Freeholder refusing permission

Doozergirl

If the removal of the wall required building regs approval then your solicitor should have asked for it.

If the wall isn't structural then it wouldn't need approval so how you are supposed to know that it should definitely stay there, I don't know. Presumably the freeholder should find out when they get the request and issue their permission accordingly.

Jenniefour

You don't have to wait until refusal from the freeholder to pull out. There were plenty of good reasons to pull out of this long ago. There are may leasehold flats that do not have problems of the kind you're encountered with this one. And you also said in a previous post there is no service charge - so that means that the two flat owners agree repairs between themselves and divide the bill. If there is no ongoing fund to deal with future repairs and maintenance then this would have left you somewhat at the mercy of the other leaseholder as to whether they agree and pay their share with no hassle or not. So there being no service charge is not good news either.

I would let the seller know about the wall issue - he needs to know that the wall was there for a very good reason, and he may want to consider reinstating it so he has a better chance of selling the flat.

However, at the least you will have learned lots from this that will help you when you're looking in future. I do hope you don't go ahead on this one - having being a leashold owner several times in the past, mostly problem free, there are so many big alarm bells for me in your story. It is highly unlikely you would have a problem free life there - or a problem free future sale when you wanted to move on. No matter how much you like this flat there will be another one you like out there that has none of the problems you've described. Yes, you will have lost some money on this but in the long term I imagine what you want is a happy life - small price to pay to make sure you're not signing up for a lot of hassle and anguish. Good luck.

Jebrelli

Jenniefour wrote: »

You don't have to wait until refusal from the freeholder to pull out. There were plenty of good reasons to pull out of this long ago.

You're correct. And I was preparing to send a note to my solicitor saying that I intended to pull out when the seller's solicitor got in contact - the seller has offered to pay for half of the (original) extension cost. So I can get an extension back to 99 years for, fees and all, about £10,000.