Freehold. To buy or not to buy, that is.....

geniusmum

After receiving yet another (threateningly worded for late payment) demand for our half-yearly ground rent I am wondering whether it is worth us buying the freehold.
We have lived in our house for 27 years. The ground rent is £50 per year. I am not sure of the length of the remaining lease.
Please can anyone advise me where to start, what solicitors fees are likely to be and approximately how much the freehold might cost? Is there a standard calculation.
Is it worth the bother if we aren't going to sell the house but leave it to the kids?

Robert_Sterling_3

How long remains of the lease.?
Is there any reason why you do not pay the ground rent?

geniusmum

Sorry for the misunderstanding....We DO pay the ground rent which is due 25th March & 25th September each year, but the demand comes with a letter threatening at least £70 + costs if they don't receive payment by 11th April.
As I said, I'm not sure till I look at our house docs. how long remains on the lease but the house was built in 1981 so I would think there's many years left.

david29dpo

You have the right to buy the freehold and its well worth looking into. The last one i bought was 10 times the ground rent in the first 33 years of the lease.

Richard_Webster

It really makes a tremendous difference how long the lease is. If it was a 99 year lease then it will only have 71 years left and the price could be in 4 or maybe even 5 figures depending on present value and will increase relative to the property value as the lease gets shorter.

If it was 999 years then the length left and the value of the property itself is not going to matter for a long time, and the price will probably only be related to the value of the ability to receive the ground rent which might be £1,000-£2,000.

If the freeholder is threatening this kind of extra admin cost for late rent payment they are probably into other scams as well. Have you altered the house at all? This could even include double-glazing. When you sell your buyer's solicitor will want to see consents from the freeholder for any alterations as there is almost bound to be a clause in the lease saying the freeholder's consent is required. Some freeholders charge a lot of money for giving this consent, which is a scam and a rip-off, as it makes no difference to them.

Mostly these freeholders sit and wait until someone sells because they know a buyer's solicitor will do their job for them and require a consent - but sometimes they are pro-active and send people round to look for alterations and extensions and then you get a threatening letter. That is a good reason for buying the freehold - to get them off your back.

geniusmum

Thanks for the info.
I have looked at the deeds and the lease was for 800 years from 1966 so it has a long time to run.
I didn't realise that we had to get consent from the freeholder for putting in double-glazing. We did that 20 years ago. I bet lots more people are unaware.