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Age and type of house

Is a maisonette free of the leasehold questions that apply to a flat?

No. A maisonette is still usually a leasehold home on more than one floor. You still need the lease length, the ground rent, the repairing obligations and the service charge, if there is one. GOV.UK’s leasehold guidance does not stop because there are stairs inside the front door. The survey of the rooms is not the lease.

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?

Some maisonettes have a share of the freehold or maintain their own slice of building with a neighbour and no formal manager. That can be simpler or it can be a gap: no reserve fund, no one instructed to repair the roof. The survey can rate the roof. It cannot make the neighbour pay. Your solicitor reads how repairs are meant to be shared.

The 80-year lease warning on GOV.UK’s shared-ownership pages is about cost of extension once the term drops below 80 years. It is a solicitor’s calculation, not a survey line. A maisonette lease can be long or short. Ask for the term from the register, not from the agent’s brochure.

What should you ask your surveyor?

  • Did you see the roof and the stair, or only one floor?
  • Is there any common part you could not enter?
  • Are you leaving ground rent and lease length to the solicitor?

What are the typical next steps?

  1. Read the lease before you treat “no service charge” as a gift.
  2. Budget the roof if the lease says you pay it, and use a quote, not the rating, for the figure.
  3. Check the unexpired term with the solicitor.

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

Is a maisonette over a shop a house?

No. Read the flat-above-a-shop limits as well as the lease.

Does an internal stair mean you own the structure?

Not unless the lease says so. Stairs inside your demise are not the whole building.

Sources