you bought. Your solicitor's report on title will have identified the landlord and the agent at the time, and the notice of transfer they served will show who it went to.

If the names on the ground rent demand and the service charge demand are different, that is normal: one is usually the freeholder and the other the agent or the residents' company. If the ground rent demand names a company you do not recognise, the freehold has probably been sold, and the next step tells you to whom.

Step 2: Get the Freehold Title Register

HM Land Registry holds the definitive answer, and it costs £7.

Find the freehold title number. Search your address on the GOV.UK service "Search for land and property information". The results list every title at the address: your leasehold title, the other flats' and the freehold of the building. The freehold is the one marked freehold with no flat number. If it does not appear, buy your own leasehold register for £7 and look in part A, where the lessor's title number is stated.
Download the freehold register. Part B, the proprietorship register, names the registered owner and gives an address for them. For a company it will usually be the registered office. If the freehold has been sold recently, the date of the entry tells you when.
Check for a head lease. Part C of the freehold register, the charges register, lists leases granted out of the freehold. If there is a lease of the whole building, your immediate landlord is whoever holds that, and their title number will be shown so you can repeat the search.

Two cautions. The address in the register is the one given when the owner was registered, and HM Land Registry does not chase owners to keep it current, so a freeholder who moved years ago may be shown at an old address. And the register names the legal owner, not the person who manages: an investment freeholder will almost always have an agent, and the register will not tell you who.

Step 3: The Written Request Nobody Can Ignore

If the paperwork is unclear and the register is out of date, the law gives you a direct route. Under section 1 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, a tenant of a dwelling can write to the person who demands the rent, the last person who received it, or any agent acting for the landlord, and ask for the landlord's name and address. They must reply in writing within 21 days. Failing to do so without reasonable excuse is a criminal offence, with a fine of up to £2,500.

If the reply names a company, section 2 lets you write again and ask for the names and addresses of every director and the company secretary, with the same 21-day limit and the same penalty. Send both requests by post and email, keep copies and date them. In our experience, the mention of section 1 in the subject line produces a reply from a managing agent in days rather than weeks.

The request applies to whoever collects rent for the flat. If nobody has demanded ground rent for years and there is no agent, there is nobody to send it to, and you are into the territory of the missing freeholder guide.

Step 4: Identify the Managing Agent, and Check Them

The managing agent's name is on your service charge demands and usually on a notice in the communal hallway. If you have never received a demand, the building may be self-managed by the freeholder or the residents' company, in which case the person who answers your section 1 request is the person to deal with.

Once you have a name, two checks are worth a minute each. Any firm carrying out property management work in England has had to belong to a government-approved redress scheme since October 2014, which means The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme. Both publish member lists, and an agent who is not in one is breaking the law and can be reported to the council's trading standards team. Membership of The Property Institute is voluntary but a good sign. Our guide to dealing with a difficult managing agent covers what to do if the agent you have found will not engage.

Checking a Company at Companies House

Most freeholders and all residents' companies are limited companies, and Companies House lets you check any of them free of charge. Search the name from the register or the demand and you will see whether the company is active, its registered office, its directors and whether its accounts and confirmation statement are up to date.

Three results matter. An active company with current filings is the normal case, and the registered office is where formal notices go. A company that is behind with its filings is a warning that the freehold or the residents' company is not being looked after, which the buyer's solicitor will also notice. A company shown as dissolved means the freehold has passed to the Crown, which is a solvable problem but a slow one; the dissolved company section of our share of freehold guide explains the routes, and they apply whoever the company was.

If Nobody Answers

Sometimes every route comes back empty: the register shows an individual at an address they left a decade ago, no ground rent has been demanded in living memory and the agent named in the lease closed down. You can still sell. The lease is unaffected and you own the flat. What changes is the paperwork: there is no management pack to order, no notice of transfer that can be served and no landlord's consent for anything that needs it.

Our guide to selling a leasehold flat with a missing freeholder covers the practical answers, from an indemnity policy and a statutory declaration about the ground rent to the court's power to grant a lease extension in the freeholder's absence. The first thing it asks for is evidence that you looked, which is the written record of the steps above.

What a Sale Needs From Each of Them

Knowing who is who matters most at the point of sale, because different documents come from different people and your solicitor needs to send each request to the right place.

