Advice needed! Should I proceed with this purchase?

Worried

I was buying a flat and getting the lease extended before completion. It's been a long and difficult process, but when we got the extended lease back from the legals at the management co. of the flat, they put the agreed price up by £2000! Apparently some case law that happened in Sept. means that they can ask for more. The fact that they are changing a price agreed back in July, right before we exchange is disgusting. My solicitor is outraged, but says the only was to contest it, is to go to tribunal, which I don't have the time or money for, so it's a choice of paying it, buying the flat without the extension (not prepared to do) or walking away.

My solicitor has said that he finds the behaviour of the management co. pretty unscrupulous and said I should think long and hard about whether I want to live in a property run by this company. The vendors of the flat are saying they will pay half of the increase, so I would only need to find an extra 1k. Given what my sol has said I feel very wary about going through with this as I'm a FTB and all my savings are going into this property so I don't have funds behind me to deal with the demands of a unreasonable managing Company. I would feel a bit insecure living there. Saying that, I feel awful about letting the vendor down by pulling out now, as they have been very reasonable from the start, not to mention my own disappointment. What should I do?

lypsey

Walk away , it sounds very dodgy

Cara79

You absolutely have to think of yourself in this matter! By the sounds of your post, you don't sound as though you'd be entirely happy living there. Like you say, if they can do this now, what will they do in the future?!

To be quite honest, I would walk away. I guess you will have lost some fees, but would you rather that or have years of potential misery at the hands of this management co?!

I would take your solicitors advice on the matter, even they seem to be shocked by this behaviour.

At the end of the day, it comes down to how much you want the flat and are there likely to be any other possibles to buy?

You are a FTB, which is hard enough, without all this hassle.

Good luck with whatever you decide. I know you will feel bad about the vendor, but at the end of the day, you have to think of yourself.

Cara

tazgirl

Hi,
I've been in a similar situation as a seller, and there's two sides to it. Yes, our freeholders were a pain in the neck, and it was a concern when selling that they'd put buyers off. However, when we were living there we didn't have any particular problems - as long as we paid our ground rent on time (by cheque to some PO Box in Bog-off Regis).
On the other hand, our solicitor was sympathetic, but did say that most big freehold companies are the same - they're all pretty unhelpful. He pointed out that we weren't going to find many properties in our area and at our budget that weren't leasehold, and therefore we were going to be dealing with a freeholder one way or the other - better the devil you know if you see what I mean.
Depends if they are also the management company - it they are, then that might be worth avoiding.

Worried

Thanks for all your advice. Have pulled out. Bit gutted. Going to give this leasehold business a miss and buy a house next year with my boyfriend. 6 months of hard work and 2k down the drain and guilt about the seller, but think I've made the right decision.

chirpy007

Worried wrote:

Thanks for all your advice. Have pulled out. Bit gutted. Going to give this leasehold business a miss and buy a house next year with my boyfriend. 6 months of hard work and 2k down the drain and guilt about the seller, but think I've made the right decision.

you have, always trust your gut feeling. If you had to ask you knew you were right.

Ben_Baileys

Oh God what a nightmare. I remember you, Worried, from a few months back. I was in the process of buying a flat as a FTB as well and having similar issues with a leasehold extension.

We ended up buying the flat despite the managing company dawdling about for ages and being complete pains. We hurried everything through so the chain wouldn't collapse with an agreement in the end that the lease would be extended in our name. However, because the solicitors arranged all of this and thought it was sorted, no notice was filed.

We moved in and then heard from the managing agents - they had changed their mind and weren't going to extend it after all!!

So now we're stuck with the same lease (78 years so not too bad but under the 80 year threshold) and with an extra 10 grand borrowed to cover the costs.

Having said that, we are in, and we are enjoying the property immensely. I don't know whether the managing agents will be pains throughout our time in the flat but that's to be determined in the future. In the meantime, we'll accrue some interest on the 10 grand and in 2 years time we'll have the right to extend the lease anyway. Meanwhile, we've now got time on our side and will challenge the 10 grand price in the valuation tribunal - who knows, we might even save some money at the end of all this.

I know that you have given up on this property, and I understand why. I agree with the others have said about gut feelings. However, our gut feeling was that we liked the flat too much to have walked away over this issue. Two years isn't a long time to wait really and meanwhile we have the flat that we wanted. It's irritating, having put in a lot of effort into sorting out the leasehold extension to have it torn away, but if the property is still available, consider letting the extension go and challenging the price in your own time in two years time. After all, having a short lease won't affect your actual enjoyment of the property, unlike, say a damp problem or the multitude of other things that friends of ours have suffered.

I wish you well whatever you do now. Ben