Freeholder charging leaseholder an admin fee

nonie1

Bear with me, I'm a newbie! We are buying a leasehold house. In the lease, there is a clause which states that the company holding the freehold can charge an admin fee of a minimum of £10 when the mortgage changes hands. The lease is less than 20 years old, so inflation hasn't risen much, but the company have told our seller that they are going to charge him £700+. Is that reasonable? It seems ridiculously excessive to me for an admin fee. It's thrown back our moving date by goodness knows how long & our buyers were hoping to move in next week. It was all going too well!

Richard_Webster

This is a warning that the freeholders are rip off merchants and will think of other ways of extracting money from you in the future. Be warned!

You tell the seller you do not want to buy the house unless he first acquires the freehold, or makes a substantial allowance on the price to reflect the cost of this.

nonie1

Thanks Richard. I did ask our solicitor to enquire about buying the freehold, but he was very opposed to suggesting it now as it will slow down the process of moving. It took us 20 months to get an offer on our house, so we daren't do anything to inconvenience our buyers as losing them would be catastrophic. It's very likely, due to the massively depressed market here, that it would take another 20 months to find more buyers.

carefullycautious

Doesnt this mean you are going to have to pay thousands of pounds to renew you lease if it is so low. Are you prepared for this?

Or is it different for leasehold house purchases as oppossed to flats?

nonie1

The lease isn't low. It's only 20 years into a 999 year lease period! We're planning on enquiring about buying the freehold once we're in though.

clutton_2

listen to richard ...... please ......

nonie1

I'm not ignoring him, clutton, but it's not practical to do that at this stage of the game. If we'd known this would be an issue a month ago, I'd definitely have made it an issue, but now we just want to move asap.

Edited to add that I've little doubt we'll be kicking ourselves later!

Fire_Fox

nonie1 wrote: »

I'm not ignoring him, clutton, but it's not practical to do that at this stage of the game. If we'd known this would be an issue a month ago, I'd definitely have made it an issue, but now we just want to move asap.

Edited to add that I've little doubt we'll be kicking ourselves later!

When you are kicking yourself (Clutton and Richard Webster are rightly revered in these parts) read this website and roll up your sleeves for an almighty fight:
http://www.lease-advice.org/
I am three years into a dispute with a management company with no regard for either the law or common sense. My flat is currently unsaleable due to the 'arrears' on my account, but they won't chase me for them as the charges are not reasonable and, in some cases, relate to fictitious work. If I wanted to move I'd be stymied, as it is I have £4K earning 5% interest.

jizadine

The sale of your house doesn't ultimately rely upon the purchase of your new house... :rolleyes:

G_M

nonie1 wrote: »

I'm not ignoring him, clutton, but it's not practical to do that at this stage of the game. If we'd known this would be an issue a month ago, I'd definitely have made it an issue, but now we just want to move asap.

Edited to add that I've little doubt we'll be kicking ourselves later!

What was the motivation of your original post? To seek advice, I assumed.

You've been given some very clear advice from several well-informed sources.

IGNORE IT AT YOUR PERIL!

stanleyunwin

nonie1 wrote: »

Thanks Richard. I did ask our solicitor to enquire about buying the freehold, but he was very opposed to suggesting it now as it will slow down the process of moving. It took us 20 months to get an offer on our house, so we daren't do anything to inconvenience our buyers as losing them would be catastrophic. It's very likely, due to the massively depressed market here, that it would take another 20 months to find more buyers.

Your solicitor may be oppossed to it, but he is not buying your house!

You can still sell yours and move into rented if needs be. You've had some very good advice here