Description
Many of the "over and under" houses or "double decker" or “top and bottom” houses in Hebden Bridge are legally referred to as "flying freeholds". Wikipedia describes them as:
Flying freehold is an English legal term to describe a freehold which overhangs or underlies another freehold. Common cases include a room situated above a shared passageway in a semi-detached house, or a balcony which extends over a neighbouring property.
In the law of England and Wales, originally a freehold property included the ground, everything below it and everything above it
By the 13th century, the courts had begun to accept that one freehold could overhang or underlie another. This concept was settled law by the 16th century.
Flying freeholds are viewed as a title defect, because they rarely have adequate rights of support from the structure beneath or rights of access to make repairs. (An amendment to the Housing Act in the 1980s sought to remedy this.)