Leasehold with 87 years remaining but 'share of freehold' being setup

NathanE

I am a FTB looking at a property that ticks all the boxes. Except some fogginess around its leasehold situation.

It has 87 years remaining, which I think is a bit on the low side. And the current owner has paid £250 to initiate the proceedings to setup a 'share of freehold' with the other people in the apartment block.

The EA has said this will cost between £5000 to £6000, based upon some calculator he used on the UK gov website.

But my understanding is that you must be the owner of the property for at least 2 years before you can buy a share of the freehold.

Something just smells fishy to me, like they aren't being fully forward with the facts.

The property in question is listed at £244k on Rightmove. And according to property-bee it went to "Sold STC" for a period of about a month in the summer and then reverted to "Available" again. Suggesting someone else already got cold feet over it.


What are your views on this?

dazeruk

You must be the owner of the property for at least 2 years before you can extend the lease.

Not all flat owners have the right to buy a share of the freehold. There are rules about who qualifies and which properties are eligible. Your lease must have originally been granted for at least 21 years or contain a special clause which says that it can be renewed indefinitely. It is no longer necessary to have lived in the property for a specific amount of time. However, even if this is the case, you may not eligible if:

• you have a business lease
• you have a lease on more than two flats in the building
• the freeholder is a charitable housing trust, the National Trust, the Crown or the Church of England.

There are a few other exclusions. For example, if your flat is in a house that was converted by the freeholder and s/he (or an adult member of her/his immediate family) has lived in one of the flats for at least the last 12 months, the leaseholders probably can't buy the freehold.

Jeffrey_Shaw

Dazeruk: your first comment's not quite right. The lessee can certainly extend lease even if acquired < 2yrs. ago.
It's just that statutory rights [1993 Act] don't arise during the first two years.

NathanE

Is it possible to extend the lease for just a single apartment, i.e. without needing to get everyone in the block to do it also?

Jeffrey_Shaw

NathanE wrote: »

Is it possible to extend the lease for just a single apartment, i.e. without needing to get everyone in the block to do it also?

Yes, it is. The leaseholder has a statutory right to this [s.42 of 1993 Act] after two years' ownership.