Buying the freehold of a leasehold property

evoke

Over the years i've been offered the opportunity to buy the freehold of my flat. Is this something I can do just for my flat or does everyone in the block have to buy the freeholds for their flats too?

Also, what advantages would it give me?

££sc££

It's my understanding that there's only one freehold for the block, not individual flats. However, the freehold can be owned by a number of people.

You would then be responsible for maintaining/insuring and providing services etc, for the block. e.g. grass cutting or communal cleaning. I guess advantage would be you may save a bit of money, as you wouldn't have to pay management fees on works as you'd be organising yourself and wouldn't have to pay ground rent. Depending on what your service charges are though, it may well be more hassle than it's worth.

My organsiation often write to our blocks where they are all leasehold, encouraging them to buy the freehold, the main reason being, it costs us more to maintain their block then we can currently recoup through their leases (not that we tell them that). Some have taken up the offer, others not.

Richard_Webster

If the freeholder was willing you could buy the freehold of just your flat.

Doing this is like throwing a large amount of cash on a fire. You pay the freeholder for the freehold and your flat immediately goes down in value by about 30% because it becomes unmortgageable. You then have to pay somebody to put it all right and probably get the freeholder to accept the freehold back for nothing. Don't do it!

What you can do is ,as the last poster suggested, is get together with other lessees of flats in the block and buy the freehold of the whole building between you. Problem often is getting enough people interested.

chucknorris

We bought the freehold interest in our black which was great value. We paid (incl solicitor's fees) about £800 each (about 8 years ago). The advantages to us are:

1. Big saving on the sercice charge, over £500/year which alone represents huge value as only paid £800 each, although we got a very exceptional good deal, so at the end of the day, it's down to the price.

2. We improved all the common areas of the block which has increased the value of the individual flats well above that of the cost of the work.