Leasehold

You would own a share of the freehold and the parapet is leaking. Does that share mean you can ignore the other leaseholders and just mend your bit?

No. A share of the freehold does not let you ignore the other leaseholders and mend only your bit of a leaking parapet. The survey has recorded the leak. It has not given you a licence to instruct works alone. How decisions are taken sits in the leases and in the company that holds the freehold. The parapet is a building element, not a private patch the inspection has assigned to you. The finding is the leak. The finding is not that the other leaseholders can be left out.

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?

Share of freehold usually means you would hold a share in a company that owns the freehold, while the flat itself remains leasehold. The company and the leases still decide who repairs a parapet and how the cost is shared. Owning a share is not the same as owning the parapet outright. The survey can see staining, a failed coping or a damp patch below. It cannot see a power to instruct a builder without the other members. That power is in the company documents.

Ask the solicitor for the lease, the company's articles and any rule about consents before works. A parapet often serves more than one flat, so mending your bit can alter someone else's wall. The survey's job ends at the leak. It does not chair the company. Do not tell a contractor the share of freehold is their instruction to start. Get the decision route clear, then repair the parapet the survey has actually described.

What should you ask your surveyor?

Have you recorded the parapet leak without granting a right to repair alone?
Which part of the parapet was leaking, as you saw it?
Have you left company decisions out of the condition note?

What are the typical next steps?

Treat the leaking parapet as a building defect, not a private patch.
Read the lease and the company rules before instructing works.
Do not ignore the other leaseholders because of a share.

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 share mean you personally are the freeholder?

Usually you would hold a share in the company that owns the freehold, and the flat stays on a lease. The survey has not read those documents and has not made you the freeholder in person. The solicitor explains the share. The inspection explains the leak.

If the leak is only above your flat, is the repair still shared?

Position does not decide the covenant. A parapet above one flat can still be a structure the leases treat as shared. The survey has not read that split. It has seen a leak. Who pays, and who instructs, remains a lease and company question.