Leasehold

The freeholder is absent and the roof needs work. Why can this inspection not compel that freeholder to repair?

This inspection cannot compel an absent freeholder to repair the roof. The freeholder is missing and the roof needs work, but a survey records condition. It does not serve notices, apply to a tribunal, or order anyone to do the work. Making a repair happen depends on the lease, on who is obliged to repair, and on legal steps your solicitor would have to advise where a landlord cannot be found. The visit can say the roof needs work. It has not created a power to make the freeholder do it.

Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.

What is the fuller explanation?

Absence of a freeholder is a legal problem sitting next to a building problem. The building problem is the roof: what is leaking or worn, as far as the survey could see. The legal problem is that the person who may be obliged to repair is not there to instruct works or to answer. Those do not collapse into one another. A clearer survey of the tiles does not conjure the landlord. A solicitor's plan for a missing landlord does not by itself mend the covering.

Give your solicitor both facts: the survey's description of the roof, and the information you have that the freeholder is absent. Ask them what routes exist. Do not expect the surveyor to write to the freeholder or to start those routes. Do not tell a lender the repair will be compelled because the defect is obvious. The inspection has no power of compulsion, and it has not calculated anyone's share of the work.

What should you ask your surveyor?

Can this inspection order an absent freeholder to repair the roof?
Are the legal routes for a missing landlord part of the survey?
Has anyone's share of the roof work been calculated here?

What are the typical next steps?

Keep the roof condition and the missing freeholder as separate problems.
Ask your solicitor what routes exist where a landlord cannot be found.
Do not tell a lender the repair will be compelled by the survey.

Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.

Also asked about this

Does a worse leak make compulsion more likely?

A worse leak makes the building need clearer, and the survey can describe that. It does not increase any power the inspection has, because the inspection has none. Compulsion, if it is available at all, is a legal step. Ask the solicitor. Do not rank the stain as if it were a court order.

Can leaseholders simply repair the roof and ignore the freeholder?

That is a legal question about the lease and about authority to spend, not a permission the survey can give. The inspection says the roof needs work. It does not say who may instruct it, who pays, or what happens if the freeholder is absent. Take that to the solicitor before anyone assumes they can just proceed.