The management pack, built around the LPE1 form, comes from whoever runs the building: the managing agent, the residents' company or a self-managing freeholder. Where a residents' company runs the service charge and a separate freeholder collects the ground rent, the buyer's solicitor may need answers from both, and two fees.
The notice of transfer, and of the buyer's mortgage, goes to the landlord's address for service after completion, with the fee the lease sets. Our guide to notices of transfer and charge explains it.
Consents and certificates, such as a licence to assign where the lease requires one, or the landlord's certificate for building safety, come from the landlord, not the agent, though the agent usually handles the paperwork.
A lease extension is negotiated with the competent landlord, which is normally the freeholder but can be a head leaseholder if their lease is long enough. Your solicitor will check the chain before serving a notice.

Give your solicitor the names and addresses you have found, with the documents they came from, at the start. Our pre-listing checklist puts this alongside the other paperwork to gather before you go to market.

Sources and Further Reading

Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 1 and section 2: the tenant's right to the landlord's name and address, and a corporate landlord's directors, within 21 days.
Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, sections 47 and 48: the landlord's name and an address for service on every demand.
Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, section 166: ground rent on a long lease is payable only after a formal demand in the prescribed form.
GOV.UK: Search for land and property information: the £7 freehold and leasehold title registers.
Companies House: find and update company information: free checks on freeholder and residents' companies.
Leasehold Advisory Service: free guidance on identifying your landlord and on managing agents.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find out who owns the freehold of my building?

Download the freehold title register from HM Land Registry for £7. Search your address on the GOV.UK property information service, pick the freehold title for the building, and part B of the register names the registered owner and gives an address. If the freehold does not show in the search, your own leasehold register, also £7, states the lessor's title number in part A. The address shown may be out of date, because owners are not made to keep it current.

Is my managing agent the same as my freeholder?

No. The managing agent is a firm paid to run the building: demands, accounts, repairs, insurance and the management pack. They act for whoever appointed them, which is the freeholder or a residents' management company, and they own nothing. The freeholder owns the building and is your landlord. The agent's name is on your service charge demands, and the landlord's name must be on them too.

Who is my landlord if there is a head lease?

The head leaseholder. Some buildings have a long lease of the whole block sitting between the freeholder and the flat leases. If your lease was granted under it, the head leaseholder is your immediate landlord: they collect your ground rent, receive notices and are the first party in a lease extension claim. Part C of the freehold register lists any lease of the whole building and its title number, so you can find out who holds it.

What can I do if nobody will tell me who the landlord is?

Write to whoever demands or last received your rent, or to any agent acting for the landlord, asking for the landlord's name and address under section 1 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. They must reply in writing within 21 days. Failing to do so without reasonable excuse is a criminal offence with a fine of up to £2,500. If the landlord is a company, section 2 lets you ask for its directors' names and addresses on the same terms.

Does it cost anything to find out who my freeholder is?

The freehold title register from HM Land Registry costs £7, and your leasehold register, if you need the freehold title number from it, another £7. Checking a company at Companies House is free, and so is the written request under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. The only cost beyond that is the £11 postal fee if you want a copy of the lease itself from the Land Registry.

The ground rent demand names a company I have never heard of. What does that mean?

Usually that the freehold has been sold. Freeholds are traded as investments and the new owner, or their collecting agent, serves the demands. Check the freehold title register, which will show the new owner and the date they were registered. Make sure any demand carries the landlord's name and an address in England or Wales for notices, because until it does, the sum is not legally payable.

How do I check whether my managing agent is legitimate?

Any firm doing property management work in England has had to belong to an approved redress scheme since October 2014: The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme. Both publish member lists online. An agent who is not in either is breaking the law and can be reported to the council's trading standards team. Membership of The Property Institute is voluntary but a good sign of a professional firm.

The freeholder is a dissolved company. What now?

When a company is dissolved, anything it owned, including the freehold, passes to the Crown as bona vacantia. Your lease is unaffected. The fix is either to restore the company, which former directors or members can usually do within six years, or for the leaseholders to buy the freehold from the Crown. Our share of freehold guide explains both routes, and they apply whatever kind of company the freeholder was. A buyer's solicitor will want one of them under way.

Why does my solicitor need to know who the freeholder is before I sell?

Different documents come from different people. The management pack comes from whoever runs the building, the notice of transfer goes to the landlord's address for service after completion, consents and the building safety landlord's certificate come from the landlord, and a lease extension is negotiated with the competent landlord. Sending a request to the wrong party wastes weeks. Giving your solicitor the names and the documents they came from at the start avoids it.

What if the freeholder cannot be found at all?

You can still sell, because the lease is yours and the freeholder's absence does not change that. What changes is the paperwork: no management pack, no notice of transfer and no consents. Our guide to selling with a missing freeholder covers the practical answers, including indemnity insurance, a statutory declaration about the unpaid ground rent and the court's power to grant a lease extension in the freeholder's absence. Keep a written record of the steps you took to find them, because every one of those routes starts with it.