is the freehold worth anything?

adrian_bond

hi everyone,

me and the missus bought a 1 bed flat in norwich in april 2007 for £103, which we love. been there nearly two years and are looking to sell up maybie and move up the ladder in about two or more years or so, depending on how broody the missus gets (we are still fairly young so should be okay!). we are about to start overpaying the mortgage by about £200 - £300 a month so should be able to build a fair amount ish of equity (even if this is wiped by the values falling (negative equity) will still make it easier!) by the time we want to move up.

Anyway, just after we bought the place (had 103 years left on the lease) a managment company was set up between all four of the flats (including ours). the flats are all in a row of converted victorian terrece houses (4 flats over two houses) and each pay £300 a year to cover insurances, the managment costs (admin, accounts etc) plus give approx £500 a year contingency fund.

We were then given the freehold which is held (in a safe, not ownership) by the management company as is the freehold for the other three flats. my question is: is this freehold worth anything? is it just a formality and simply allows us to run the management company in the same manner as a leasehold property, or was the freehold actually worth anything in real terms?

any feedback you can give, or any opionons on my situation or ways to improve them would be appreciated.

thanks everyone! :T

Adrian

Richard_Webster

You have a share of freehold but your flat is not in itself freehold. This is important because freehold flats as such (where each flat has its own separate freehold) are scarcely mortgageable.

Your flat should sell for slightly more or be a little easier to sell because people generally prefer to have some control over what they pay for maintenance, insurance etc, rather than having some shark property company calling the shots in this area.

adrian_bond

Richard_Webster wrote: »

You have a share of freehold but your flat is not in itself freehold. This is important because freehold flats as such (where each flat has its own separate freehold) are scarcely mortgageable.

Your flat should sell for slightly more or be a little easier to sell because people generally prefer to have some control over what they pay for maintenance, insurance etc, rather than having some shark property company calling the shots in this area.

thanks richard. we (the managment directors (all four flats) were thinking of taking control of the company accountants from our current accountants becaue approx £500 a year goes on admin (between all 4 flats) and a single meeting a year, with a few letters etc. recon we can manage it better ourselves and have more cash to play with. not sure of the legality of this but we are all co directors so should be okay.

we are all also talking about possibly updating the outside of the flats and replacing all the front windows and doors, and the back doors together as it will all be uniform and look much better than it does at the moment. we will be working out costs etc and making sure everyone is happy first before we go ahead of course, but its all looking positive so far. cheers