FTB - Advice

DFCClarky

pawpurrs wrote: »

Flats are usually on a leasehold title, which means that the freeholder of the whole building leases the flats to their owners.
Sometimes the leaseholders will club together and buy the freehold of the whole building so that they have a share in the freehold but the flats will remain on individual leases. It is rare to find a true freehold flat, which is where the ownership extends only to the boundaries of the flat itself and most mortgage lenders will not accept these as security.
There are potential difficulties in getting flat owners to agree on costs of repair and maintenance, and this could affect the security in the eyes of the lender.
There can be certain regions where freehold flats are common, for example in Scarborough. For this reason, Scarborough Building Society does lend against freehold flats but only in Scarborough. However, more generally NatWest will consider lending against freehold flats .
It is worth remembering that freehold flats are not widely accepted by mortgage lenders, which could have an impact on the saleability of the property when you come to move on.

Thanks for that - this might change my opinion on the viewing I've got to see tomorrow.

pawpurrs

Find out what sort of Freehold it is, if after viewing you are interested in it, then speak to your broker about it.

DFCClarky

Hello again, MSE. Since my last post, I've been on a few viewings - nothing to write home about at all until this weekend. I went back to visit a property which I had previously seen which was back on the market.

I think I'd let my vision get clouded in the last one, when thinking it wasn't suitable and going back this time confirmed it. I'm looking to make an offer on the property, but there's a high maintenance charge (£1300 pa) on the property.

I've asked the EA to find out what it includes, as it may be things like water rates (A friend of mine lives about half a mile from there in properties like the one I'm interested in, and his includes water rates).

I'm worried about making an offer in case it turns out that these maintenance charges are over high, or in case I can't get hold of the information prior to a bid.

Should I be chasing the EA up to find this out? (They rang me yesterday morning to say that they were trying to find out which included an email to the management company as well as the vendor - is it too soon to chase?)

Thanks in advance.

Pee

You can chase, as it's a fine line between keeping them reminded that you exist and are keen, without wanting to look too keen or too pushy... you certainly don't want to call more than once a day and have staff pulling faces as soon as you announce your name.

I think it's reasonable to say that you can't make an offer until you know what that covers, but if someone else makes an offer in the meantime, no doubt they will go with that.

Over £100 a month.. is this a flat?

penguine

Definitely wait to find out what the maintenance charge before making an offer, and also what it includes. Is the building well maintained or is there any long-standing disrepair that could cause the maintenance charges to increase sharply in the future?

If it's well maintained I wouldn't necessarily say £1300 a year is a problem, that's just over £100 a month and may include, for example, buildings insurance and electricity for communal areas. However although maintenance charges increase over time they rarely decrease so you should bear that in mind.

Also find out what the annual ground rent is and when it's due to increase. Ours doubles every 25 years.

DFCClarky

Thanks for your replies so far. It's a ground floor, 2 bedroom flat. The area looks in quite nice condition, and I don't think the flats are too old.

The ground rent is about 35 quid a year, so that's not really an issue.

It's more just for the sake of knowing, especially if I'm putting an offer in. I've not called the Estate Agents yet - they called me yesterday morning, and said they'd get back to me, but I might call this afternoon.

Thanks again.

DFCClarky

Ok, EA just called back: Water rates are not included, but they are looking to install meters at some point in the next year (that's a good thing, isn't it?). Apparently internal decoration takes place every 3-5 years, and external every 5-7 years.

The EA are, apparently, waiting for a full list of things. Does this seem excessive, or is it just me thinking that £1,300 seems a lot over a year?

DFCClarky

Update: Water rates ARE included on my flat. I call it my flat, because on Saturday I had an offer of £93,000 accepted on the flat (on the condition that it was taken off the market, etc.). It's SSTC on Right-Move and Under Offer on the EA site.

Now the hard work begins of going through the whole survey process again!

pawpurrs

Hope it goes through smoothly for you. Congratulations!

DFCClarky

Hi again - been a while, but I'm getting there slowly but surely. I've had the survey back, and that's all fine and dandy and I've had the formal mortgage offer in writing. I've gone with the Halifax's solicitors and haven't heard anything in about 5 days. What is the next step in the process, and should I be chasing?

I feel a bit useless in this part of the process so far.

TIA