Buying a house with no shared freehold agreement written up

5647mark

Hi,

Can anyone help please?

We have just had an offer accepted on a flat with a share of the freehold of the building. It is a converted house and so there are only two flats on the freehold. We have been informed that a shared freehold agreement can be written up, but how is this done? Does it have to be legalised by a solicitor, or is it simply a contract that can be written up between two freeholders at any time?

In which case what might be the costs involved in having this document created?

Any help or advice on this subject would be most welcome. Thank you!

KiKi

5647mark wrote: »

Hi,

Can anyone help please?

We have just had an offer accepted on a flat with a share of the freehold of the building. It is a converted house and so there are only two flats on the freehold. We have been informed that a shared freehold agreement can be written up, but how is this done? Does it have to be legalised by a solicitor, or is it simply a contract that can be written up between two freeholders at any time?

In which case what might be the costs involved in having this document created?

Any help or advice on this subject would be most welcome. Thank you!

TBH, I don't know if I'd bother if it's only two households. There's no requirement to have one (in case you think there is). I live in a converted property, three households altogether. We sort out bills between us, and just pay our leasehold percentage. I pay the landlord electricity bill and fire alarm testing, then the other households pay me back their share.

For bigger bills (we just had scaffolding up to fix the roof and paint the front of the property), we sort out costs up front, and each pay our individual proportions.

I don't know what a shared agreement would have in it, but on the basis that it simply agrees how you will manage bills, I can't personally see the point. Just knock on your neighbours door and ask to agree how it will work! If the agreement can force payment from one of you if something needs doing, then I suppose it could be important if the other freeholders refuse to contribute. But how legally binding that is, I don't know - even with an agreement they can refuse to pay and you'd have to take them to court at your expense, I would guess.

Just make sure you're clear what share of the freehold you have (50%, I'd imagine), and what percentage of sharehold repairs / bills your lease holds you to. The net effect as a shared freeholder is that you just pay the percentage on the lease.

My perspective is that as long as they're okay people, and as long as you make the effort to get along and work out any issues, a two-household freehold situation can be managed on an 'as and when' basis between you.

HTH a bit
KiKi

5647mark

Thanks Kiki,

I guess the main point of the original question was to ascertain whether the freehold agreement is legally necessary and how much security it offers if the other freeholder doesn't hold up their end of the bargain if, for example, the roof needs repairing.

I'm also slightly confused about the lease situation; I know it has recently been renewed for 999 years, so that's not an issue, but are there likely to be other terms and conditions to the lease that we may have overlooked?

I guess this is the sorts of issues that a solicitor will look over anyway?