Buying Freehold - advice

pgharron

Hello All, I need some advice please ;-)

I am currently the leaseholder in one of 4 flats in Lewisham East London. The Freeholder has recently offered the Freehold to each leaseholder for £2000 each. Unfortunately only 2 leaseholders are interested – I and the owner of the basement flat.

I believe this means that we would have to come up with £4000 each to buy the Freehold – am I correct in thinking that or can we force the other Leaseholders to buy their share (By getting in touch with their Mortgage companies to see if they would be interested)?

Also, If we did buy the freehold there is one Leaseholder who is notorious (an absolute bl##dy nightmare in fact) for never paying Buildings insurance/service charges (Actually, this is why the current Freeholder wants to sell!) What would be the legal standpoint for us on this – Would it be a long/costly affair to get a solicitor involved to make the Leaseholder pay his/her part for the Insurance/upkeep of the building. What is the legal standpoint on this?

Are there any new Laws coming out that may help, that maybe if we hold out a little bit longer we could get the Freehold for cheaper?

I hope you can advise me, or point me in the right direction. I am most grateful.

Robert_Sterling

How many years are left on the present lease?

cattie

You can't force other leaseholders to buy a share of the freehold if they are not interested.

You are correct in that if only 2 leaseholders are interested in buying the freehold then the cost would be £4000 each. However if you feel the amount asked by the freeholder is too high you can try to negotiate it down & if still unable to agree an acceptable price ask for a price to be set by a leasehold tribunal. Look here for help & advice http://www.lease-advice.org/newintro.htm

If you've got a stroppy leaseholder who is reluctant to cough up for service charges etc then you would need to involve a solicitor eventually to get them to sort it out, so yes this could be a costly exercise.

Take proper advice & think carefully before proceeding any further at the moment.

Doozergirl

At a cost of £8000 for the freehold, I would have thought your leases would be of a decent length. I too would be interested to hear how many years, because if there is no real need for you to buy it then in the same situation I would let the Freeholder deal with the problem leaseholder.