change of leasehold owner

pAD1L

We bought a house about 7 years ago from a builder. The house has a 999 year leasehold for which we pay ground rent of £111 per year. When we bought the house the builder told us that we could buy the leasehold at some point in the future for 12 times the yearly ground rent, about £1300. Also the lease stated that if we wanted to alter the house we needed their consent for which a £30 fee was payable (whether they gave consent or not).
A couple of years after we bought the house the ownership of the leasehold tranferred to a company called Estates and Management. When we enquired about purchasing the leasehold they told us that it wold cost £3400. As we had nothing in writing from Barratt I did not pursue the matter further. Recently we were thinking of having a conservatory built so I enquired to Estates and Management about consent and they informed me that I would have to now pay £250 for their consent.
Does anyone have any idea if this sort of thing is legal?

Thanks. Paul.

dacouch

http://www.proleagle.com/collectiveenfranchisement4.htm

cattie

Contact these people, http://www.lease-advice.org
It's a governement funded agency offering comprehensive advice concerning leasehold properties.

I'm not sure if you should have been given first refusal of buying the lease when it was up for sale, but it's something worth investigating.